The Australian women's national cricket team, formerly known as the Southern Stars, represent Australia in international cricket. Currently captained by Sophie Molineux and coached by Shelley Nitschke, they are the top team in all world rankings assigned by the International Cricket Council.

Australia played their first Test match in 1934–35 against England. The two teams now compete biennially for the Women's Ashes. A rich history with New Zealand stretches back almost as far while strong rivalries have also developed more recently with India and the West Indies, manifesting predominantly via limited overs cricket. In the 50-over format of the game, Australia have won more World Cups than all other teams combined—capturing the 1978, 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005, 2013 and 2022 titles. They have achieved similarly emphatic success in Twenty20 cricket by winning the ICC Women's T20 World Cup in 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2026.

In 2003, Women's Cricket Australia (WCA) and the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) merged to form a single governing body, known as Cricket Australia (CA), which remains to this day. CA has expressed a major goal of the organisation is for cricket to be Australia's leading sport for women and girls, citing the performance and exposure of the national team—which is heavily dependent on its increasingly professional domestic structures, namely the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) and the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL)—as a key factor to achieving such an aspiration.

A survey conducted by TrueNorth Research in April 2020 showed the national women's cricket team have the strongest emotional connection with Australian sports fans.

History Early years

Organised cricket has been played by women in Australia since no later than 1874 when the first recorded match took place in Bendigo. Competitions have existed at state level since the early-1900s and at national level since 1931–32. The Australian Women's Cricket Council (AWCC) was formed in March 1931 to administer and develop the game at the national level. The original members of the AWCC were Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. South Australia and Western Australia joined in 1934, while ACT and Tasmania affiliated in 1977 and 1982 respectively.

England became the first international women's cricket team to visit Australia, touring in the summer of 1934–35 to compete in a series against an Australian team captained by Margaret Peden. Three Test matches—the first-ever involving women—were played during the series which received significant public and media interest. Men, in particular, were eager and curious to see the women play. The famous SCG barracker Yabba was quoted at the time: "The ladies are playing alright for me. This is cricket, this is… Leave the girls alone!" Following two losses, Australia eked out a draw in the third Test at the MCG with the spin bowling duo of Anne Palmer and Peggy Antonio proving to be among the team's standout performers.

After raising their own funds to travel to the United Kingdom, the Australian women's team embarked on a maiden overseas voyage in 1937. They proceeded to play 16 tour matches across England including three Tests—the first resulting in a narrow win which saw leg spinner Peggy Antonio dominate with the ball again while Kath Smith played a crucial all-round role. With the series level at 1–1, the third Test was played at The Oval and attracted a crowd of over 6,000 people. The match ended in a draw. Soon after Australia's landmark tour, the momentum of the burgeoning women's game was halted by the events of World War II.

1947–1958: Wilson era

International cricket resumed toward the end of the 1947–48 season when Australia visited New Zealand for the first time, comprehensively defeating the hosts in the only Test of the tour. The following summer, England returned to Australian shores and suffered their first series loss. Having already affirmed herself as a star of the team with a ten-wicket haul and an innings of 90 against New Zealand, all-rounder Betty Wilson led Australia to a 186-run victory in the first Test of the 1948–49 series over England, claiming match figures of 9/62 as well as scoring a century.

Australia's 1951 tour of England included one of the closest finishes to a women's Test match in the 20th century. The second Test, played in Worcester, was a tight battle as the Mollie Dive-led Australian team overcame a 39-run first innings deficit to successfully chase down a target of 160 on the final day of play with two wickets in hand. Though Wilson contributed key runs and wickets as anticipated, it was ultimately the all-round performance of fast bowler Norma Whiteman (who finished the match with a defiant knock of 36 not out) which guided the team across the line. Both players were also standouts in the Third test, though England nevertheless triumphed by 137 runs to end the three-match series at 1–1.

England's next tour of Australia produced several notable milestones, particularly during the first Test of the drawn 1957–58 series. The match, played at the Junction Oval in Melbourne, marked the first time international cricket was broadcast on Australian television. Betty Wilson was once again an inimitable force throughout the topsy-turvy contest, which ultimately ended in a draw, becoming the first player to take ten wickets and score a century in the same Test. In another historic breakthrough, Faith Thomas made her debut in the match, becoming the first Indigenous person to represent Australia in any national sporting team.

1958–1973: Establishment of the IWCC Australia became a member of the International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) at its inception in 1958, helping to form the governing body alongside England, the Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa. Lack of funds and low public interest throughout the 1960s caused the women's game, once again, to decline. The on-field fortunes of the Australian team were simultaneously grim, as they finished the decade with a streak of eleven winless Test matches.

