, used informally when referring to the team in the media or in conversation. These nicknames are typically derived from well-known symbols of Australia. Often the nickname is combined with that of a commercial sponsor, such as the "
Dolphins". Some names are a
teams. The other names are more recent, mostly invented to help publicise sports not traditionally popular in Australia. Some journalists have criticised the practice as embarrassing, gimmicky, or PR-driven.
, making its first tour of the Northern Hemisphere.
had already nicknamed the 1905 New Zealand touring team the "All Blacks" from their kit colour; the 1906
had adopted "Springboks". "Rabbits" was first suggested for Australia, but rejected since
. Until the 1980s, only touring sides were "Wallabies"; players on the eight tours up to 1984 were "the First Wallabies" up to "the Eighth Wallabies".
and were nicknamed "Kangaroos". "Kangaroos" originally referred only to teams on "
s" to Britain and France. In 1994 the
extended the nickname to all internationals for sponsorship reasons, drawing criticism for the break with tradition. The first such game was a 58–0 win over
teams have no common nickname.
s from their flashy uniform. Though this side was a precursor of subsequent Australian international rules football teams, the nickname has not been retained.
surveyed "stakeholders" in 1998 about a possible nickname, to enhance marketing opportunities.
cricket teams in the Sheffield Shield had benefited from adopting nicknames in the 1990s. 69% opposed a national nickname, partly from a sense of decorum and partly because the best names were already taken by other teams.
held a competition for a nickname for its squad for the 2001 World Athletics Championships. The winning entry was "the
soldiers. This was quickly abandoned after criticism from the
and others that this was an inappropriate use of the term. The team previously had a little-used nickname, "the Blazers".
(FFA) and announced an effort to rebrand association football as "football" rather than "soccer" in Australia. The national team had been nicknamed "the Socceroos" by journalist Tony Horstead on a 1967 tour to
. FFA chairman
commented "It has been commonly used and is a much loved name but we may see it fade out as evolution takes place", and suggested
. A 2007 statement by the team sponsors reads "Qantas is a proud supporter of football and the Qantas Socceroos."
| Sport |
Team (link to team / event) |
Nickname (link for origin) |
Name sponsor |
| Rugby union Rugby union is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, 100 m...
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Men's testThe Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
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WallabiesA wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name....
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QantasQantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest...
|
| Women's The Australia national women's rugby union team, also known as the Wallaroos, are the national women's rugby union team of Australia. The Wallaroos have competed at three Women's Rugby World Cups in the past; in 1998, 2002 and the current 2006 event....
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WallarooThe best-known species is Macropus robustus, which is known as the Eastern Wallaroo, Common Wallaroo or just Wallaroo on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range , and as the Euro in most of the rest of the continent...
s |
Paper to Paper |
| Under-21 side |
Junior Wallabies |
Rugby leagueRugby league football is a full-contact form of football, played with a prolate spheroid ball by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. Rugby league is one of the two codes of rugby football, the other being rugby union...
|
Men's test |
KangarooA kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroo...
s |
Women'sThe Women's Rugby League World Cup is an international tournament for women to determine the best Rugby League playing nation in the world. It was first held in 2000 in Great Britain coinciding with the men's Rugby League World Cup, and will next be contested in Australia in 2008 as part of the...
|
Jillaroos |
| Under-21 side |
Junior Kangaroos |
| Wheelchair rugby Wheelchair rugby is a team sport for athletes with a disability. Developed in Canada in 1977, it is currently practiced in over twenty countries around the world and is a Paralympic sport....
|
ParalympicThe Paralympic Games are a multi-sport event for athletes with physical and visual disabilities. This includes athletes with mobility disabilities, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Paralympic Games are held every four years, following the Olympic Games, and are governed by the...
|
Steelers (official) Wheelabies (unofficial) |
| Association football (soccer) |
Men's |
Socceroos |
QantasQantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest...
|
| Women's (incl. Olympic) |
Matildas (from Waltzing Matilda "Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad, a country folk song, and has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia"....
