Author: Erin Longney

Community, friendship & uplifting women in sport: a digital timeline of Hills District Netball Association

My work with Hills District Netball Association (HDNA) over the semester has culminated in the creation of an interactive digital timeline which reflects significant events, achievements and anniversaries throughout the association’s history. To support this timeline, I have created two short video clips to be posted to HDNA’s social media to drive awareness of and engagement with the timeline. Moreover, I have digitised an extensive collection of physical posters which detail HDNA’s history, ensuring that the contents of these posters are preserved and kept in an accessible online archive.

My project reflects how HDNA has acted as a significant local organisation which has fostered a sense of community and provided women and girls with a space to thrive in their sporting endeavours. Through spotlighting the efforts and achievements of pivotal members of the HDNA executive team, players and umpires, my project showcases how community netball organisations have created opportunities for women to demonstrate leadership and carve out a path for themselves in sport. Netball is the number one team sport for female participation in the country, playing a significant role in the lives of scores of Australian women and girls. This digital documentation of HDNA’s history reflects one example of a community netball organisation which has offered a space for women and girls from the local area to demonstrate their leadership capacity, develop strong friendships and flourish in sport.

I chose to present my project through this digital timeline format as I wanted to present the history of HDNA in an engaging, interactive and visually rich manner. I researched several different online timeline programs through which I could present my project, though I ultimately decided to use TikiToki. I was particularly interested in the 3D view option that this program offered, which allowed me to showcase HDNA’s history in a visually stimulating and engaging way, rather than presenting a static, text-based timeline. This platform also enabled me to create an interactive digital timeline, with users able to scroll through the years using the slider at the bottom of the webpage, and click on various elements of the timeline to reveal further details and more visual media. The timeline has also been divided into categories, including HDNA History (general key events), Achievements, Umpires, Anniversaries and Snapshots. Each event in the timeline is colour-coordinated in alignment with the corresponding category, allowing users to visualise different themes.

A snapshot of the interactive digital timeline.

It is my aim for this interactive presentation format to allow the history of the association to be easily digested and engaged with by a wide range of audiences, especially younger audiences who would likely be averse to engaging with large amounts of text-based information. This is particularly important in the context of my organisation, with young players, from 8-year-olds to teenagers, constituting a significant portion of the HDNA community. Through the integration of various multimedia elements, including photos, videos, text and external links, I have been able to create a digital timeline that can be displayed on HDNA’s website, capturing the rich history of the association in an engaging way.  As someone who has been playing netball at this association for years, it was fascinating to see how the association has evolved over time and to see how a place that I know so well came to be. I hope that engaging with this timeline will provide a similar experience for other HDNA community members, enabling them to visualise the significant events and instrumental volunteers that have shaped the association into what it is today.

A link to the timeline can be found here.

The Power of Community Netball

For as long as I can remember, a winter Saturday morning has only meant one thing: netball. Ever since primary school, my mum, my sisters and I have spent countless Saturdays down at our local netball association, where we play, coach, umpire, and, every so often, enjoy a bacon and egg roll from the community-run BBQ. It’s often an all-day, if not all-weekend, affair. As juniors, Mum and Dad would cart us all around Sydney for representative carnivals, and we’re now avid fans and members of our national league team, the NSW Swifts, and frequently head out to Olympic Park to watch their matches in person. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to have your weekends not taken up by the all-consuming force that is netball. But despite the commitment, there’s something about it that keeps us coming back every year.

For many girls and women across the country, their winter Saturday morning plans mimic mine. For decades, women and girls have flocked in droves to their local netball courts every weekend. Netball is Australia’s leading team sport for female participation, ranked only just behind AFL for overall participation across men and women. At its core, netball is a sport that was built for women, by women. In fact, Super Netball is the only professional league in Australia where the female code is the main event.

Perhaps that’s what makes the sport so special, and part of the reason I’m so passionate about it. It’s a sport where women have paved their own path, carving out a space for girls to thrive. And at the very heart of the sport is local associations. It’s here where a community is built, where friendships are made, and where the netball superstars of the future are born.

Community netball at Hills District Netball Association.

That’s why I have chosen to complete my public history project with Hills District Netball, my local association. Originally founded as the Hills District Women’s Basketball Association, it has been a thriving community organisation since 1968. Each year, HDNA runs a Winter Day competition which takes place every Saturday, as well as Spring and Summer Night competitions, which also involve mixed teams with both men and women. These competitions are run by a group of passionate and committed volunteers, some of whom have been involved in the association for decades. They’ve even had former players go on to become national league players, including Cath Cox, who played with HDNA and went on to captain the Australian Diamonds.

HDNA netballers in action.

Throughout my project with HDNA, I hope to use my passion for netball to delve into the association’s rich history. Having been a part of the association’s netball competitions for years, I’d love to give back to the organisation through using my knowledge and skills to create an engaging public history project. Along the way, I hope to uncover how HDNA has evolved over the years into the netball-loving community it is today.