History of Australian cricket to 1876

This is an article that describes the history of Australian cricket from its known beginnings until the eve of the first-ever Test matches between Australia and England, which took place in the 1876–77 season.

Cricket was already established in England by the time Willem Jansz and Abel Tasman made their voyages of discovery in the 17th century. But their expeditions came to nothing and it was not until 1766, which is about when the Hambledon Club was founded, that the Australian story really begins. It was in 1766 that the Royal Society commissioned Captain James Cook (1728–1779) to lead an astronomical expedition to the Pacific Ocean for the primary purpose of charting a transit of Venus. He had a second purpose which was to search for a southern continent called Terra Australis, and to establish if this had a connection with the lands visited by Tasman. In April 1770, Cook's expedition became the first Europeans to reach the east coast of Australia at a place called Point Hicks on the coast of Victoria.

Cook’s voyages were a highly significant precursor to the worldwide spread of cricket. It was not until 1788 that colonisation of Australia began but cricket soon arrived there too and we have our first definite references to the sport in Australia in 1804, when the January edition of The Sydney Gazette recorded that recent weather had been favourable to cricketers.

Cricket soon became a very popular sport in Australia, especially in the south-eastern colonies. In Sydney, the Military Cricket Club played games in the 1830s against the Australian Cricket Club, including one at Hyde Park in 1833 and the Racecourse in 1834, as well as against an Australian civilian XI in 1834. In rural New South Wales, the Queanbeyan District Cricket Club was officially formed in 1863 having played games against teams from local towns through the 1850s.first-class status was achieved as early as the 1850s.

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