) |
Westfield |
| Olympic men's |
Olyroos |
| Under-20 (men) The FIFA U-20 World Cup, until 2005 known as the FIFA World Youth Championship, is the world championship of football for male players under the age of 20 and is organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association...
|
Young Socceroos |
QantasQantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest...
|
| Under-20 (women) |
Young Matildas |
Westfield |
| Under-17 (men) The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to the FIFA U-17 World Championship and known by its current name since 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by Fédération Internationale de Football...
|
JoeyA joey is any infant marsupial.Marsupials have an extremely short gestation period , and the joey is 'born' basically in a fetal state. The blind, furless, miniature newborn, the size of a jelly bean, crawls across its mother's fur to make its way into the pouch, where it latches onto a teat for food...
s |
QantasQantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest...
|
FutsalFutsal is a variant of association football that is mainly played indoors. Its name is derived from the Portuguese fut ebol de sal ão and the Spanish fút bol sal a/de sal ón, which can be translated as 'salon football'...
|
National team Futsal in Australia is conducted under the auspices of the National Futsal Commission of Football Federation Australia and State/Territory based futsal associations.[1]Australia has played in all five FIFA Futsal World Cups.-History:...
|
Futsalroos |
QantasQantas Airways Limited is the national airline of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport. It is Australia's largest...
|
Gridiron (American footballAmerican football, known in the United States and Canada simply as football, and often as Gridiron or Tackle football outside North America, is a competitive team sport known for combining strategy with physical play. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the...
) |
National team |
Australian OutbackThe Outback is the remote arid areas of Australia, although the term colloquially can refer to any lands outside of the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas deemed "the bush".-Overview:The outback is...
— formerly Australian Cyclones (1999), Australian BushrangerBushrangers, or bush rangers, were outlaws in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities....
s (1997) |
NetballNetball is a sport in which two teams of seven players try to score points against each other by placing a ball through a raised goal. The sport is popular in Commonwealth countries and is predominantly played by women. Netball shares many similarities with basketball, having been derived from...
|
National teamThe Australian Netball Diamonds are the national netball team of Australia. Australia have traditionally been regarded as the most successful netball team in international netball: they have won nine of the twelve Netball World Championships, in addition to being the current world champions and...
|
DiamondIn mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is the second most stable form of carbon, after graphite; however, the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is...
s |
|
SwimmingThe aquatic sport of swimming involves competition amongst participants to be the fastest over a given distance under self propulsion.The different events include 25, 50, 100, 200, breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly, the 25, 50, 100, 200, 400, 500, 800, 1000, 1500, and 1650 free and the 100,...
|
Olympic Swimming has been a sport at every modern Summer Olympics. It has been open to women since 1912. Along with track & field athletics and gymnastics it is one of the most popular spectator sports at the Games and the one with the largest number of events....
, Paralympic, and World Championships |
DolphinDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly...
s |
TelstraTelstra or Telstra Corporation Ltd , is an Australian telecommunications and media company, formerly owned by the Australian government...
|
SoftballSoftball is a team sport popular especially in the United States. It is a direct descendant of baseball. Some key differences between softball and baseball are that softballs are larger than baseballs, and pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand. Softball was invented by George Hancock...
|
Men's |
Aussie Steelers |
Women's (OlympicSoftball was introduced as an Olympic sport for women in the 1996 Summer Olympics. On July 11, 2005, the IOC voted to drop baseball and softball from the Olympic program for 2012, a decision that was reaffirmed on February 9, 2006...
/ World'sThe ISF Women's World Championship is a fast pitch softball tournament for women's national teams held every four years by the International Softball Federation . The number of teams in the tournament began at five in its initial event in 1965, went to a high of 28 for the 1994 edition , and now...
) |
Aussie Spirit |
| Women's U-19 |
Aussie Pride |
Water poloWater polo is a team water sport. It is the oldest continuous Olympic team sport. The playing team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper with a maximum of six substitutes. The winner of the game is the team that scores more goals. Gameplay involves swimming, players passing the ball...
|
Men's |
SharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago, before the time of the dinosaurs....
s |
Women'sThe Australian national women's water polo team represents Australia in women's international water polo competitions and is controlled by Australian Water Polo Incorperated. It is currently organised into the Asia/Oceania regional group...
|
StingersStingers was an Australian police drama television series. It ran for eight seasons on the Nine Network before it was canceled in late 2004 due to declining ratings and the late timeslot Channel Nine gave the program...
