Fremantle Oval, also known by

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of ...

sponsorship as Fremantle Community Bank Oval, is a

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the centre of Fremantle,

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 t ...

, located on Parry Street. It currently has a capacity of 17,500 with terracing and a members area holding 750, though capacity was capped at 10,000 for Fremantle

AFLW AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

games. Fremantle Oval was originally used for

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 st ...

, but in 1895 hosted its first game 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 ...

and Australian Football quickly became the main attraction leading to the development of the ground. It is located between the

Fremantle Hospital Fremantle Hospital is an Australian public hospital situated on South Terrace in central Fremantle, southwest of Perth, Western Australia. It was formerly the major hospital in its region; however, with the opening of Fiona Stanley Hospital ...

Fremantle Markets The Fremantle Markets is a public market located on the corner of South Terrace and Henderson Street, Fremantle, Western Australia. Built in 1897, it houses over 150 shops for craftspeople, fashion designers, and merchants in the historic Hal ...

and the Fremantle Prison. South Fremantle Football Club train and play their home WAFL matches at the ground and are one of the few sporting organisations in Western Australia to own their club rooms freehold, rather than on a long-term lease. Additionally, the oval is the primary home ground of the Fremantle Dockers women's team. The ground was also the training and administrative home of the Fremantle Football Club until February 2017. the ground has also hosted pre-season matches featuring Fremantle.

History

Originally known as Barracks Green Field, the area was used by the

Pensioner Guards The Pensioner Guards were English military personnel who served on convict transportation ships en route to the Swan River Colony between 1850 and 1868, and were given employment and grants of land on arrival. Their initial employment lasted for ...

who were used primarily as guards for Fremantle Prison which house convict and ticket of leave prisoners. In 1861 Manning raised a Volunteer defence force, who used the ground for manoeuvers, parades with volunteer bands providing entertainment. As Australian Rules Football developed in the late 19th century the ground became the base for the Fremantle Football Club and hosted many early WAFL as well as interstate games. Facilities remained relatively basic until 1897 when the Victoria Pavilion was built. The large stately structure provided seating for 500 people as well as club rooms located in the basement. By 1901 South Fremantle Football Club and

East Fremantle Football Club The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is East Fremantle Oval. East Fremantle are the ...

were established as regular cotenants of Fremantle Oval. The oval also hosted Fremantle Cricket Club and a cycling track that was in regular use throughout the year. In March 1907 Western Australia hosted New South Wales in the oval's only recorded first-class cricket match. New South Wales had three players (

Warren Bardsley Warren "Curly" Bardsley (6 December 1882 – 20 January 1954) was an Australian Test cricketer. An opening batsman, Bardsley played 41 Tests between 1909 and 1926 and over 200 first-class games for New South Wales. He was Wisden's Cricketer of ...

, Charles Macartney, and

Roy Minnett Roy Baldwin Minnett (13 June 1886 – 21 October 1955) was an Australian cricketer who played in nine Test matches from December 1911 to August 1912. He became a medical practitioner. Life and career Minnett was born in Sydney and attended Syd ...

) who had represented Australia in Test cricket whilst Western Australia had one ( Ernie Jones). Western Australia won by 5 runs. East Fremantle Football Club vacated the ground in 1950, moving to new premises, located at Moss Street in

East Fremantle East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

. In 1954 the oval was used for a ceremonial parade as part of Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to Fremantle. The Cycling Track and Cricket Pitch were removed in the 1960s due to the increasing demands of WAFL football. The ground remained relatively unchanged until 1968 when the South Fremantle Football Club acquired a portion of land freehold at the hospital end of the ground for the construction of social club, members pavilion and players changerooms. Further improvements were made to the ground with the growing demands of larger WAFL crowds in the 1960s and 1970s. These included a shelter behind the goals at the prison end of the ground and a large one at the hospital end of the ground named the Doig Pavilion. A three level press box was constructed adjacent to the Victoria Pavilion. The eastern outer area of the ground was also fully terraced with concrete kerbing so as to allow for greater crowd capacity. The late 1970s witnessed a peak in crowd attendance at Fremantle Oval with over 23,000 people attending the Foundation Day Derby in 1979. Large crowds continued to flock to the ground into the early 1980s with the WAFL proving to be the most popular spectator sport in the State. From 1980 to 1985 the oval hosted Motorcross racing during the summer. Noise complaints from nearby Fremantle Hospital and the availability of more suitable venues lead to the racing moving. In 1986 the ground underwent its most dramatic structural change with the works related to the Parry Street extension, demolishing the historic Henderson Street and South Terrace entrance gates as well reducing the capacity of the ground on the western side. New entrance gates were built on Parry Street, however the South Terrace gates were never replaced. In 1987, the entry of the West Coast Eagles into the expanded VFL competition lead to a dramatic decline in WAFL attendances. In 1995 this was compounded by the entry of the Fremantle Dockers into the AFL. Attendances dropped from an average of 8000 in the early 1980s to 3000 in the early 90s and 2000 in 1999.

Fremantle Football Club

The Fremantle Football Club established their original training and administration base at the oval in 1995, when they were formed as a new club in the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

league that joined the league for their inaugural year in the 1995 season and in 1999, the club constructed a new training facility. This required the demolition of the Doig Pavilion and the levelling of the historic hospital end hill area that had once been one of the most popular positions for the general public to watch football matches from. In February 2017, the Fremantle Football Club moved their primary training and administration base to

Cockburn ARC Cockburn ARC is an aquatic and recreation centre located in the southern Perth suburb of Cockburn Central. The facility also contains the administrative and training headquarters of professional Australian Football League club the Fremantle Fo ...

. In 2017, the Dockers AFLW team began playing most home games at the oval. The oval still continues to host WAFL matches as well as AFL pre season games. It is also used a venue for conferences, rock concerts (including the Big Day Out) and exhibitions.

Record crowd

23,109, when South Fremantle beat East Fremantle on 4 June 1979.

Gallery

Image:FrontWall_FremantleOval_2005_SMC.jpg, Fremantle Oval Image:SFFC_members stand.JPG, South Fremantle FC Members Stand Image:FremantleOvalStadium in 2010.jpg, Victoria Pavilion from outside oval Image:Fremantle Oval4.jpg, Fremantle Oval in 2016 Image:Fremantle Oval3.jpg, Fremantle Oval in 2016 Image:Fremantle Oval - panoramio - Ché Lydia Xyang.jpg, Panorama

References

External links