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78-689: Yarra Park (35.469 hectares) is a public park that is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct , a sporting precinct in Victoria, Australia . Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and numerous sporting fields and ovals, including the associated sporting complexes of Melbourne and Olympic Parks. The park and sporting facilities are located in the inner-suburb of East Melbourne . In

156-451: A 10-minute walk , provides multiple benefits. A park is an area of open space provided for recreational use, usually owned and maintained by a local government. Grass is typically kept short to discourage insect pests and to allow for the enjoyment of picnics and sporting activities. Trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide shade , with an increasing emphasis on reducing an urban heat island effect. Some early parks include

234-494: A $ 55 million refurbishment of the facilities in the Great Southern Stand, including renovations to entrance gates and ticket outlets, food and beverage outlets, etc., without significantly modifying the stand. New scoreboards, more than twice the size of the original ones, were installed in the same positions in late 2013. From November 2019 until February 2020 all the playing field lights, including those in

312-509: A corridor of land running diagonally across Yarra Park was granted to the Melbourne & Hobson's Bay Railway Company and divided Yarra Park from the river. The Mounted Police barracks were operational until the 1880s when it was subdivided into the current residential precinct bordered by Vale Street. The area closest to the river was also developed for sporting purposes in later years including Olympic venues in 1956. The first grandstand at

390-595: A crowd of more than 3000 people. The team was taken on a parade through the streets wearing white-trimmed hats with blue ribbons given to them for the occasion. Wherever they went they were mobbed and cheered by crowds to the point where the tour sponsors had to take them out of Melbourne so that they could train undisturbed. Their first game was at the MCG on New Year's Day 1862, against a Victorian XVIII. The Englishmen also wore coloured sashes around their waists to identify each player and were presented with hats to shade them from

468-580: A new set of drop-in pitches will be grown and ready for use by the early 2020s. The highest first class team score in history was posted at the MCG in the Boxing Day match against New South Wales in 1926–27. Victoria scored 1107 in two days, with Bill Ponsford scoring 352 and Jack Ryder scoring 295. One of the most sensational incidents in Test cricket occurred at the MCG during the Melbourne test of

546-571: A single unbroken stand, the individual sections retain the names of W.H. Ponsford, Olympic and Members Stands. The redevelopment cost exceeded A$ 400 million and pushed the ground's capacity to just above 100,000. Since redevelopment, the highest attendance has been 100,024 at the 2022 and 2023 AFL grand finals. From 2011 until 2013, the Victoria State Government and the Melbourne Cricket Club funded

624-548: A superb bowling performance by Tom Kendall who took 7 for 55 in England's second innings. A fortnight later there was a return game, although it was really more of a benefit for the English team. Australia included Spofforth, Murdoch and T.J.D. Cooper in the side but this time the honours went to England who won by four wickets. Two years later Lord Harris brought another England team out and during England's first innings in

702-482: A telephone was installed at the ground, and the wickets and goal posts were changed from an east–west orientation to north–south. In 1882 a scoreboard was built which showed details of the batsman's name and how he was dismissed. When the Lillywhite tour stand burned down in 1884 it was replaced by a new stand which seated 450 members and 4500 public. In 1897, second-storey wings were added to 'The Grandstand', as it

780-693: Is a sports stadium located in Yarra Park , Melbourne , Victoria . Founded and managed by the Melbourne Cricket Club , it is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere, the 11th largest globally , and the second-largest cricket arena by capacity . The MCG is within walking distance of the Melbourne CBD and is served by Richmond and Jolimont railway stations, as well as the route 70 , 75 and 48 trams. It

858-417: Is adjacent to Melbourne Park and is an integral part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct . Since it was built in 1853, the MCG has undergone numerous renovations. It served as the main stadium for the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games , as well as hosting two Cricket World Cups finals : 1992 and 2015 . Noted for its role in the development of international cricket,

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936-611: Is built atop a Wurundjeri camping ground and site of numerous corroborees . Founded in November 1838 the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) selected the current MCG site in 1853 after previously playing at several grounds around Melbourne. The club's first game was against a military team at the Old Mint site, at the corner of William and La Trobe Streets. Burial Hill (now Flagstaff Gardens ) became its home ground in January 1839, but

