Australian Championships

First designated championship Nov 1897 in Sydney, organised by the Band Association of NSW, and billed as the "Intercolonial Band Contest" (this being prior to the federation of Australia in 1901) - although this was the second in the <a href="https://brassbandresults.co.uk/contests/INTERCOLONIAL-BAND-CONTEST/">sequence of annual contests of this title</a> (the first being in Nov 1896 in Sydney), it was the first advertised as being for the "Championship of Australia", and the 1896 event is not usually counted as an Australian national championship.

The Australian national contest was in the early years split between NSW and Victoria; the Victorian runnings of the contest were held in Ballarat, and were instances of the <a href="https://brassbandresults.co.uk/contests/ROYAL-SOUTH-STREET-EISTEDDFOD/"> Royal South Street Eisteddfod</a>, a general festival of the arts which was inaugurated in 1879, but only included brass band contests from 1900.

From 1903 the championships were split between NSW and Victoria, with even-numbered years featuring an A Grade contest in NSW and B Grade in Victoria, and odd-numbered years vice versa.

Brass bands up to 1907 included reed instruments; valve trombones were common.

From 1909 until 1919, NSW and Victoria each ran their own National contests in opposition to each other; these are both recorded here in their own labelled sections.

1985: Junior B Grade introduced.
1988: Junior C Grade introduced.