Brunswick Street Oval

The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria. The ground was the home of Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football Association from 1883 to 1897, and the home of the club in the Victorian Football League from 1897 until 1966, with the last game being played there on Saturday 20 August 1966 against St Kilda, a game which the Lions lost by 84 points.[1] Fitzroy then moved to Princes Park sharing the ground with Carlton Football Club between 1967 and 1969 before playing its home games at the Junction Oval in St Kilda from 1970.

WT Peterson Community Oval
Brunswick Street Oval
Former namesBrunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy Cricket Ground
LocationEdinburgh Gardens, Brunswick St, North Fitzroy, Victoria
Coordinates37°47′20.54″S 144°58′51.26″E
OwnerFitzroy Football Club
Capacity15 000 (approx.)
SurfaceGrass
Opened1883
Closed1966 (for VFL matches)
Tenants
Fitzroy Football Club (VFL 1883-1966), Fitzroy (VAFA), Fitzroy Junior Football Club, Edinburgh Cricket Club

The venue's original tenants, the Fitzroy Cricket Club, left the venue in 1986 when they merged with the Doncaster Cricket Club.[2] The venue hosted one first-class cricket match, between Victoria and Western Australia in 1925/26.[3]

The ground was used for Australian rules football during the late 1970s and 1980s by the Fitzroy Rovers football club in the Western Suburban Football League, before it began to be used by the University Reds football club in the Victorian Amateur Football Association in 1991. In 1997, the Fitzroy Football Club merged with the Brisbane Bears, and the remaining Victorian members of the club began to be based at the Brunswick Street Oval, eventually merging with the University Reds to form the Fitzroy Reds Football Club, which is now based at the oval.[4] The main grandstand is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.[5]

During the 1975 and 1976 Victorian State League seasons, the venue was used by the soccer club Heidelberg United (then known as Fitzroy United Alexander),[6] as well as one fixture in the National Soccer League.[7] In the 1980s the venue was used intermittently by several lower-league soccer clubs up until 1990.[8] The venue had previously hosted several showpiece soccer matches in the 1910s and 1920s, including Dockerty Cup finals.[9]

Records
  • VFA games: 135 between 1883 and 1896, including 122 which Fitzroy played in.
  • VFL games: 612 between 1897 and 1966, including 609 which Fitzroy played in.
  • VFL finals games: 4
  • Highest VFA attendance: 22,500 (Fitzroy vs. Essendon, 17 September 1892)
  • Highest VFL attendance: 36,000 (Fitzroy vs. Collingwood, 6 May 1935)
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References
  1. "AFL Tables - Fitzroy v St Kilda - Sat, 20-Aug-1966 2:20 PM - Match Stats". afltables.com.
  2. "FFC: Local Rites, Chapter 1 - Paul Daffey". fitzroyfc.com.au. Archived from the original on 4 February 2014.
  3. "First class matches played on the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, Melbourne (1)". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  4. "Brunswick Street Oval". fitzroyfc.com.au. Archived from the original on 19 February 2011.
  5. "Fitzroy Cricket Ground Grandstand, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0751, Heritage Overlay HO215". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
  6. Ian Syson. "Neos Osmos". neososmos.blogspot.com.au.
  7. "02 May 1977 - Canberra City draws after bad errors PHILIPS SOC..." nla.gov.au.
  8. Ian Syson. "Neos Osmos". neososmos.blogspot.com.au.
  9. Ian Syson. "Neos Osmos". neososmos.blogspot.com.au.
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