Grassroots sport quango Sport England has signed a three-year deal to allow an Australian health promotion foundation to adopt its This Girl Can campaign.

VicHealth, which aims to improve the health of residents in the state of Victoria, will launch a television ad campaign in 2018, telling the stories of local women getting active.

There will also be online advertising, posters, radio ads and social media.

According to research carried out by VicHealth, 41 per cent of Victorian women aged over 25 have been “too embarrassed” to exercise in public. Almost half said they found sports clubs “intimidating”.

Three in five Australian women take part in less than 30 minutes of physical activity every week, and VicHealth chief executive Jerril Rechter said she wanted the campaign to “inspire women to smash old-fashioned stereotypes”.

“We’ll be celebrating active Victorian women who are doing their thing no matter how they look, how well they do it, or how sweaty they get,” she added.

Jennie Price, chief executive of Sport England, said she wanted to take This Girl Can “international”.

This girl can has “inspired” 2.8m women to get active in England, and Price added: “Using the insight we have gained over the last two years from women across England, we want to take This Girl Can international, with the ultimate goal being that girls will grow up in a world where there is no fear of being active.”