They were not successful in the early-1970s and had their first-ever Test mach loss to New Zealand. Mary Allitt, who captained the national team for the 1963 tour of England, was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in June 2007. When she died in 2013, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said Allitt helped to "pave the way for today's elite players" and that she "holds a significant place in the history of women's cricket."

One of the longest-serving players and administrators for women's cricket during this period was Lorna Thomas. Retiring as a cricketer in the late 1950s, Thomas took up team management which included overseeing four tours abroad. She retired from her position as manager of the New South Wales and Australian teams in the 1970s and was awarded an MBE for services to cricket.

1973–1991: Introduction of One Day cricket The team attracted sponsors with the help of the first World Cup in 1973, which served as an introduction to the One Day International (ODI) format for women's cricket. Australia finished the tournament as runners-up, losing to host nation England in the final. The number of tours, both overseas and at home, increased soon thereafter. Healthy finances allowed for investment in more suitable training and coaching, and these initiatives were vindicated with the team achieving global domination by the 1980s.

India paid a maiden visit in 1976–77, playing one Test match in Perth which resulted in Australia's first victory in the longest form of the game in nearly two decades, marking the beginning of the team's turnaround. The following year, at the 1978 World Cup, Australia defeated England in the final to claim a breakthrough world championship. Captain Margaret Jennings led the team in its triumphant campaign while Sharon Tredrea had a significant impact with bat and ball throughout the tournament which was held in India before crowds of up to 40,000 people.

Australia successfully defended their crown at the 1982 World Cup, held in New Zealand, by beating England in the final again. Making their ODI debuts at the start of the tournament, batter Jill Kennare was the leading run-scorer for the team while Lyn Fullston took the most wickets of all players. A talented all-rounder who also represented her country in netball, Fullston was a notable embodiment of two Australian team member archetypes: the prolific left-arm orthodox spinner (paralleled by several successors, including Shelley Nitschke and Jess Jonassen) and the elite dual-sport athlete (further exemplified by the likes of Ellyse Perry and Jess Duffin).

A dogged English team toured in 1984–85, pulling ahead early in a five-match Test series with a come-from-behind five-run win. Not only did Australia respond resoundingly throughout the remainder of the summer to wrap up a 2–1 series victory, it would take more than 20 years to pass before England would record another Test match victory against their arch-rivals. The fifth Test, played at Queen Elizabeth Oval, saw Australian captain Raelee Thompson—in her last season with the national team—take 5/33 on the first day of play to help set up a seven-wicket win for her country. Jill Kennare and Denise Emerson were key performers with the bat throughout the series.

Australia completed a three-peat at the 1988 World Cup, defeating England in the final by eight wickets. Despite recording the significant achievement on home soil at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the match was played in front of just 3,000 people. In another indicator of the development that lay ahead for the women's game, the rate of scoring during the tournament was typically very slow compared to modern ODI standards—in the final, for example, England scored a mere 7/127 from 60 overs while Australia chased down the target in the 45th over.

1991–2005: Clark era

1993 World Cup The decade-long global dominance of Australia had undoubtedly petered out by the 1993 World Cup when the team finished the group stage in third place, thus failing to qualify for the final. The ultimate blow arguably occurred in their last pool match, suffering a brutal ten-wicket loss to New Zealand after being bowled out for 77. In many respects, however, it also signified the start of an even more fruitful chapter in the team's history. While several core group members, such as Lyn Larsen and Denise Annetts, retired from international cricket at the conclusion of the tournament or soon after, the next generation of stars had already begun to cement themselves at the top level—most famously Belinda Clark and Zoe Goss. The following year, Goss also helped spark an unprecedented amount of attention around the women's game when she dismissed Brian Lara during a charity match at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

By 1995, with Clark having taken the reins of captaincy in the previous year, more cornerstones of a soon-to-be-ominous outfit had been added in batter Karen Rolton and coach John Harmer. A biomechanics expert by trade, Harmer advocated for an exciting and enjoyable approach from his players: "After my first tour of New Zealand, I took them aside and said, 'This is so boring, sitting here, watching you lot play. You're scoring at 1.5 an over. That's not cricket. Make runs, take wickets, make the play and do it with a smile on your face.'''" In another shift for the game, the inaugural Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) season was held in the summer of 1996–97. Superseding the Australian Women's Cricket Championships which had taken place in a two-week tournament format since 1930–31, the annual WNCL competition enabled a much greater amount of cricket between the country's state teams in order to better develop players and maximise their chances of achieving success at international level.

1997 World Cup