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An Apollonaut travel guide
The ground beneath the roof.
A cricket ground in the Park Lands, a hand-worked scoreboard and a rebuilt stadium offer several ways into the story of Adelaide Oval.
On this page
A ground in the Park Lands
Adelaide Oval stands in the Adelaide Park Lands, the green belt that Colonel William Light laid out round the city centre and North Adelaide in 1837. The ground was leased in 1872, and the first cricket match was played on it on 13 December 1873.
The oval belongs to the people of South Australia and is run on an 80-year lease from the State Government by a joint venture of the South Australian Cricket Association and the South Australian National Football League.
A scoreboard worked by hand
The oval’s scoreboard was designed by the architect F. Kenneth Milne and first used in 1911. It was listed by the National Trust in 1984 and on the South Australian Heritage Register in 1986.
Among the major cricket grounds of Australia and New Zealand, it is the only manual scoreboard still in use, so the numbers are still changed by hand during a match.
New stands and a roof to climb
Redevelopment began in April 2012, and the new Eastern Stand was finished for the 2014 football season. The Riverbank Footbridge across the Torrens now links the oval with the railway station.
This history belongs to the place and the people who shaped it. The History page offers a longer introduction, and the timeline gives a short route through selected milestones.
Read at the source
Sources & further reading
Links lead to the original publishers.
