The East Melbourne Cricket Ground was a grass oval sports venue located at the corner of Wellington Parade and Jolimont Parade, in

East Melbourne, Victoria East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

, Australia.Santo Caruso, Marc Fiddian and Jim Main, ''Football Grounds of Melbourne'' (Melbourne: Pennon Publishing, 2002 . Now part of

Yarra Park Yarra Park (35.469 hectares) is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct, the premier sporting precinct of Victoria, Australia. Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and numerous sporting fields and ovals, in ...

and being adjacent to the

Melbourne Cricket Ground The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as "The 'G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria. Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the largest stadiu ...

, the site is best known for playing host to many sporting events during the city of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

's early existence, consisting mainly of

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 striki ...

and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

, although the ground occasionally hosted

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

matches.

History

The ground was opened in 1860 and closed in 1921. It adjoined the

and was not far from the

Richmond Cricket Ground Punt Road Oval, also known by naming rights sponsorship as the Swinburne Centre, is an Australian rules football ground and former cricket oval located within the Yarra Park precinct of East Melbourne, Victoria, situated a few hundred metres to ...

, all three grounds being sited in the area formerly known as Captain Lonsdale's Cow Paddock, now

Cricket

East Melbourne Cricket Club was the most successful member of the

Victorian Cricket Association Cricket Victoria (CV) is the governing body for the sport of cricket in the Australian state of Victoria. It was formed on 29 September 1875 as the Victorian Cricket Association. It is integrated with the Victorian Women's Cricket Association to ...

(VCA) during the 19th Century and early 20th Century, winning more than half of the VCA's Premierships during that period. The club was formed in 1857 as the Abbotsford Cricket Club but they soon changed their name as part of a putsch to use the East Melbourne ground. The team mainly consisted of Scotch College old boys. Four

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 officiall ...

games were played at the ground in the 1880s, including the

Smokers v Non-Smokers Two first-class cricket matches billed as "Smokers v Non-Smokers" were played during the 1880s. Featuring players from Australia and England, each match occurred during a tour of one of those countries by the other's national team. The first matc ...

match, in which the Non-Smokers made 803, at the time a world record innings score.

Australian rules football

The oval was used for

games during the winter months from 1878. The ground also hosted the first-ever interstate representative football match, on 1 July 1879, between

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 ...

- represented by 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 ...

(VFA) - and

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. The match was attended by more than 10,000 people. It also hosted the first intercollegiate football match in Melbourne, played on 21 July 1881 between teams from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

colleges

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

and Ormond. Tenant football clubs of the ground included: *

East Melbourne Football Club East Melbourne Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). The club was formed as the Clarendon Football Club in 1878 in connection with the cricket club of the same name, before ...

, which used the ground until it disbanded in mid-1882. *

Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their A ...

: despite the ground being away from the suburb of Essendon, the club moved to the ground in

1882 Events January–March * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in ...

after East Melbourne folded, and used it in both the VFA and the VFL until its closure at the end of

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...

. *

North Melbourne Football Club The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed the Kangaroos, is a professional Australian rules football club. The men's team competes in the Australian Football League (AFL), and the women's team in the AFL Women's (AFLW). The Kangaroos also ...

used the ground during the 1897 VFA season due to upgrading works on its usual home ground, the Arden Street Oval. The club also played an 1887 Queen's Birthday match at the ground, and another game there in 1891 as Arden Street was flooded. *

West Melbourne Football Club West Melbourne Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA). Its senior side competed in the VFA from 1878 through 1908, its peak as a club coming after it won the 1906 premiersh ...

moved to the ground for the 1907 VFA season, and disbanded the following year. *

Melbourne University Football Club Melbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University, is an Australian rules football club based at the University of Melbourne. The club fields two teams, known as the "Blacks" and "Blues", who both compete in the Victorian Amat ...

played there from 1908 to 1910 in the VFL; the club left the ground before the 1911 season following a dispute with Essendon over rent. * Melbourne City Football Club used it during its two years in the VFA,

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ...

and

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

; Melbourne City lost all 36 matches it played in those two seasons. The ground hosted 426 senior matches in the recognized top level of Victorian football - 201 matches in the VFA and 225 matches in the VFL/AFL - in 44 seasons of competition. It also held 30 VFA finals between 1903 and 1921. The VFL held one final in the 1897 and 1901 finals series and the 1900 Grand Final at the ground, while the VFA also held the 1896 premiership play-off match at the ground. As a venue for football, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground had an unusual quirk that the field sloped downhill towards the railway end, but was often affected by a strong wind which blew to the pavilion end. The record football crowd at the venue was 36,185 for a VFA match between Essendon and South Melbourne in 1891, the record attendance for a match at that time. The VFL record was 20,181 for the 1900 Grand Final, with the record for a VFL home and away match being 18,000, set twice in

Soccer

Occasionally,

was played at the oval. The best known use for the sport were the interstate representative matches between the colonies of

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in the 1880s. Four matches were played between 1883 and 1887 with three taking place at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground with the other being played at the

South Melbourne Cricket Ground Lakeside Stadium is an Australian sports arena in the South Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. Comprising an athletics track and soccer stadium, it currently serves as the home ground and administrative base for association football club Sout ...

that ended in a nil-all draw.

Lacrosse

The ground was occasionally used as a venue for

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

, and hosted Victoria's first intercolonial lacrosse match on 1 September 1888, against

(the first intercolonial match in Australia was played between

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and

a year earlier). The match was not largely attended, due in part to the cold and showery weather on the day, with Victoria winning the match by 5 goals to 1.

Closure

After the 1921 football season, the ground was closed and then demolished to make way for an extension of the

Jolimont Yard Jolimont Yard was an array of railway lines and carriage sidings on the edge of the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. Located between Flinders Street station, Richmond Junction, the Yarra River and Flinders Street they were of ...

railway sidings. The East Melbourne Cricket Club subsequently amalgamated with the Hawthorn Cricket Club to form the

Hawthorn-East Melbourne Cricket Club The Kingston Hawthorn Cricket Club is an Australian cricket club based at Walter Galt Reserve, situated in Parkdale, Victoria. They play in Victorian Premier Cricket, the highest competition in the state. History The club was originally known ...

, and moved to Hawthorn's

Glenferrie Oval Glenferrie Oval is an Australian rules football stadium located in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the historic home of, and is synonymous with, the Hawthorn Football Club, who played there from 1903 and as a VFL/AFL ...

. One of the wooden stands was moved from East Melbourne to Glenferrie Oval, where it stood until 1965, when it was replaced by the Dr A.S. Ferguson Stand. After the Essendon Football Club lost the use of the ground, it moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve. It had initially tried to move to the

North Melbourne Recreation Reserve Arden Street Oval (also known as North Melbourne Cricket Ground) is a sports oval in North Melbourne, Victoria, North Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It is currently the training base of the North Melbourne Football Club, an Australia ...

, resulting in a major off-field political struggle between the Essendon Association and Football Clubs, the VFL and the VFA. The former site of the ground has now been taken over by a housing estate, a feature of which is a semi-circular housing block with a tower obviously designed to look like an ersatz football pavilion. The oval is now a park.

References

{{University Football Club Sports venues in Melbourne Defunct Australian Football League grounds Defunct cricket grounds in Australia Defunct soccer venues in Australia Cricket grounds in Victoria (Australia) Sports venues completed in 1860 Melbourne Cricket Ground Sports venues demolished in 1922 1860 establishments in Australia 1922 disestablishments in Australia East Melbourne, Victoria