Manuka Oval has come a long way since it was an open grassy field – Blandfordia Recreation Reserve (an exciting name) – beside Spring Creek in 1924, but today it’s all grown up and sown with turf, celebrating its 100th birthday.
What was supposed to be an interim ground (the Great Depression stopped a “National Oval” being built) has transformed into a much-loved boutique sportsground for every sport imaginable (even cycling, baseball, boxing, wrestling and tennis) and everything in between (sheepdog trials, military events and a 3000+ highland gathering).
Today it’s found its identity in cricket and AFL, hosting sporting greats like Sir Donald Bradman, AFL legend Alex Jesaulenko, Steve Waugh and Allan Border. Manuka Oval’s guests have included English royalty (Queen Elizabeth II caught a PM’s XI cricket match in 1963) and sporting royalty (tennis legend Ken Rosewall played a demonstration match).
About this time last century, Manuka Oval’s very first recorded event was an AFL match between Canberra and Duntroon (Canberra won 7-9-51 to Duntroon’s 3-8-24).
There was no fence so probably many a ball was kicked outside the perimeter. It wasn’t until 1929 that someone realised you couldn’t charge an admission fee without a fence. So in 1929 major works began to grade the open field, have grass sown, a turf pitch laid and a wire mesh fence erected.
The cypress, poplar, oak and elm trees that were planted at the same time still stand today.
It was all a bit quaint in the early days. In 1950 when a touring English rugby league team played NSW at Manuka, someone forgot to appoint a timekeeper and the game looked like going on forever, until darkness fell.
Today’s sporting crowd record stands at 15,807 (PM’s XI v Wet indies in 1985) but the Queen knocked the ball out of the park in 1954 when 16,000 school-children attended Manuka Oval for her visit).
Another non-sporting event that drew a massive crowd was American evangelist Billy Graham, whose Christian crusade drew 10,000 people in 1959. Probably the most obscure event held at Manuka Oval was a display of the Japanese midget submarine in 1942.
These days the grounds only host cricketers and footy players, beneath the towering scoreboard dating back to 1907, which we inherited from Melbourne (just like we inherited their merry-go-round from St Kilda esplanade).
It cost us $110,000 to transport the old scoreboard from the MCG to Manuka Oval – it’s big. The Fingleton Scoreboard (named after Canberra political correspondent and cricketer Jack Fingleton) has three floors, connected by a staircase and a number-changing system with a handle, which drives a bicycle chain around a sprocket that turns over numbers on a fabric roll. No wonder the MCG converted to digital.
Today, our homey little sportsground has come of age – Manuka Oval is the 118th International Test Match Venue and the 11th Test Match Venue in Australia (ACT was the last Aussie capital city to host a Test Match).
Manuka Oval’s tenth curator, Tom Fahey, has the massive task of maintaining the 167.5mx138.2m grounds. He meticulously cares for the couch and rye grass that was just sown last year.
“Caring for the grounds in Canberra does come with its challenges, this is the hardest place to grow grass because of the extreme temperatures in summer and winter,” Tom said. “Add to that La Nina and climate change and it’s a real challenge.”
Canberra’s boutique Manuka Oval is special. Unlike other major sportsgrounds, you can hear the game without the deafening crowd noise. You can even hear nearby church bells. Only the tower of St Christopher’s Cathedral and Red Hill are visible from the cricket pitch. Spectators soak up its charm alongside the original 1930s curators’ cottage (lived in up until about 2013) and the Lord’s Taverners garden. Howzat.
If you’d like to share stories, images or footage of Manuka Oval, visit: https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/manuka-oval-centenary-project#:~:text=Canberra’s%20beloved%20Manuka%20Oval%20celebrates,match%20between%20Canberra%20and%20Duntroon
