Australian football has attracted more overall interest among Australians ( as measured by the Sweeney Sports report ) than any other football code, and, when compared with all sports throughout the nation, has consistently ranked first in the winter reports, and most recently third behind cricket and swimming in summer.

The Australian Sports Commission statistics show a 64 % increase in the total number of participants over the 10 year period between 2001 – 2010.

* Australian Sports Medal ( 2000 )

The MX-5 has won many awards including Wheels Magazine's Car of the Year for 1989 and 2005 ; Sports Car Internationals " best sports car of the 1990s " and " ten best sports cars of all time "; 2005 – 2006 Car of the Year Japan ; and 2005 Australian Car of the Year.

Following Hird's retirement as a player from the Bombers at the end of the 2007 AFL season, he became a commentator and football analyst for Australian rules football on Fox Sports, a position which he held until he began his coaching career at the end of 2010.

He was inducted into the Canadian Boxing Hall of Fame, the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, into the International Boxing Hall of Fame on June 9, 1996, and into Australian National Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009.

Taylor was awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 23 June 2000 for his services to Australian sport.

* 2009-Matthew Mitcham, Australian Olympic gold-medalist, world record holder and 2008 Australian Sports Performer of the Year

A popular figure in the eyes of the public, Waugh has been included in a list of one hundred Australian Living Treasures by the National Trust of Australia, awarded the Order of Australia and the Australian Sports Medal.

Category: Western Australian Sports Star of the Year winners

Nestlé supports the Australian Institute of Sport ( AIS ) on a number of nutrition and fitness fronts, funding a full-time member of the AIS Sports Nutrition team, an athlete career scholarships for young athletes, and customised nutrition literature for athletes and all Australians.

Flack has been inducted into the Australian Sports and Athletics Hall of Fame.

He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal on 30 August 2000.

* BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year – Mal Meninga, Australian rugby league footballer

Australian Motors Mazda released a limited run of 250 ' Sports ' model Series 4 RX-7's ; each with no power steering, power windows or rear wiper as an attempt to reduce the weight of the car.

* Australian Sports Commission

Goolagong was a member of the Board of the Australian Sports Commission from 1995 to 1997 and since 1997 has held the position of Sports Ambassador to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities.

Category: Recipients of the Australian Sports Medal

Still struggling with intermittent lapses of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in 1998, Lynch discovered that the drug he had been prescribed at the beginning of the season, although with the permission of the Australian Sports Drug Agency ( official AFL drug agents ), had been added to the IOC list of banned substances.

In 2000 Mark was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his service to Surf Riding.

* Australian Production Car Championship APCC ( CAMS / FIA )-

* Australian Production Touring Car Championship PTCC ( AASA ) -

Formerly the Australian Touring Car Championship, the current formula was devised in 1993 ( based on Group A regulations ) and branded as ' V8 Supercars ' in 1997.

In January 1993 the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport replaced the existing Group 3A Touring Car category ( formerly based on FIA Group A rules ) with a new three-class Group 3A.

Cars from all three classes would contest the Australian Touring Car Championship as well as non-championship Australian touring car events such as the Bathurst 1000 ; but for the purposes of race classification and points allocation, cars competed in two classes:

From 1995 the 2. 0 litre cars, now contesting their own series as Super Touring Cars, became ineligible for the Australian Touring Car Championship.

The name Shell Australian Touring Car Championship was replaced by Shell Championship Series.

In the Group 3A / V8 Supercar category, from 1993 to 2011, Holden drivers have won eleven Australian Touring Car Championships / Shell Championship Series / V8 Supercar Championship Series titles and Ford drivers have won eight.

* List of Australian Touring Car and V8 Supercar Champions

Recipients have mostly not been V8 Supercar drivers but from the Australian Touring Car Championship era and have been multiple winners of the ATCC or the Bathurst 1000.

Fairmont products are exported around the world, although the dominant product, railroad speeders, is now mainly in the hands of railway enthusiasts who operate them for fun, such as the North American Railcar Operators Association and the Australian Society of Section Car Operators, Inc.

The GT-R proceeded to win the JGTC Group A series championship 4 years in a row, and also had success in the Australian Touring Car Championship winning from 1990 – 1992, until a regulation change excluded the GT-R in 1993.

Other championship titles include the 1991 Australian Touring Car Championship Jim Richards, the 1991 Australian Endurance Championship ( Mark Gibbs & Rowan Onslow ), the 1991 Australian Manufacturers ' Championship, the 1992 Australian Touring Car Championship ( Mark Skaife ) and the 1992 Spanish Touring Car Championship.

:* Central Coast Rays, a rugby union club playing in the Australian Rugby Championship

Albert Park also has the distinction of being the only venue to hold the Australian Grand Prix in both World Championship and non-World Championship formats.

Originally built for the Central Coast Bears team in the NRL rugby league competition ( to this day, the seats are arranged to say ' Go Bears '), since 2005 it is now the home of the Central Coast Mariners A-League association football team and was the home venue of the Central Coast Rays rugby union Australian Rugby Championship team

In 1992, he joined County Championship newcomers Durham before retiring midway through the 1993 season, his last match being Durham's match against the visiting Australian XI.

* Australian V8 Superboats Jet Sprint Championship

Brabham won the 1948 Australian Speedway Championship, the 1949 Australian and South Australian Speedcar championships, and the 1950 – 1951 Australian championship with the car.

In February and March 1985 the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket was played at the MCG, a One Day International tournament involving all of the then Test match playing countries to celebrate 150 years of the Australian state of Victoria.

He raced in Australian Superbikes in the late 1980s, and also won both races as Superbike World Championship visited Oran Park in.

Other transnational competitions include the Pro 12, involving Irish, Italian, Scottish and Welsh teams ; The Rugby Championship, involving South African, Australian, New Zealand and Argentinian Teams ; and the Heineken Cup, involving the top European teams from their respective domestic competitions.

* July 10 – Peter Thomson becomes the first Australian to win the British Open Golf Championship.

* Australian Super Touring Championship ran from 1993 to 2001.

* Australian GT Championship – A series for GT type cars which ran from 1982 to 1985 and from 2005 to date.

* Australian Nations Cup Championship A series for GT type cars which ran from 2000 to 2004.

It was then renamed for 2005 as the Australian GT Championship.

* Australian Rally Championship