Logan Park is a sporting venue in the city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, New Zealand. It lies on land reclaimed from the former Lake Logan.

Features

The park contains both

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and rugby grass and artificial pitches, known as both Dunedin Artificial Turf and Logan Park Turf, two artificial hockey turfs,

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

green, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

courts, and part of the park is now occupied by two stadia, the University Oval stadium, home of the University of Otago Rugby Football Club and Otago Cricket, and the Caledonian Ground, which is an athletics venue and also the city's main soccer venue. A multi-purpose stadium, the Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza, is located close to the southern end of the park. The park is located at the northeastern extremity of the Water of Leith's plain. The northern and eastern sides of the park are bounded by forested hills, part of the foot of Signal Hill. A small tributary of the Leith, the Opoho Creek, flows along Logan Park's eastern perimeter, between the park and Logan Point quarry and Logan Park High School. The

Otago Polytechnic Otago Polytechnic is a public Education in New Zealand#Tertiary education, New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with additional campuses in Cromwell, New Zealand, Cromwell and Auckland. Otago Polytechnic provides career-f ...

campus lies alongside to the western boundary of the park, and the southern edge is bordered by the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

's College of Education and the Forsyth Barr Stadium.

History

Lake Logan was reclaimed in the early 20th century. Originally an inlet of the Otago Harbour called Pelichet Bay, it frequently silted up, especially after a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet T ...

was built to allow for the South Island Main Trunk Railway between Dunedin and

Port Chalmers Port Chalmers () is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre. History Early Māori settlement The or ...

. Reclamation began in 1913 and continued after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, at which time the area was linked with the central city by a tree-lined boulevard, Anzac Avenue, leading straight to Anzac Square and the Dunedin Railway Station. The reclaimed land was turned into a park and was used as the site of the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition. For many years the Dunedin Public Art Gallery stood in one of the buildings constructed for that exhibition. This building and the Otago Lawn Tennis Association building (formerly the aquarium) are all that remains of the exhibition buildings. Shortly after the exhibition the reclaimed land was converted into playing fields and now goes by the name of Logan Park. The park's location close to the city's two tertiary institutions (Otago Polytechnic and the

— especially its Dunedin College of Education) and one of the city's larger high schools makes it an important and heavily used venue. The building of the Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza led to traffic being diverted from Anzac Avenue (by that time part of SH 88. The main vehicular access to Logan Park is from the streets surrounding the Polytechnic and College of Education, and via a feeder road from the realigned SH 88, which skirts the harbour side of the Forsyth Barr Stadium on its path from Dunedin to

. The new artificial field known as 'Logan Park Turf', was officially opened by Columbia international Juan Pablo Ángel in November 2019.

References

*Herd, J. & Griffiths, G. J. (1980). ''Discovering Dunedin''. Dunedin: John McIndoe.
History of Dunedin City Council
{{coord, -45.864, 170.525, display=title 1920 establishments in New Zealand Sports venues in Dunedin World's fair sites in New Zealand Former lakes of Otago Cricket grounds in New Zealand Parks in Dunedin Association football venues in New Zealand Land reclamation in New Zealand

Features

History

See also

References