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BasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of 5 players try to score points against one another by placing a ball through a 10 foot high hoop under organized rules...
|
Men'sThe Australian National Basketball Team is the men's basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions, including the FIBA Oceania Championship, the FIBA World Championship, the Commonwealth Games, and the Games of the Olympiad...
|
BoomersA kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern and Western Grey Kangaroo...
|
Australia PostAustralia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation, the postal service with a monopoly in Australia.- History :...
|
| Women's The Australia Women's National Basketball Team is the women's National Basketball team for Australia. They won Gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006 defeating New Zealand's Tall Ferns in the final match with a score of 77-39. They then followed it up with a gold medal at the 2006 FIBA...
|
OpalOpal is a mineraloid gel which is deposited at a relatively low temperature and may occur in the fissures of almost any kind of rock, being most commonly found with limonite, sandstone, rhyolite, marl and basalt...
s |
defence jobs (Australian Defence ForceThe Australian Defence Force is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Air Force and a number of 'tri-service' units....
's recruitment websiteA website is a collection of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are addressed with a common domain name or IP address in an Internet Protocol-based network...
) |
| Under-21 (men) The FIBA Under-21 World Championship is a men's under-21-only basketball competition organized by FIBA. It was formerly the FIBA 22 & Under World Championship before FIBA lowered the age limit to 21 years in December 1998, and had its name changed to World Championship for Young Men. The...
|
CrocsSaltwater or estuarine crocodile is the largest of all living reptiles. It is found in suitable habitats throughout Southeast Asia, Northern Australia, and the surrounding waters...
|
| Under-21 (women) The FIBA Under-21 World Championship for Women is a women's under-21 only basketball competition organized by FIBA, first held in 2003. FIBA will no longer hold world championships for this age group. -Summaries:-Medal table:-Participation Details:...
|
Sapphire Sapphire refers to gemstone varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red, in which case the gem would instead be a ruby. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or...
s |
| Under-19 (men) The FIBA Under-19 World Championship is a men's under-19 only basketball competition organized by FIBA. From its inauguration in 1979 until 2007 it was held every four years...
|
EmuThe Emu , Dromaius novaehollandiae, is the largest bird native to Australia and the only extant member of the genus Dromaius. It is also the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its ratite relative, the ostrich. The soft-feathered, brown, flightless bird reach up to in height...
s |
| Under-19 (women) The FIBA Under-19 World Championship for Women is a women's under-19 only basketball competition organized by FIBA.-Summaries:-Medal table:-Participation Details:-External links:*...
|
GemA gemstone or gem is a piece of attractive mineral, which—when cut and polished—is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
s |
| Intellectual disability (men) |
BoomerangA boomerang is a curved piece of wood used as a weapon and for sport. Boomerangs come in many shapes and sizes depending on their geographic or tribal origins and intended function. The most recognizable type is the returning boomerang, which is a throwing stick that travels in a elliptical path...
s |
| Intellectual disability (women) |
Pearl A pearl is a hard, generally spherical object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and...
s |
| Wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is a sport based on basketball but designed for disabled people in wheelchairs and is considered one of the major disabled sports practiced. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation is the governing body for this sport...
|
Men's |
Rollers |
| Women's |
Gliders |
CyclingBicycle racing is a sport encompassing many forms in which bicycles are used for competition. This racing includes road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX racing and bike trials and cycle speedway.-History:...
|
World Championships The Union Cycliste Internationale organises World Championships to determine world champion cyclists. These take place annually and are organised around nations rather than trade teams....
/World CupThe UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road bicycle racing competition comprised to ten one-day events. The competition was inaugurated in 1989, and replaced the Super Prestige Pernod International. In the first three years, the competition was sponsored by Perrier...
|
Cyclones |
Toshibais a Japanese multinational conglomerate manufacturing company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company's main business is in infrastructure, consumer products, electronic devices and components.Toshiba-made Semiconductors are among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders...
|
Field hockeyField hockey is a team sport in which a team of players attempt to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking the ball with hockey sticks into the opposing team's goal. Its official name is simply hockey, and this is the common name for it in many countries...
|
Men's The Australia national field hockey team are the Australia's national men's hockey team, and one of the nation's most successful top level sporting teams...
|
KookaburraKookaburras are large to very large terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea, the name a loanword from Wiradjuri guuguubarra, which is onomatopoeic of its call....
s |
Women'sThe Hockeyroos are Australia's national women's field hockey team.They have won 3 Olympic gold medals, in 1988, 1996 and 2000.The Hockeyroos have been declared Australia's Team of the Year five times and were awarded the Best Australian Team at the 2000 Olympic Games by unanimous verdict.- Major...
|
Hockeyroos |
None for 2007 (ANZ for 2004 Olympics Field Hockey at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held at the Olympic Hockey Centre located within the Helliniko Olympic Complex. The competitions for both men and women was split into two groups with the top two teams after the preliminary rounds progressing through to the semi-finals.-Men's...
