Australia’s major sporting venues have contributed to our impressive international reputation as a nation that hosts, participates in and supports an impressive number of sporting events. As well as being physical symbols for sports, stadiums are often and increasingly bold architectural statements, incorporating state-of-the-art technology and becoming multi-purpose, with many also hosting music concerts and other cultural events.
AAMI Park was welcomed to Melbourne & Olympic Parks’ precinct in May 2010, giving Victoria its first world-class pitch for elite-level rugby league, rugby union and football (soccer) codes. It is one in the suite of venues across the internationally renowned precinct, which together deliver an array of sporting and entertainment events to more than 2.5 million visitors annually. The stadium is home to several sporting teams, including the Melbourne Storm, Melbourne Rebels, Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Football Club. The award-winning 30,050-seat stadium is defined by its distinctive bio-frame design, the roof of which provides covered seating for most of a capacity crowd enjoying the spectacle on the 136 x 82 metre playing field below.
The stamp photograph is by Ethan Rohloff.
State-government-owned Optus Stadium was opened on Burswood Peninsula, Perth, in January 2018, and in its first 12 months of operation attracted more than 1.7 million fans. Located alongside the picturesque Swan River, the stadium, with its striking bronze facade, reflects Western Australia’s unique geology and is surrounded by landscaped parklands inspired by the Indigenous six seasons. The new 60,000-seat stadium is the third largest in Australia (after Melbourne’s MCG and Sydney’s Stadium Australia), with a roof that provides coverage for 85 per cent of its permanent seating. It is capable of hosting AFL, rugby union, rugby league, football (soccer) and cricket, as well as large entertainment events. From fence to fence the pitch covers 177 x 141 metres, with 165 x 130 metres for the AFL field of play, and the venue contains two of the largest viewing screens in the Southern Hemisphere.
The stamp photograph is courtesy of Optus Stadium.
Located at Moore Park, on the edge of the CBD, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) has a long and venerable history, the roots of which stretch back to the mid-19th century. The first recorded game of cricket was played on the site (then known as the Garrison Ground) in 1854, and all major cricket matches have been since 1876, although the ground’s current name was not adopted until 1894. The magnificent two-level Members Pavilion (shown in the stamp design) was built in 1886 (extended in 1903), and the equally elegant Ladies Pavilion a decade later, in 1896, both of which are heritage listed. Today, the SCG, which is known as a spin-friendly ground, is used for Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket. But it also regularly hosts AFL, rugby league and union, and football (soccer) on its 155 x 136-metre arena.
The stamp photograph is by Hamilton Lund, courtesy of Sydney Cricket Ground.
Originally built in 1853, the MCG has a rich sporting history, including being the main venue for the first Olympic Games held in the Southern Hemisphere, in 1956, a centrepiece for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and host to two cricket World Cups, in 1992 and 2015. Such is its place in sporting history that it is listed on both state and federal heritage registers for its significance. The MCG is primarily a ground for AFL and cricket, with the annual Boxing Day Test matches being among its most popular events, though at times it hosts other football codes too. Over its life, the MCG has been redeveloped several times and it can now hold a capacity crowd of 100,024, with seating for 95,000.
Completed in 1988, and located at Melbourne Park, just east of Melbourne’s CBD, Rod Laver Arena was built as a focal point of national tennis and the new location of the Australian Open (which had been played at Kooyong since 1972). Its centre court seats almost 15,000 spectators, who can marvel at its retractable roof. In 2000, the venue (previously known as the National Tennis Centre at Flinders Park) was renamed Rod Laver Arena in honour of one of Australia’s most successful and internationally renowned tennis players. Completed in 2019, its most recent renovation comprises a new eastern entrance, featuring new dining and corporate spaces, along with increased player and spectator amenities.
Located on the banks of the Torrens River, right near the city centre, Adelaide Oval was established in 1871, following the formation of the South Australian Cricket Association. The impressive and historic venue hosts international and domestic cricket and AFL football, as well as other sports, concerts, functions and major events. The venue’s recent major redevelopment, completed in 2014, transformed it into a world-class sports facility, while retaining its key historical aspects, such as its celebrated hill, grand Morton Bay figs, and scoreboard. Adelaide Oval’s three new grandstands – above which “float” sequences of shell-like roofs – can together hold a seated capacity crowd of more than 50,000 spectators, with space enough for another 3,000 fans on the grassy slopes of the hill.
Named in honour of Australia’s former track cycling champion, the Anna Meares Velodrome was purpose-built for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Opened in 2016, it comprises part of Brisbane’s Sleeman Sports Complex, located 15 kilometres from Brisbane’s CBD, in Chandler. The building has a large saddle-form roof over the 10,000-square-metre interior. Its walls and roof are clad with a combination of translucent and opaque tensioned membrane fabric. The track is a 250-metre circuit, with a steepest gradient at an angle of 43.9 degrees, and is recognised as a “wide track”, so well suited to team pursuit events. As Queensland’s first indoor velodrome, it is the key site for track cycling events in the state. It has fixed seating for 1,500, which can be supplemented, as it was for the Commonwealth Games, to accommodate a crowd of 3,900.
Opened in 1994 and located at Homebush, Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre was a key part of Sydney’s successful bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games. Then president of the International Olympic Committee Juan-Antonio Samaranch claimed it was “the best swimming pool I have seen in my life”. The centre combines competition with leisure facilities, comprising a 50-metre swimming pool, a diving pool, and utilities and leisure pools. When constructed, the main competition pool had equal of seating on either side, accommodating 4,500 spectators overall. For the Olympics, the seating on one side pool was dramatically increased to accommodate a capacity crowd of 17,000; the seating was later reduced for a crowd of 10,000.
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