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

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 ...

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 ...

, Victoria. It is located directly north of 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 ...

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 four Prime Ministers of Australia, more than any other nec ...

and Royal Parade respectively Although the park consists of 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 oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

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 Prince’s Park Carlton Bowls Club

Bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

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

Ikon Park Princes Park (or Carlton Recreation Ground, currently known by its sponsored name Ikon Park) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the wider Princes Park in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. It is a historic venu ...

, the old Prince’s Park Football Ground, the home of the

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 Mel ...

. 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 consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Albert was born in the Saxon duch ...

. It was established at the same time as other existing and iconic parks. The

Capital City Trail __NOTOC__ The Capital City Trail is a shared use path in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, which circles the city centre and some inner eastern and northern suburbs. It is 29km in length, and mostly consists of sections of other trails, such a ...

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 steam era suburban railway line (later electrified) in Melbourne, Australia. It served the inner-northern suburbs of Parkville, Carlton North, Fitzroy North, and Fitzroy. At its closure, it ran from Roy ...

. 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, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typically in January of eac ...

(a popular Australasian

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

) 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 an ...

was unavailable due to redevelopment. The running track around the perimeter of Princes Park is 3.183 kilometres. The track is made of compacted gravel and 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 Chimnoy Prince’s Park Winter Running Festival, Victorian Road Runners Prince’s Park Fun Run, and the Parkville parkrun. In 2018, Australian comedian and actress

Eurydice Dixon Eurydice Jane Dixon (10 November 1995 – 13 June 2018) was an Australian comedian and actress who performed regularly at comedy venues in Melbourne, Victoria. She was found murdered at Melbourne's Princes Park on 13 June 2018; her death was th ...

was murdered by James Todd in the park. Todd is currently serving a life sentence as.

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)