Australia's Sporting Identity By Fergus A Jan 1, 1788 Cricket began Jan 1, 1810 First athletics Jan 1, 1829 Early forms of football Jan 1, 1861 The Melbourne cup was first run Jan 1, 1877 First test cricket match against England Jan 1, 1880 First formal Australian football team (named the Wanderers) Jan 1, 1895 Rugby league began Oct 2, 1896 AFL was founded Jan 1, 1912 Women represented Australia for the first time at the Olympics Jan 1, 1950 Australia won the Davis Cup 8 times in the 1950s (1950, 1951 , 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1959) May 21, 1954 John Landy runs the first 4 minute mile Jan 1, 1982 State of Origin series began Jan 1, 1998 The NRL was founded Sep 15, 2000 Cathy Freeman winning gold in 400m olympics Jan 1, 2022 Buddy Franklin's 1000th field goal