Brunswick Street Oval | |
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 Interactive map of WT Peterson Community Oval | |
| Former names | Brunswick Street Oval, Fitzroy Cricket Ground |
|---|---|
| Location | Edinburgh Gardens,Brunswick Street,Fitzroy North, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°47′20.54″S144°58′51.26″E / 37.7890389°S 144.9809056°E /-37.7890389; 144.9809056 |
| Owner | City of Yarra |
| Capacity | 10,000 (approx.)[1] |
| Surface | Grass |
| Opened | 1883 |
| Closed | 1966 (forVFL matches) |
| Tenants | |
| Fitzroy Football Club (VFL) Administration and training (1883–1970) VFL/AFL (1883–1966) Fitzroy (VAFA) Fitzroy Junior Football Club Fitzroy Cricket Club (1872–1986) Edinburgh Cricket Club | |
TheWT Peterson Community Oval, best known as theBrunswick Street Oval and also as theFitzroy Cricket Ground, is anAustralian rules football andcricket ground located inEdinburgh Gardens inFitzroy North, Victoria, Australia.[2]
The ground is the home of theFitzroy Football Club in theVictorian Amateur Football Association. It was also Fitzroy's home in theVictorian Football Association from 1884 to 1896, and in theVictorian Football League from 1897 until 1966, with the last game being played there on Saturday 20 August 1966 againstSt Kilda, a game which the Lions lost by 84 points.[3][4] The Fitzroy Football Club then moved its home games toPrinces Park, sharing the ground withCarlton Football Club between 1967 and 1969, while keeping their training and administrative base at the Brunswick Street Oval, before moving its home games and their training and administrative base to theJunction Oval in St Kilda from 1970.[5][6][7][8] A total of 747 matches at the top level of Victorian senior football – 135 in the VFA and 612 in the VFL – were played at the ground over 83 seasons of competition.
The ground was also used for Australian 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 theUniversity Reds football club in the Victorian Amateur Football Association in 1991. In 1996, the Fitzroy Football Club were placed into administration, ultimately leaving the AFL at the end of the1996 season. That year the club's AFL license was taken over by theBrisbane Bears, at which point the Bears changed their name to theBrisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (BBFFC or Brisbane Lions). Fitzroy eventually came out of administration in 1998, and merged with the Fitzroy Reds in 2009, to rejoin competitive football within the Victorian Amateur Football Association, and are now based at the oval once again.[9] The main grandstand is listed on theVictorian Heritage Register.[10][11]
The venue's original tenants, theFitzroy Cricket Club, used the venue as its primary home ground from 1872 until it left the venue in 1986, when they merged with the Doncaster Cricket Club.[12][13] The venue hosted onefirst-class cricket match, betweenVictoria andWestern Australia in 1925/26.[14] The venue remains home ground of the Edinburgh Cricket Club which was established in 1978 and is one of the largest cricket clubs in Victoria with 40 junior sides ranging from under 10 to under 18.[15]
During the 1975 and 1976Victorian State League seasons, the venue was used by thesoccer clubHeidelberg United (then known asFitzroy United Alexander),[16] as well as one fixture in theNational Soccer League.[17] In the 1980s the venue was used intermittently by several lower-league soccer clubs up until 1990.[18] The venue had previously hosted several showpiece soccer matches in the 1910s and 1920s, includingDockerty Cup finals, the annual local 'internationals' as well as genuine international matches.[19]