Green and gold
Encyclopedia
National colours
National colours are frequently part of a country's set of national symbols.Many states and nations have formally adopted a set of colours as their official "national colours" while others have de facto national colours that have become well-known through popular use...
of Australia are green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
and gold
Gold (color)
Gold, also called golden, is one of a variety of orange-yellow color blends used to give the impression of the color of the element gold....
, as proclaimed by Sir Ninian Stephen
Ninian Stephen
Sir Ninian Martin Stephen, is a retired politician and judge, who served as the 20th Governor-General of Australia and as a Justice in the High Court of Australia.-Early life:...
, the Governor-General of Australia
Governor-General of Australia
The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...
on 19 April 1984. The exact colours are specified as being Pantone
Pantone
Pantone Inc. is a corporation headquartered in Carlstadt, New Jersey, USA. The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System , a proprietary color space...
Matching System numbers 116C and 348C, and always referred to as "green and gold".
Green and gold are the traditional team colours of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n national sporting teams, and nearly every current Australian national sports team wears them, although the hues and proportions of the colours may vary between teams and across eras.
It is widely believed that the colours were chosen because they are the dominant colours of Australia's floral emblem, Acacia pycnantha (the Golden Wattle).
Uses
Teams that wear the green and gold include:- the Australia cricket team (one day cricket);
- the KangaroosAustralian national rugby league teamThe Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...
(rugby leagueRugby leagueRugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
); - the SocceroosAustralia national football (soccer) teamThe Australia national association football team represents Australia in international association football competitions. Its official nickname is the "Socceroos"...
(men's association football (soccer)); - the Matildas (women's association football (soccer));
- the Wallabies (rugby unionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
); - the Australian Summer Olympics teamAustralia at the Summer OlympicsAustralia has sent athletes to almost all editions of the modern Olympic Games. Australia has competed in every Summer Olympic Games, and most Winter Olympic Games, the latter each time since 1952....
; - the BoomersAustralia national basketball teamThe Australian national basketball team is the men's basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known in Australia as the Boomers, an Australian slang term for Kangaroo. Australia is ranked 9th in the world and finished 7th at the 2008 Beijing Olympic...
(men's basketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
); - the OpalsAustralia women's national basketball teamThe 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...
(women's basketball); - the Kookaburras (men's field hockeyField hockeyField Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
); - the Hockeyroos (women's field hockey);
- the Mighty Roos (ice hockeyIce hockeyIce hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
)
Since 1961, the Wallabies have worn a gold jersey with green lettering and trim; they changed from a primarily green jersey in order to avoid a colour clash with the Springboks
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
History
The first Australian national sporting team to wear green and gold was the Australian cricket teamAustralian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
that toured England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in 1899
1899 in sports
-American football:College championship* College football national championship – Harvard Crimson and Princeton Tigers Events* The 1899 Sewanee Tigers football team goes undefeated, 12–0, including five road wins in six days over top teams....
. Their clothes were the traditional white, but the captain Joe Darling
Joe Darling
Joseph "Joe" Darling CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 34 Test matches as a specialist batsman between 1894 and 1905. As captain, he led Australia in a total of 21 Tests, winning seven and losing four. In Test cricket, he scored 1657 runs at an average of 28.56 per innings, including...
arranged for green and gold caps and blazers to be worn for the opening match of the Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
series. Previously, the team had had no uniform cap or blazer colours but wore an assortment of club or state colours. The Australian cricket team continued to use the colours thereafter, and in 1908
1908 in sports
1908 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.-American football:College championship* College football national championship – Harvard Crimson, LSU Tigers and Penn Quakers -Association football:England...
the colours were ratified as the official team colours for future Australian cricket teams. During subsequent discussions by members of the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
Cricket Association, the colours were reportedly referred to as "gum-tree green" and "wattle-gold".
The Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
n Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
team adopted "green and wattle" in 1908, but not every team played in the colours. In the 1912 Olympics
1912 Summer Olympics
The 1912 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 5 May and 27 July 1912. Twenty-eight nations and 2,407 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports...
, an official Australian uniform was adopted for the first time: green vest
Vest
A vest is a garment covering the upper body. The term has different meanings around the world:Waistcoat :. This is called a waistcoat in the UK and many Commonwealth countries, or a vest in the US and Canada. It is often worn as part of formal attire, or as the third piece of a lounge...
s with gold trimming, and white shorts with green and gold trimming. The Australian national rugby league team
Australian national rugby league team
The Australian national rugby league team have represented Australia in senior men's rugby league football competition since the establishment of the game in Australia in 1908. Administered by the Australian Rugby League, the Kangaroos' are ranked number one in the RLIF World Rankings...
first wore green and gold in 1928, with other teams following.