1014-502: Is known as the Boxing Day Test . The venue also hosts one-day international matches each year, and Twenty20 international matches most years. No other venue in Melbourne has hosted a Test, and Docklands Stadium is the only other venue to have hosted a limited-overs international. The Victorian first-class team plays Sheffield Shield cricket at the venue during the season. Prior to Test cricket being played on Boxing Day, it

1092-500: The 1992 Cricket World Cup , at a final cost of $ 150 million by John Holland . It was renamed the Shane Warne Stand after Victorian bowler Shane Warne in 2022 shortly after his death. The 1928 Members' stand, the 1956 Olympic stand and the 1968 W.H. Ponsford stand were demolished one by one between late 2003 to 2005 and replaced with a new structure in time for the 2006 Commonwealth Games . Despite now standing as

1170-601: The Australian Sports Museum , the MCG has hosted other major sporting events, including international rules football matches between Australia and Ireland , international rugby union matches, State of Origin ( rugby league ) games, and FIFA World Cup qualifiers . Concerts and other cultural events are also held at the venue with the record attendance standing at 143,750 for a Billy Graham evangelistic crusade in 1959. Grandstand redevelopments and occupational health and safety legislation have limited

1248-668: The Kulin nation . The adjacent Punt Road Oval , home of the Richmond Football Club features a statue of Tiger legend Jack Dyer . In 1856, Victorian Governor Charles La Trobe proclaimed 81 hectares of parkland, extending from Punt Road to Swanston Street , and from Wellington Parade to the Yarra River . Initially, the area was also used as police paddocks for the agistment of police horses. The earliest recorded matches of Australian rules football were played at

1326-562: The La Alameda de Hércules , in Seville , a promenaded public mall, urban garden and park built in 1574, within the historic center of Seville. The Városliget ( City Park ) in the City of Pest , what is today Budapest, Hungary , was a city property when afforestation started in the middle of the 18th century, from the 1790s with the clear aim to create a public park. Between 1799 and 1805 it

1404-623: The Village of Yorkville Park in Toronto , which won an award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Parks are sometimes made out of oddly shaped areas of land, much like the vacant lots that often become city neighborhood parks. Linked parks may form a greenbelt . There is a form of an urban park in the UK (officially called a "recreation ground", but commonly called a "rec" by

1482-520: The Women's Big Bash League (WBBL). By the 1980s, the integral MCG pitch – grown from Merri Creek black soil – was considered the worst in Australia, in some matches exhibiting wildly inconsistent bounce which could see balls pass through as grubbers or rear dangerously high – a phenomenon which was put down to damage caused by footballers in winter and increased use for cricket during the summers of

1560-619: The Yarra River Trail . Around the MCG are sculptures of Australian sporting heroes including: Australian rules footballers Ron Barassi and Dick Reynolds ; cricketers Donald Bradman and Keith Miller ; and athlete Betty Cuthbert . Nearby is an old eucalyptus scar tree which shows a big scar caused by harvesting of bark for a canoe by the original inhabitants of the Yarra River Valley, the Wurundjeri people of

1638-517: The 15 years after 1897 the grandstand capacity at the ground increased to nearly 20,000, while the full ground capacity was almost 60,000. In 1927, the second brick members' stand was replaced at a cost of £60,000. The Harrison and Wardill Stands were demolished to make way for the Southern Stand which was opened at the end of 1936. The Southern Stand, which spanned almost half of the field's circumference, seated 18,200 under cover and 13,000 in

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1716-673: The 1860s five recreational ovals were marked out: the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Richmond Cricket Ground, East Melbourne Cricket Club ovals (two), and an oval in Gosch's Paddock, south of Swan Street. In the southern section of the park land was set aside for the Friendly Society 's Gardens (now Olympic Park), and the Scotch College oval. In 1874 Yarra Park Primary School was opened in the north east corner of

1794-449: The 1970s. The integral pitch has since been removed and drop-in pitches have been cultivated and used since 1996, generally offering consistent bounce and a fair balance between bat and ball. The decade-and-a-half-old pitches degraded again through the late 2010s, seeing the pitch receive the first official International Cricket Council 'poor' rating by an Australian pitch in 2017, and saw another Sheffield Shield match abandoned in 2019;

