Indigenous football in country Victoria between the wars and since World War II

There is a gap in the historiography of Aboriginal involvement in football in non-Metropolitan Victoria from World War I until today. Official policy envisaged Indigenous people merging into the general population or ceasing to exist, but by concentrating the survivors at Lake Tyers in East Gippsland the demographic basis for a male Indigenous football team was created. That team took part in and won local the league in the 1930s. It was reconstituted after World War II and continued to play into the 1950s. Subsequently, new Indigenous teams drawing on players from Cummeragunja, Lake Tyers and other parts of Victoria emerged in Rumbalara near Shepparton and in the suburbs of Northcote and Fitzroy in Melbourne. The latter two clubs took on wider social roles in their respective communities.