Posts Tagged ‘afl’

Lake Oval Grandstand in 2006

Back in 2005 I posted about the plight to preserve the 1927 Lake Oval Grandstand – the Sydney Swans fight to save it and Parks Victoria’s proposals to demolish it.

The grandstand is the only remnant of the former Lake Oval which played a large role in the history of the VFL/AFL national Australian rules football competition, hosting the Grand Final and being the former home of the South Melbourne Swans.   After the Swans left for Sydney, the oval was converted into a soccer venue and only one grandstand was left – the largest one – neglected for decades to crumble and decay.  Even so, the Swans have campaigned the hardest to retain the old SouthMelbourne landmark as part of the club’s history

Well it appears to have finally been offered a lifeline by the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development.  Draft plans for the $50 million redevelopment of Bob Jane Stadium into a multi-purpose athletics and soccer venue include the restoration of the Lake Oval stand.

The 1926 heritage grandstand will be restored under this project and become the new home of the Victorian Institute of Sport. This project will also support the current tenants of Lakeside Oval, the South Melbourne Football Club through improvements to soccer competition and administration facilities.

Plans for the new athletics track (from the DIIRD)

Designs show the old stand’s heritage features (roof and podium) skillfully integrated into the new complex and housing modern corporate boxes and other facilites.

This is not just an excellent outcome for South Melbourne’s heritage and culture, but for sport as well.

Be sure to leave some positive feedback with the major projects department thanking them for retaining the heritage stand.

Full details on the plan are available here:

http://www.diird.vic.gov.au/CORPLIVE/STANDARD/PC_65586.html

Junction Oval and grandstands

The historic St Kilda Cricket Club wants to nominate the Junction Oval to continue its association with the ground well beyond 150 years.  

The grandstands, Blackie-Ironmonger stand and Kevin Murray stand (1934) and scoreboard (1954) are local St Kilda landmarks, while the ground itself, honour boards and memorabilia date back to1855, believed to be the longest continually used facilities by a club in the world.

The cricket club and grounds were the birthplace of sport in St Kilda.

The Junction Oval is also historically important to Australian rules football.  Football began as early as 1858 in St Kilda and involved members of the cricket club.  The St Kilda AFL club can trace its roots back to these early days and was the early home of the club after its official formation in 1873.  The ground has also hosted the 1898, 1899 and 1944 VFL/AFL Grand Finals.

The Robert Heatley Stand at Princes Park is the first victim of the Carlton Football Club’s redevelopment of the ground as a training facility.

The 1932 stand is the largest at the Carlton Oval football and former cricket ground which has also been known as Princess Park and under naming rights Optus and M C Labour Park.

The football club has also proposed the demolition of the George H. Harris stand and the Alderman Gardiner Stand (designed in 1903 and completed in stages between 1909 and 1913), which has a wrought iron structure and iron columns and medallions stamped with the crests of both the football and the cricket clubs. The stand is significant as it is the second oldest stand associated with the VFL before it became a national competition (after the heritage listed 1888 Brunswick Oval stand) and one of the oldest stands (after those at the SCG) in use in the AFL competition. Despite this, in September 2002, the Heritage Council rejected its nomination for the Victorian Heritage Register but recommended it be included in a heritage overlay which would provide some loose protection.

The National Trust called for Melbourne City Council to conduct a heritage study on Princess Park, after which the council created a heritage overlay, but has so far approved the demolition of two other old stands. Carlton does not have any current plans to restore the Gardiner Stand.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=optus+oval&sll=-37.77967,144.970093&sspn=0.034937,0.077248&ie=UTF8&cid=-37783852,144961670,14245373891508279413&s=AARTsJqZIr9fyTuvj_Vgf0pHNKpQcdhqYw&ll=-37.783757,144.961703&spn=0.005088,0.006437&z=16&output=embed&w=300&h=300]

The old Lakeside Oval Grandstand is an impressive Interwar structure. Now tacking off Bob Jane Stadium, home of the South Melbourne Soccer club, the stand was a key part of the history of the South Melbourne Swans VFL team and for that matter the AFL competition, having hosted an early grand final. While Waverley Park’s grandstand and Collingwood’s old ground Victoria Park have been granted heritage status, the great old Lake Oval grandstand has not had such luck.
Councils and Parks Victoria want to demolish the thing. I for one would love to see it restored and retained for future generations.

THE Sydney Swans are desperately trying to save their historic South Melbourne home ground’s grandstand from demolition.

Save the stand: Chris Bracher, Rob Pascoe, Chris Dow and Craig Meade want to save the old South Melbourne grandstand.
Picture: Mark Smith

Supporters are calling on the State Government to make the restoration of the Lake Oval grandstand a priority as they prepare to celebrate a possible Grand Final win at the ground this weekend.

A syndicate, including high-profile Swans officials such as Melbourne manager and former player Tony Morwood and director Rob Pascoe, has been formed to save the stand.

Supporters fear an agreement with Parks Victoria not to demolish the stand could run out at the end of the year and pave the way for bulldozers to move in.

Campaign spokesman Chris Dow said the 79-year-old stand had been left to fall into disrepair by its landlord, Parks Victoria.

A slogan, “It’s Time — Go Bloods”, painted on the side of the building this week, has been the only addition since the club moved to Sydney in 1982.

Mr Dow said the restoration could cost between $4 million and $8 million but the club was willing to negotiate a deal with the Government to help fund it.

“We’re working on a formula that will cost the Government the least amount of money but we just need a commitment from them to say, we’re in and we’re a team,” he said.

Fellow supporter Craig Meade said a proposal to renovate the stand was awaiting government support.

It includes housing the Sydney Swans’ Melbourne office and a museum of the South Melbourne football and cricket clubs, as well as charitable and non-profit organisations from Port Phillip Council and junior sporting organisations.

But Parks Victoria spokesman Alex Holt said the Government was waiting to receive a viable plan to save the stand.

Mr Holt said there was not an “absolute deadline” to determine the future of the stand.

“But if we don’t receive a viable proposal within a reasonable time, all options will be explored,” he said.