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Located in the continent of Oceania, Australia covers 7,682,300 square kilometers of land and 58,920 square kilometers of water, making it the 6th largest nation in the world with a total area of 7,741,220 square kilometers.

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Australia's poor performance in Montreal, growing public unrest and an increasing awareness of the political expendiency of supporting the elite arm of the Australian sport system led to the Fraser government creating an Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in 1981.

The establishment of the AIS soon paid dividends, particularly at the Olympic Games, where Australia's performance improved markedly in the 1980s and 1990s.

The national and international adulation that resulted from Australian performances, which could be linked (directy and indirectly) to the AIS, meant that the formation of an elite training institute has rightly been regarded as one of the most significant sport policy decisions in Australia's history.

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- Sport is a relatively low priority within the Australian federal government in comparison to traditional public policy areas.
- The only real push to public sport in Australia was after the sydney olympic games in 2000.
-The vast majority of Sport and Recreation Victoria's (SRV) budget is allocated to community development related programs, particularly facility renewal and consstruction, although a significant proportion is also allocated to high performance sport through the Victorian Institute of Sport.

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The somewhat chequered history of the sport portfolio within Australian government over the last 25 years illustrates not only that different governments have had different priorities for sport, but that it has often been difficul to find sport an appropirate home within government.

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-In 1993 Sydney was granted the rights to host the 2000 Olympic Games, The government complemented the existing ‘Maintain the Momentum’ policy, which was scheduled to provide the sport system with $290 million between 1992 and 1996, with the Olympic Athlete Program, which injected an additional $135 million into elite athlete development in the lead-up to the Olympic Games. This funding was supplemented by an additional $80 million from the Australian Olympic Committee’s Gold Medal Plan. Elite athlete development had not been so well funded in Australia’s history, and as a result Australia recorded it best ever performance at the 2000 Games
- In the wake of the Sydney Olympic games in 2000, the government launched a new sport policy "Back Australia's Sporting ability' (BASA)
- BASA articulated a relatively simple yet effective four pronged sport policy which focused on maintaining elite performance, increasing participation in organised sport, ensuring a drug-free sport environment and improving the governance and management of Australian sport organisations.

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- A department of Sport, Recreation and Tourism was created when Labour was elected.

- When the John Howard led Liberal government was elected in 1996 sport lost its departmental profile.

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Russell Hoye & Matthew Nicholson (2009) Australia, International Journal of Sport Policy

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Russell Hoye & Matthew Nicholson (2009) Australia, International Journal of Sport Policy

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- The government provided sporting infrastructure in the form of sporting grounds and facilities at public parks.

- It wasn't until 1939 that the government began its formal involvement in the development of Australia's physical fitness through the passage of the National Fitness Act.