In the quest to find as much information as possible on Australian Volleyball teams, I stumbled across the “Australian Volleyball Coach” the coaching journal of the Australian Volleyball Federation. In Volume 3, Number 1 an article “Australia in the World – A recent history and possible futures” by Tony Naar, former National Coaching Director, provides a snippet of the beginnings of the Australian Volleyball Teams.

The earliest international events for teams from Australia were visits to Tahiti and New Caledonia in 1969 and 1970. In 1971 and 1972 New Zealand national teams participated in our National Championships.

Australia’s first ‘major’ international tournament was the first Oceania Championships held in Sydney in 1973.

In 1975 Australian men’s and women’s teams toured China, and in the same year both teams finished fourth behind Japan, Korea and China in the first Asian Championships in Melbourne.

This is backed up by former National Womens Player Sue Dansie, who sent through her recollections;

The first international comps we played in were against New Zealand in Adelaide in 1971. Australia played in New Caledonia in 1972, played against New Zealand in Sydney in 1972 and then the first Oceania tournament in Sydney at Narrabeen in 1973. There was also an Oceania tournament in Nelson – NZ in 1976. Australia were one of the first countries to breach the bamboo curtain when they went to China in 1975. All of these events were men and women playing at the same venues. The teams were made up of essentially Victorian Men and SA women as the core.

Now if only I could find those team lists.