) |
| Under-21 (men) The Hockey Junior World Cup, is an international field hockey competition organised by the International Hockey Federation . The tournament was started in 1979. Since 1985 it has been held every four years. Competitors must be under the age of 21 as of December 31 in the year before the tournament...
|
Burra Eremophila fraseri, also known as Burra, is a shrub which is native to Western Australia. It usually grows to between 0.5 and 3 metres high...
s |
| Under-21 (women) The Women's Hockey Junior World Cup, is the field hockey Junior World Cup competition for women, with the format for qualification and the final tournament is similar to the men's. It is organised by the International Hockey Federation and has been played since since 1989...
|
Jillaroos |
Ice hockeyIce Hockey is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a puck into the opposing team's goal. It is a fast-paced and physical sport...
|
Men'sThe Australian men's national ice hockey team is the national ice hockey team for Australia. As of 2008 the Australian team are ranked 33rd. The official nickname of Australia's national ice hockey team is the Mighty Roos....
|
Mighty Roos (after The Mighty Ducks The Mighty Ducks is the first film in The Mighty Ducks trilogy, produced by Avnet-Kerner Productions and Walt Disney Pictures, distributed by Buena Vista Distribution, and originally released to movie theatres on October 2, 1992. In the UK and Australia the film was titled Champions...
) |
LacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin that is played using a small solid rubber ball and a long-handled racquet called a crosse or lacrosse stick. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose netting that is designed to hold the lacrosse ball...
|
Men's The World Lacrosse Championship is the world championship for international men's field lacrosse. From its inception in 1967 through the 2006 event, it was sanctioned by the International Lacrosse Federation...
|
SharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago, before the time of the dinosaurs....
s |
| Men's U19s |
CrocodileSaltwater or estuarine crocodile is the largest of all living reptiles. It is found in suitable habitats throughout Southeast Asia, Northern Australia, and the surrounding waters...
s |
| Women's U19s |
Stars (after the Southern Cross) |
| Women's U17s |
Team KoalaThe Koala is a thickset arboreal marsupial herbivore native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....
|
Box lacrosseBox lacrosse, also known as indoor lacrosse and sometimes shortened to boxla or simply box, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada, where it is the most popular version of the game played, from the traditional field lacrosse game...
|
Men's The inaugural World Indoor Lacrosse Championship was held in Hamilton, Kitchener, Mississauga, and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada in May 2003. National teams from Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Iroquois Nation, Scotland and the United States participated. Canada defeated the Iroquois Nation...
|
Boxaroos |
BowlsBowls is a sport in which the goal is to roll slightly asymmetric balls, called bowls, closest to a smaller—normally white—bowl called the "jack" or "kitty". Bowls, either flat- or crown-green, is usually played outdoors, on grass and synthetic surfaces. Flat-green bowls can also be...
|
Men's |
Jackaroo Jackaroo may refer to:Occupation* Jackaroo a young man gaining practical experience on a sheep or cattle property, to acquire the practical skills needed to become a manager of a property or station.Vehicles:...
s — a pun on jack, the target ball |
| Women's |
Sapphire Sapphire refers to gemstone varieties of the mineral corundum, an aluminium oxide , when it is a color other than red, in which case the gem would instead be a ruby. Trace amounts of other elements such as iron, titanium, or chromium can give corundum blue, yellow, pink, purple, orange, or...
s |
OrienteeringOrienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain. Participants are given a map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points...
|
National team |
BoomerangA boomerang is a curved piece of wood used as a weapon and for sport. Boomerangs come in many shapes and sizes depending on their geographic or tribal origins and intended function. The most recognizable type is the returning boomerang, which is a throwing stick that travels in a elliptical path...
s |
HandballHandball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass and bounce a ball to throw it into the goal of the opposing team...
|
Men's The Australia national handball team is the national handball team of Australia and is controlled by the Australia Handball Federation. The team is considered the best in the Oceania region....
|
CrocodileSaltwater or estuarine crocodile is the largest of all living reptiles. It is found in suitable habitats throughout Southeast Asia, Northern Australia, and the surrounding waters...
s |
| Women's The World Championship in team handball for women has been organized by the International Handball Federation since 1957.- Championships :- Overall medal count :- Participation history :- External links :*...
|
Redbacks |