1872-794: The Government Introduced the 'Melbourne Cricket Ground and Yarra Park Amendment Bill'. Sports Minister James Merlino told Parliament ‘The main focus of the bill, is to transfer responsibility for Yarra Park from the City of Melbourne to the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust.’ The site is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register . Since 2013, The Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL) uses

1950-502: The MCG hosted both the first Test match and the first One Day International , played between Australia and England in 1877 and 1971, respectively. It has also maintained strong ties with Australian rules football since its codification in 1859, and has become the principal venue for Australian Football League (AFL) matches, including the AFL Grand Final , the world's highest attended league championship event . Home to

2028-534: The MCG hosted the world's first Test match. In 1881, the original members' stand was sold to the Richmond Cricket Club for £55. A new brick stand, considered at the time to be the world's finest cricket facility, was built in its place. The foundation stone was laid by Prince George of Wales and Prince Albert Victor on 4 July and the stand opened in December that year. It was also in 1881 that

2106-652: The MCG improved but the ever-ambitious Melburnians were always on the lookout for more than the usual diet of club and inter-colonial games. In 1861, Felix William Spiers and Christopher Pond, the proprietors of the Cafe de Paris in Bourke Street and caterers to the MCC, sent their agent, W.B. Mallam, to England to arrange for a cricket team to visit Australia. Mallam found a team and, captained by Heathfield Stephenson, it arrived in Australia on Christmas Eve 1861 to be met by

2184-402: The MCG was the original wooden members' stand built in 1854, while the first public grandstand was a 200-metre long 6000-seat temporary structure built in 1861. Another grandstand seating 2000, facing one way to the cricket ground and the other way to the park where football was played, was built in 1876 for the 1877 visit of James Lillywhite 's English cricket team. It was during this tour that

2262-470: The Melbourne Cricket Club about paying £175 for damages to the MCG despite a prior arrangement to do so. The last match of the tour was against a Victorian XXII at the MCG after which the English team planted an elm tree outside the ground. Following the success of this tour, a number of other English teams also visited in subsequent years. George Parr's side came out in 1863–64 and there were two tours by sides led by William Gilbert Grace . The fourth tour

2340-514: The Melbourne Cricket Ground has hosted one Test match each summer. Until 1979, the ground almost always hosted its match or one of its matches over the New Year, with the first day's play falling somewhere between 29 December and 1 January; in most years since 1980 and every year since 1995, its test has begun on Boxing Day, and it is now a standard fixture in the Australian cricket calendar and

2418-690: The Olympic stand. In 1985, light towers were installed at the ground, allowing for night football and day-night cricket games. During the 1980s, the Olympic Stand had corporate suites installed which led to the reduction of seating and standing capacity in the stand, the Ponsford Stand had seats installed on the ground level replacing the standing room and both the Southern Stand and Olympic Stand had their wooden bench seats removed and replaced with plastic bucket seats. In 1988, inspections of

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2496-485: The Richmond Paddock in 1858. The Argus wrote the following year: "Football, like cricket , has become an institution ... expect to see every available portion of Richmond Paddock, and other 'lungs of the city', dotted by animated groups in full pursuit of the leathern spheroid." It remained an important site for the sport until the MCG and other cricket grounds were opened for football in the late 1870s. By

2574-474: The Test at the MCG, Fred Spofforth took the first hat-trick in Test cricket. He bagged two hauls of 6 for 48 and 7 for 62 in Australia's ten wicket win. Through most of the 20th century, the Melbourne Cricket Ground was one of the two major Test venues in Australia (along with the Sydney Cricket Ground ), and it would host one or two Tests in each summer in which Tests were played; since 1982,

2652-602: The UK, with around 2.6 billion visits to parks each year. Many parks are of cultural and historical interest, with 300 registered by Historic England as of national importance. Most public parks have been provided and run by local authorities over the past hundred and seventy years, but these authorities have no statutory duty to fund or maintain these public parks. In 2016 the Heritage Lottery Fund 's State of UK Public Parks reported that "92 per cent of park managers report their maintenance budgets have reduced in

2730-522: The United States and the world, though cow grazing did not end until the 1830s. Around the country, the predecessors to urban parks in the United States were generally rural cemeteries . The cemeteries were intended as civic institutions designed for public use. Before the widespread development of public parks, the rural cemetery provided a place for the general public to enjoy outdoor recreation amidst art and sculpture previously available only for

