# Pickleball in Australia

Pickleball, a paddle sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis, was invented in the United States in 1965, on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Labeled the fastest growing sport in the United States since 2021, the sport is rapidly gaining popularity in Australia.
In September 2024 AusPlay, a report issued by Australia's Clearinghouse for Sport, in coordination with the Australian Sports Commission, found that as of June 2024 over 92,000 Australians had played the sport in the previous year. Trilogy Funds, the title sponsor for the 2024 Australian pickleball championships, declared pickleball as, "Australia's fastest growing sport".

## History

The first time pickleball is known to have been played in Australia was in 2010 in the Sunshine Coast Region of Queensland, but it wasn't until 2015 that the sport started to be taken more seriously. The first purpose-built Australian pickleball courts were installed in 2016, in Caboolture, Queensland, with the first pickleball association, the Pickleball Association of Australia (PAA), formed in 2017. The original Pickleball Association of Australia was renamed the Pickleball Association of Queensland (PAQ) in 2020, when a new Pickleball Association of Australia was formed to act as the national governing body for Australia.
From January 24th to the 26th, at the end of the 2025 Australian Open tennis tournament, the Australian Open (AO) held its first AO Pickleball Slam tournament. One hundred thousand dollars in prize money was awarded to some of Australia's top professional pickleball players.

## Governing body

The Pickleball Australia Association (PAA), a not-for-profit organization, was formed in 2020 to act as a nationwide governing body for pickleball. The PAA held its first Pickleball Australia State Member Strategy Conference in February 2025.
The PAA state members include the following subnational organizations:
* Australia Capital Territory - Pickleball Association of the Australian Capital Territory (PACT)
* New South Wales - Pickleball Association New South Wales (PANSW)
* Queensland - Pickleball Association of Queensland (PAQ)
* South Australia - Pickleball South Australia Association (PSAA)
* Tasmania - Pickleball Association Tasmania (PAT)
* Victoria - Pickleball Victoria (PV)
* Western Australia - Pickleball Association of Western Australia (PAWA)
The following reflects the pickleball-related statistics reported in Pickleball Australia's Annual Reports.
| Report Year | PAA Members | Female Members | Male Members | Avg Member Age | Players Nationwide |
| 2019/2020 | 967 | | | | |
| 2020/2021 | 2,000+ | | | | |
| 2021/2022 | 3,800+ | 57% | 42% | 59 | 12,000+ |
| 2022/2023 | 7,300+ | 55% | 44% | 57 | 25,000+ |
| 2023/2024 | 15,166 | 53.7 | 45.8% | 56 | 92,641 |

## Professional pickleball
### National Pickleball League Australia

The National Pickleball League Australia (NPLA) was established in January 2023, with its inaugural tournament held in July 2023 on the Gold Coast. The NPLA's first full season started in March 2024 with 18 teams across 3 states, each team having 6 players (3 men and 3 women). The competitions consisted of a specialized team format called NPLeague with a total prize of $100,000. The finals for season 1 were held in June 2023 with the Jalapenos of Victoria winning the $50,000 top prize. The Season 2 NPLA finals was won by the Queensland Caterpillars in November 2024.
On October 23, 2024, it was announced that the NPLA would be the exclusive Oceania league and tournament provider for Pickleball World Rankings (PWR). NPLA tournaments will be incorporated into the PWR World Tour where participants can earn points to qualify for the PWR World Series.

### Major League Pickleball Australia

Pacific Pickleball, and the Pacific Pickleball League, were founded by Adam Thompson and Anthony Liveris. In September 2023, shortly after the Pacific Pickleball League was established, the organization worked out a cooperative agreement with Major League Pickleball in the United States, and the Pacific Pickleball League was rebranded Major League Pickleball Australia (MLPA). All games are played following the MLP team format established by the MLP in the United States. Pacific Pickleball continued to operate the Australian Open and Masters pickleball tournaments following the traditional tour format.

### PPA Tour Australia

In February 2024 the Pacific Pickleball organization was itself rebranded as the PPA Tour Australia after reaching an official partnership with the Professional Pickleball Association Tour in the United States.

## Popular culture

In 2024 Australia-owned Moose Toys began selling Pickleball Blast, a table-top game inspired by the sport of pickleball. The two-player children's game requires players to use a hand-held mechanical paddle to hit a plastic pickle back and forth over a net while trying to flip the lids of the opponent's pickle jars.