Hank Newman's advertizement promotes Sportfishing, using the chosen reels made by ABU naturally, as early as the 1950's .

Uptake initially was slow here, probably due to numerous reasons, including the tyranny of distance and communications with Europe/USA where the developments and large markets  were generated.

It took visionaries like Vic McCristal and his compatriots, to put the concept of Sportsfishing forward and prove its value in terms of the personal experience gained from light line fishing. In the past some historic "killings" of large numbers of fish by fishermen , ocurred  not out of need to eat all the fish taken, I'm sure.

See here  the 10 best ABU Ambassadeurs of the era!

Competing against nearly 100 products of  eight other manufacturers1

At this time, 1975, 22 different ABU Casting, Spinning , Abumatic, 500 series and Fly reels were being introduced to Aussie fishermen. This was the dream fishing gear of my 22nd year.  The rods were slowly coming and I fell under the spell of these four above. Initially the rods were made of steel (early Records, later solid fibre glass and eventually by the time these were released in the 70's, much more sophisticated, Zoom hollow glass .