Figure 1..--This Austrlaiam school has a uniform of blue short pants and white kneesocks. This school still requires boys to wear dress shirts and ties, rather than increasingly popular casual clothes.

Austalian boys commonly wore short pants from the turn of the Century on. School uniforms through the 1950s, including the short pants, were mostly based on English styles. As in Britain, boys mostly wore grey flannel shorts as part of a school uniform. I do not believe that Australian school shorts and uniforms in general began to differ greatly from England until some years after World War II.

Since the 1950s Australian schools have developed there own school uniform styles. Shorts with the new synthetic fibers appeared. More casual uniform were develoed. Some schools continue to require grey shorts. Some schools had blue shirts. Many schools are dropping uniforms or changing the uniform to casual shorts or long pants. There is now much less emphasis on school uniform in Australia than in previous years.

Many Austrlaian schools have summer at winter uniforms. Many schools have a winter uniform consisting of long pants and a winter uniform wear boys wear short pants.