Australian Ice Hockey Association
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| Association name | Ice Hockey Australia |
|---|---|
| IIHF Code | AUS |
| IIHF membership | 11 February 1938 |
| President | Clive Connelly |
| IIHF men's ranking | 33 |
| IIHF women's ranking | 27 |
| http://www.iha.org.au | |
The Australian Ice Hockey Federation, currently trading as Ice Hockey Australia (IHA), is the official national governing body of ice hockey in Australia and is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was first established in 1908, making it one of the oldest national ice hockey associations in the world.
The purpose of Ice Hockey Australia is to encourage, promote, control and administer all forms of ice hockey in and throughout Australia through and by various Member States for the mutual and collective benefit of the members and sport itself.
IHA also governs an eight-team, semi-professional league, known as the Australian Ice Hockey League.
The beginnings of ice sports in Australia are traced back to the evening of Wednesday 12 October 1904 during a carnival held at the Adelaide Glaciarium, the first ice rink built in Australia. This important location for Australian ice sports began as a Cyclorama, which opened on Friday 28 November 1890 at 89 Hindley Street, Adelaide. On the evening of Tuesday 6 September 1904, the building was reopened after being remodeled by a new group called the Ice Palace Skating Company, owned by H. Newman Reid and referred to as the Glaciarium or Ice Palace Skating Rink. On the evening of Wednesday 12 October 1904 a match for what was called "hockey on the ice" was held during the carnival at the Adelaide Glaciarium. This game was not ice hockey, it was an adaption of roller polo to the ice using ice skates instead of roller skates. At the time this version of roller polo adapted to the ice was being played in Adelaide, ice hockey was already a well established sport and had been codified for almost 30 years. Though what was played in Adelaide was being called "hockey on the ice", it was not ice hockey.
The birthplace of ice hockey in Australia was in the Melbourne Glaciarium in Melbourne and was the first time and place that ice hockey had been played in the country. An exhibition of ice hockey was held at the end of the opening night of the Melbourne Glaciarium on the afternoon of 9 June 1906, at 16 City Road, South Melbourne Victoria.
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