Brunswick Street Oval

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WT Peterson Community Oval
Brunswick Street Oval
Fitzroy Cricket Ground Grandstand.jpg
Former names Brunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy Cricket Ground
Location Edinburgh Gardens, Brunswick St, North Fitzroy, Victoria
Coordinates 37°47′20.54″S 144°58′51.26″E / 37.7890389°S 144.9809056°E / -37.7890389; 144.9809056
Owner Fitzroy Football Club
Capacity 15 000 (approx.)
Surface Grass
Opened 1883
Closed 1966 (for VFL matches)
Tenants
Fitzroy Football Club (VFL 1883-1966), Fitzroy (VAFA), Fitzroy Junior Football Club, Edinburgh Cricket Club

The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria. The ground was the home of Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football Association from 1883 to 1897, and the home of the club in the Victorian Football League from 1897 until 1966, with the last game being played there on Saturday 20 August 1966 against St Kilda, a game which the Lions lost by 84 points.[1] Fitzroy then began playing its home games at Princes Park.

The venue's original tenants, the Fitzroy Cricket Club, left the venue in 1986 when they merged with the Doncaster Cricket Club.[2] The venue hosted one first-class cricket match, between Victoria and Western Australia in 1925/26.[3]

The ground was unused for Australian rules football for 27 years, before it began to be used by the University Reds football club in the Victorian Amateur Football Association in 1991. In 1997, the Fitzroy Football Club merged with the Brisbane Bears, and the remaining Victorian members of the club began to be based out of the Brunswick St Oval, eventually merging with the University Reds to form the Fitzroy Reds Football Club, which is now based out of the oval.[4] The main grandstand is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.[5]

During the 1975 and 1976 Victorian State League seasons the venue was used by the association football club Heidelberg United (then known as Fitzroy United Alexander),[6] as well as one fixture in the National Soccer League.[7] In the 1980s the venue was used intermittently by several lower league soccer clubs up until 1990.[8] The venue had previously hosted several showpiece soccer matches in the 1910s and 1920s, including Dockerty Cup finals.[9]

Records[edit]

  • VFL games: 612 between 1897 and 1966, including 609 which Fitzroy played in.
  • VFL finals games: 4
  • Highest attendance: 34 765 (Fitzroy vs. Essendon, 11 August 1923)

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/1966/061519660820.html
  2. ^ http://www.fitzroyfc.com.au/local_rites_ch1.htm
  3. ^ "First class matches played on the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, Melbourne (1)". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 8 April 2014. 
  4. ^ http://fitzroyfc.com.au/brunswickstoval.html
  5. ^ "Fitzroy Cricket Ground Grandstand, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0751, Heritage Overlay HO215". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 27 March 2011. 
  6. ^ http://neososmos.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/victorian-state-league-on-fitzroy.html
  7. ^ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/110843758
  8. ^ http://neososmos.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/soccer-at-fitzroy-cricket-ground-from.html
  9. ^ http://neososmos.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/soccer-at-fitzroy-cricket-ground.html
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