2808-842: The United States are Central Park in New York, Lincoln Park in Chicago, Mission Bay Park in San Diego. In the early 1900s, according to Cranz, U.S. cities built neighborhood parks with swimming pools, playgrounds and civic buildings, with the intention of Americanizing the immigrant residents. In the 1950s, when money became available after World War II , new parks continued to focus on both outdoor and indoor recreation with services, such as sports leagues using their ball fields and gymnasia. These smaller parks were built in residential neighborhoods, and tried to serve all residents with programs for seniors, adults, teens and children. Green space

2886-588: The Victorians had included two professionals in the 1853 team upsetting the Tasmanians and causing a cooling of relations between the two colonies. To replace the disgruntled Tasmanians the Melbourne Cricket Club issued a challenge to play any team in the colonies for £ 1000. Sydney publican William Tunks accepted the challenge on behalf of New South Wales although the Victorians were criticised for playing for money. Ethics aside, New South Wales could not afford

2964-683: The Yarra River. By 1853 it had become a busy promenade for Melbourne residents. An MCC sub-committee chose the Richmond Park option because it was level enough for cricket but sloped enough to prevent inundation. That ground was located where the Richmond, or outer, end of the current MCG is now. At the same time the Richmond Cricket Club was given occupancy rights to six acres (2.4 hectares) for another cricket ground on

3042-627: The area was already set aside for Botanical Gardens and the club was moved on in October 1846, to an area on the south bank of the Yarra about where the Herald & Weekly Times building is today. The area was subject to flooding, forcing the club to move again, this time to a ground in South Melbourne . It was not long before the club was forced out again, this time because of the expansion of

3120-496: The confines of a serpentine carriageway, put in place the essential elements of his much-imitated design for Birkenhead Park in Birkenhead . The latter commenced in 1843 with the help of public finance and deployed the ideas which Paxton had pioneered at Princes Park on a more expansive scale. Frederick Law Olmsted visited Birkenhead Park in 1850 and praised its qualities. Indeed, Paxton is widely credited as having been one of

3198-453: The designed landscape as a setting for the suburban domicile (an idea pioneered by John Nash at Regent's Park in London) and re-fashioned it for the provincial town in a most original way. Nash's remodelling of St James's Park from 1827 and the sequence of processional routes he created to link The Mall with Regent's Park completely transformed the appearance of London's West End . With

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3276-723: The early 1860s, this last option, which is now Yarra Park , was known as the Government or Police Paddock and served as a large agistment area for the horses of the Mounted Police , Border Police and Native Police . The north-eastern section also housed the main barracks for the Mounted Police in the Port Phillip district . In 1850 it was part of a 200-acre (81 ha) stretch set aside for public recreation extending from Governor La Trobe's Jolimont Estate to

3354-476: The eastern side of the Government Paddock. In 1861, a board of trustees was appointed to be responsible for the ground. Over the first forty years, most of the trustees were appointed by the MCC, giving the cricket club relative autonomy over the use of the ground. In 1906, the state governments' Lands ministry appointed five new trustees, putting the government-appointed trustees in the majority; and

3432-526: The end only five Australian-born players were selected. The same could be said for Lillywhite's team which, being selected from only four counties, meant that some of England's best players did not take part. In addition, the team had a rough voyage back across the Tasman Sea and many members had been seasick. The game was due to be played on 15 March, the day after their arrival, but most had not yet fully recovered. On top of that, wicket-keeper Ted Pooley

3510-499: The establishment of Princes Park in 1842, Joseph Paxton did something similar for the benefit of a provincial town, albeit one of international stature by virtue of its flourishing mercantile sector. Liverpool had a burgeoning presence in global maritime trade before 1800, and during the Victorian era its wealth rivalled that of London itself. The form and layout of Paxton's ornamental grounds, structured about an informal lake within

3588-779: The form of walking, running, horse riding, mountain biking, snowshoeing, or cross-country skiing; or sedentary activity such as observing nature, bird watching, painting, photography, or picnicking. Limiting park or open space use to passive recreation over all or a portion of the park's area eliminates or reduces the burden of managing active recreation facilities and developed infrastructure. Many ski resorts combine active recreation facilities (ski lifts, gondolas, terrain parks, downhill runs, and lodges) with passive recreation facilities (cross-country ski trails). Many smaller neighborhood parks are receiving increased attention and valuation as significant community assets and places of refuge in heavily populated urban areas. Neighborhood groups around

