Australia will host the double-gender FIVB Shepparton 1-Star event, to be held from March 4 to 5. It will mark the first time an FIVB international event has been held in Australia since the 2000 Olympic Games were played on beautiful Bondi Beach outside of Sydney.

In the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, USA’s Dain Blanton/Eric Fonoimoana captured the gold medal and for the women Australia’s Natalie Cook/Kerri Pottharst won the gold medal.

 

Overall, Australia has hosted 10 FIVB international events including the 2000 Olympic Games (five men and five women). On the men’s side five tournaments have been held in Australia-three in Sydney and one each in Adelaide and Brisbane. On the women’s side five tournaments have been held in four different cities with Brisbane leading the way with two events. With one women’s event each has been Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

 

Shepparton is a city located on the floodplain of the Goulburn River in northern Victoria, Australia, approximately 181 kilometres (112 mi) north-northeast of Melbourne. In June 2015, the estimated urban population of Shepparton, including Mooroopna, was 49,371.

 

Shepparton began as a sheep station and river crossing in the mid-19th century, before undergoing a major transformation as a railway town. Today it is an agricultural and manufacturing centre, and the centre of the Goulburn Valley irrigation system, one of the largest centers of irrigation in Australia. It is also a major regional service city and the seat of local government and civic administration for the City of Greater Shepparton, which includes the surrounding towns of Tatura, Merrigum, Mooropna, Murchison, Dookie Toolambe and Grahamvale.

 

Shepparton has Victoria's second largest Aboriginal community after Melbourne, making up approximately 10 per cent of the city's population. The concentration of Indigenous Australians is the largest of any Victorian city and is 4 times the national average (2.5 per cent). Shepparton has a large immigrant community, with people from places such as India, Albania, Afghanistan, Iraq, Greece, Italy, Sudan and Macedonia as well as many other places.