Aerial panorama of Melbourne General Cemetery in Carlton

Princes Park is a 38.6 hectare (95.4 acre) park in the inner-

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

suburb of

Carlton North Carlton North is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, north of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Yarra local government areas. Carlton North recorded a population of 6,177 at ...

, Victoria. It is located directly north of the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

and bounded on its eastern and western sides by

Melbourne General Cemetery The Melbourne General Cemetery is a large (43 hectare) necropolis located north of the city of Melbourne in the suburb of Carlton North. The cemetery is notably the resting place of five Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other ...

and

Royal Parade Royal Parade may refer to: * Royal Parade – street in Melbourne * Royal Parade (patience), an old English patience game {{Disambiguation ...

respectively. Although the park includes a number of

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 Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

ovals, the

bowling green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

of the Princes Park Carlton Bowls Club

Bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

, and a small stretch of parkland, it is best known as the location of

Ikon Park Princes Park (also known as Ikon Park under naming rights) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the Princes Park precinct in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. Officially the Carlton Recreation Ground, it is a hi ...

, the old Princes Park Football Ground, the home of the

Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club, nicknamed the Blues, is a professional Australian rules football club based at Princes Park (stadium), Princes Park in Carlton North, Victoria, Carlton North, an inner suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The c ...

. The park also contains a children's playground; the Within Three Worlds sculpture; a barbecue and picnic facilities. The park's site was originally proclaimed as "Prince's Park" on 9 June 1873 under ''The Land Act 1869'' by the Minister for Lands and Agriculture, J. J. Casey, and its size was expressed at 97 acres. It was named for

Albert, Prince Consort Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband of Queen Victoria. As such, he was consort of the British monarch from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his ...

. It was established at the same time as several other parks. The

Capital City Trail __NOTOC__ The Capital City Trail is a shared use path in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, which circles the Melbourne city centre, city centre and some inner eastern and northern suburbs. It is 29 km in length, and mo ...

passes through the northern section of the park, following the path of the now-closed

Inner Circle railway line The Inner Circle Line was a Locomotive#Steam, steam era suburban Rail transport, railway line (later Railway electrification system, electrified) in Melbourne, Australia. It served the inner-northern suburbs of Parkville, Victoria, Parkv ...

. In January 2006 and 2007

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...

, a popular

music festival A music festival is a festival, community event with music, performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock music, rock, blues, folk music, folk, jazz, classical music), nation ...

, was held at Princes Park on the ovals at the park's southern end. The event's traditional venue, the

Royal Melbourne Showgrounds Melbourne Showgrounds is located in the inner north-western suburb of Ascot Vale, Victoria, Australia, next door to Flemington Racecourse. The largest and most flexible indoor/outdoor venue space in Melbourne the Showgrounds is the home of the ...

was unavailable due to redevelopment. The running track around the perimeter of Princes Park is 3.183 kilometres. The track, made of compacted grave, drains well in wet weather. Aside from general recreational use, the track is used also for running and walking events. Regular events include the Sri Chinmoy Princes Park Winter Running Festival, Victorian Road Runners Princes Park Fun Run, and the Parkville parkrun. In 2018, Australian comedian and actress Eurydice Dixon was murdered by Jaymes Todd in the park. Todd is serving a life sentence for the murder.

References

External links

Satellite photo of Princes Park

Princes Park master plan
(n.d.) {{Coord, -37.7837, 144.9620, type:landmark_source:enwiki-googlemaplink, display=title Parks in Melbourne Buildings and structures in the City of Melbourne (LGA) Sport in the City of Melbourne (LGA)