The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in

Fitzroy North Fitzroy North is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cites of City of Merri-bek, Merri-bek ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

History

Australian Rules Football

The ground was the home of

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the V ...

in the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

from 1884 to 1896, and in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

from 1897 until 1966, with the last game being played there on Saturday 20 August 1966 against , a game which the Lions lost by 84 points. The Fitzroy Football Club then moved its home games to Princes Park sharing the ground with

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club that competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's top professional competition. Founded in 1864 in Carlton, an inner suburb of Me ...

between 1967 and 1969, while keeping their training and administrative base at the Brunswick Street Oval, before moving its home games and their training and administrative base to the

Junction Oval Junction Oval (also known as the St Kilda Cricket Ground, or the CitiPower Centre due to sponsorship reasons) is a historic sports ground in the suburb of St Kilda in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The oval's location near the St Kilda Jun ...

in St Kilda from 1970. 747 matches at the top level of Victorian senior football - 135 in the VFA and 612 in the VFL - were played at the ground over 83 seasons of competition. The ground was also used for Australian rules football during the late 1970s and 1980s by the Fitzroy Rovers football club in the Western Suburban Football League, before it began to be used by the University Reds football club in the

Victorian Amateur Football Association The Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) is the largest senior community Australian rules football competition in Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It consists of seven senior men's and women's divisions ranging from Premier to Division ...

in 1991. In 1996, the Fitzroy Football Club merged with the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/ ...

, and the remaining Victorian members of the club began to be based at the Brunswick Street Oval, eventually merging with the University Reds to form the Fitzroy Reds Football Club, which is now based at the oval. The main grandstand is listed on the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...

Cricket

The venue's original tenants, the

Fitzroy Cricket Club The Fitzroy Doncaster Cricket Club, nicknamed the Lions, play cricket in the elite club competition of Melbourne, Australia, known as Victorian Premier Cricket. The club was formed by a 1986 amalgamation of Fitzroy Cricket Club, a foundation mem ...

used the venue as its primary home ground from 1872 until it left the venue in 1986, when they merged with the Doncaster Cricket Club. The venue hosted one

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

match, between

and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

in 1925/26. The venue however remains home ground of The Edinburgh Cricket Club which was established in 1978 and is one of the largest cricket clubs in Victoria with 40 junior sides ranging from Under 10 to Under 18

Soccer

During the 1975 and 1976

Victorian State League The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer leagu ...

seasons, the venue was used by the soccer club

Heidelberg United Heidelberg United Alexander Football Club (founded as Alexander the Great-Melbourne Soccer Club) established in 1958 is a football (soccer) club based in the northern Melbourne suburb of Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia. The team currently ...

(then known as ''Fitzroy United Alexander''), as well as one fixture in the National Soccer League. In the 1980s the venue was used intermittently by several lower-league soccer clubs up until 1990. The venue had previously hosted several showpiece soccer matches in the 1910s and 1920s, including

Dockerty Cup The Dockerty Cup is an annual association football knock-out competition open to all Victorian clubs across the Victorian football league system. The tournament is named after the former president of Football Federation Victoria Harry Dockerty. ...

finals, the annual local 'internationals' as well as genuine international matches.

Records

*VFA games: 135 between 1883 and 1896, including 122 which

Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

played in. *VFL games: 612 between 1897 and 1966, including 609 which

played in. *VFL finals games: 4 *Highest VFA attendance: 22,500 (

vs. , 17 September 1892) *Highest VFL attendance: 36,000 (

vs. , 6 May 1935)

References

Austadiums
{{AFL grounds Defunct Australian Football League grounds Defunct Australian rules football grounds Heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne Cricket grounds in Victoria (Australia) Soccer venues in Melbourne Sports venues completed in 1883 Fitzroy, Victoria Sport in the City of Yarra Buildings and structures in the City of Yarra