AROUND the turn of the century, British Navy personnel stationed in Australia laid the foundations for the development of hockey throughout the country.
As the years went on and the game strengthened, many women and schoolgirls started to get involved with the sport.
The result was the formation of the WA Women’s Hockey Association in 1916.
Hockey WA’s chief executive officer Peter Churack said it was only right to celebrate the action taken by the inspirational women who paved the way for future generations to take part in the sport.
“Hockey in WA has continued to grow to the point where we now have more than 20,000 registered members and players of all ages participating, but it was important that we remember the history of our sport and the people who helped us get to where we are today,” he said.
While the Busselton club is eight years shy of celebrating its 100th anniversary, Busselton hockey veteran Anne Faithfull said it was important to remember the club had a rich history of producing a number of female state and Australian players.
“No other country area would present the list that we have,” she said.
Ms Faithfull said when she moved to a different town and joined their hockey team they said to her, ‘you must be from Busselton.’
“It was the style we played, we played a different game and I did not realise that until I left and played somewhere else.”
Linda Nixon, who received an OAM for her contribution to WA hockey, said back then state players were not flown interstate to compete, the women had to travel by train often leaving families, children and work behind.
“You could be away for two weeks, it was not just overnight, play then come back,” she said.
Ms Nixon said in the association’s earlier days the country teams would travel to Perth to compete against the metro sides.
“The team that came from the country which was always a threat to Perth teams was Busselton,” she said.
“The games were played down at the Esplanade and a lot of the games were played at lunch time, so office workers would come down during their lunch break and watch the hockey girls.
“The match of the day was always when Busselton played, because they had the likes of Mavis Gray who was fantastic to watch.”
Busselton hockey veteran and former Australian captain Mavis Gray said it did not seem like a huge thing back then, but when she thought about it now, it was.
“We had a lot of players who did really well,” she said.
“We had a standard that was high so anyone who came into the team lifted themselves to the standard of the other players around them.”
One of the biggest challenges faced by the Busselton women’s club was back in the 1970s when they tried to combine the men and women’s clubs.
Ms Faithfull said while the men moved to their new grounds at Bovell Park, the women stayed at Churchill Park.
“The men initially did not want us there,” she said.
“We wrote to the Shire to get permission to move out to Bovell Park."
Ms Faithfull said they wanted to amalgamate the clubs for the betterment of hockey so the men could help coach and umpire and the women could help the children.
“It was in 1999 that we dissolved the Busselton Women’s Hockey Association and the Busselton Men’s Hockey Association to become the Busselton Hockey Stadium Club.”