Aspendale Racecourse or Aspendale Park Racecourse, located at

Aspendale, Victoria Aspendale is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 27 km south-east of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston Local government areas of Victoria, local g ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, was a

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

venue, and the world's first purpose-built

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of two ...

track. Aspendale Racecourse opened on 14 April 1891. It was established by James Robert Crooke, a horse trainer, who named the course after Aspen, one of his best horses, which had won the

Newmarket Handicap The Newmarket Handicap is a Victoria Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred open handicap horse race over a distance of 1200 metres, at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia on Super Saturday in March during the VRC Autumn Racing Carnival. Prize ...

twice, in 1880 and 1881.Aspendale Park Racecourse
at Kingston Historical Website The track was situated east of the current

Aspendale railway station Aspendale railway station is located on the Frankston line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Aspendale, and opened in April 1891 as Aspendale Park Racecourse. It was renamed Aspendale on 1 August 1905.

and is believed to have been one mile (1.6 km) in length. Garden landscaping was designed by

William Guilfoyle William Robert Guilfoyle (8 December 1840 – 25 June 1912) was an English Landscape architecture, landscape gardener and botany, botanist in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, acknowledged as the architect of the Royal Botanic Gardens, ...

, who was the director of the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne. Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across ...

. Crooke was also a motoring enthusiast. In 1904, the

Royal Automobile Club of Victoria The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV) is a motoring club and mutual organisation. It offers various services to members, including insurance and roadside assistance. It has about 30,000 ordinary club members who have access to the li ...

held its first automobile demonstration at Aspendale Racecourse. In 1905, Crooke built a motor raceway, Australia's "first commercial track", inside the existing horse racing track. It was also the world's first purpose-built motor racing circuit, holding its first race meeting in January 1906. The pear-shaped track was close to in length, with slightly banked curves and a surface of crushed cement. Two racing car meetings were held, in January and November 1906, before the circuit fell into disuse. A banked track was constructed in 1923 over the original saucer-shaped track,Racing and Death at Aspendale
at Kingston Historical Website but it had fallen into disuse again by 1930. The circuit was briefly revived after the Depression, but had ceased operating prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The last recorded horse race at Aspendale Park was on 29 July 1931. Motor racing continued until the late 1940s. The area is now residential housing.

References

* {{MelbourneRacing Sports venues completed in 1891 Sports venues in Victoria (Australia) Defunct motorsport venues in Australia 1891 establishments in Australia Defunct horse racing venues in Australia