How to play fly

‘Fly’ is a game using sticks collected from the ground. It was also called ‘sticks’. It was a game that could easily be played anywhere. As with all games of this nature, there were variations to the rules and in the true spirit of improvisation the game was modified to suit the players and the location.

How to play fly

  1. Children form a small team and collect 7 sticks approximately 30 centimetres long.
  2. The sticks are arranged flat on the ground about 30 centimetres apart.

Seven sticks laying parallel on the ground like a ladder, numbered 1 to 7

  1. The children line up behind the first stick. The last in line is ‘Fly’.
  2. Each child in line runs through the sticks placing one foot between each stick, being careful not to touch any stick. ‘Fly’ – the last child – runs through the sticks then leaps over the last stick as far as he or she can go.
  3. ‘Fly’ then takes one of the sticks and places it where he or she has landed.

Seven sticks laying parallel on the ground. Stick number 6 is laying past stick number 7, leaving a wider gap between sticks 5 and 7

  1. Each child runs through the sticks again and the process is repeated. As the sticks become wider apart a good run-off is needed to be able to leap through the spaces.

Seven sticks laying parallel on the ground. Stick number 4 is laying at the end, leaving wider gaps between sticks 3 and 5, 5 and 7 and 7 and 6.

  1. A child is out if he or she touches a stick, misses a space or puts more than one foot in a space. The spaces between the sticks get progressively larger and the game becomes progressively more difficult to play. If ‘Fly’ gets out the next in line becomes ‘Fly’.

Four sticks on grass laying parallel about 30 centimetres apart. A child stepping through the spaces between the sticks.

Students playing fly with sticks in a playground

Memories of playing fly

Fly was a game that crossed cultures and spanned Australia with both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people having memories of playing the game in their childhoods.

Betty Lockyer, a Nyul Nyul woman born at Beagle Bay Mission in Western Australia in 1942, recounts:

“Fly was a game something like triple jump but played with a number of sticks lying about a foot apart, in a straight line, with the first one placed about a yard away from the rest. It was the anchor and could not be moved at all.

We had to run up to the sticks, stepping between them, careful not to displace any and then jump over the last one. The jump was measured and the last stick moved to that mark.

The sticks in the middle could then be moved and placed at various lengths between the first stick and the last one, which could only be moved by the last jumper. She had to make the jump difficult for the others by staggering the length of the sticks like placing three sticks about a foot apart, the next two about a yard apart and the rest of them about a foot apart again.

As the distance between the sticks got longer, the girls made their long run like a cricket bowler and just flew between the sticks to make their jump, thus the name ‘fly’. If no one could beat the last winning jump, the game was over. You can bet your last two bob that the winner was always challenged the next day.” Lockyer, B. 1980. The Last Truck Out. Magabala Books, 2009, pages 93-94

Note – a ‘foot’ is 30 centimetres, a ‘yard’ is about one metre and ‘two bob’ is two shillings, similar to a 20 cent coin today.