3666-551: The government has appointed and overseen the trust since. This gives the state government, via the trust, a level of control over the ground's use. At the time of the land grant, the Government stipulated that the ground was to be used for cricket and cricket only. This condition technically remained until 1933 when the Melbourne Cricket Ground Act 1933 widened its allowable uses. The 1933 act has been replaced by separate acts in 1989 and 2009. In 1863,

3744-403: The individual colonial sides, but Lillywhite felt that his side had done well enough against New South Wales to warrant a game against an All Australian team. When Lillywhite headed off to New Zealand he left Melbourne cricketer John Conway to arrange the match for their return. Conway ignored the cricket associations in each colony and selected his own Australian team, negotiating directly with

3822-525: The large amount of open space and natural habitat in the former pleasure grounds, they now serve as important wildlife refuges, and often provide the only opportunity for urban residents to hike or picnic in a semi-wild area. However, city managers or politicians can target these parks as sources of free land for other uses. Partly for this reason, some of these large parks have "friends of X park" advisory boards that help protect and maintain their semi-wild nature. There are around estimated 27,000 public parks in

3900-499: The late 1850s, many of the earliest games of Australian rules football were played at Yarra Park, which was known at the time as the Richmond Paddock . Tree-lined paths run parallel to Punt Road and Swan Street, and criss-cross the park. Some of the lawns are used for parking for sporting events. Three footbridges allow pedestrians and cyclists to cross the railway lines to the different sporting venues and easy access to

3978-521: The light towers, were replaced with LED sports lighting with the lighting under the roof and in two of the light towers completed in time for the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand . The first cricket match at the venue was played on 30 September 1854, while the first inter-colonial cricket match to be played at the MCG was between Victoria and New South Wales in March 1856. Victoria had played Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land) as early as 1851 but

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4056-495: The maximum seating capacity to approximately 95,000 with an additional 5,000 standing room capacity, bringing the total capacity to 100,024. The MCG is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and was included on the Australian National Heritage List in 2005. In 2003, journalist Greg Baum called it "a shrine, a citadel, a landmark, a totem" that "symbolises Melbourne to the world". The MCG

4134-567: The need to provide substantial space to congregate, typically involves intensive management, maintenance, and high costs. Passive recreation, also called "low-intensity recreation" is that which emphasizes the open-space aspect of a park and allows for the preservation of natural habitat. It usually involves a low level of development, such as rustic picnic areas, benches, and trails. Passive recreation typically requires little management and can be provided at very low costs. Some open space managers provide nothing other than trails for physical activity in

4212-503: The old Southern Stand found concrete cancer and provided the opportunity to replace the increasingly run-down 50-year-old facility. The projected cost of $ 100 million was outside what the Melbourne Cricket Club could afford so the Victorian Football League took the opportunity to part fund the project in return for a 30-year deal to share the ground. The new Great Southern Stand was completed in 1992, in time for

4290-482: The open and was the main public area of the MCG. The maximum capacity of the ground under this configuration, as advised by the Health Department, was 84,000 seated and 94,000 standing. The Northern Stand, also known as the Olympic Stand, was built to replace the old Grandstand for the 1956 Olympic Games. By Health Department regulations, this was to increase the stadium's capacity to 120,000; although this

4368-946: The park as their outdoor training ground. In August 2021, The Melbourne Football Club announced that The oval will be upgraded and redeveloped in the 2021/22 off-season to increase the dimensions to better match the measurements of the MCG and Docklands Stadium . Redevelopment of Goschs Paddock oval commenced on 5 December 2021. Notes References 37°49′05″S 144°59′07″E  /  37.8180437°S 144.9852312°E  / -37.8180437; 144.9852312 Public park Depending on size, budget, and land features, which varies considerably among individual parks, common features include playgrounds , gardens , hiking, running, fitness trails or paths, bridle paths , sports fields and courts, public restrooms, boat ramps, performance venues, or BBQ and picnic facilities. Park advocates claim that having parks near urban residents, including within

4446-404: The park was built was purchased by Richard Vaughan Yates, an iron merchant and philanthropist, in 1841 for £50,000. The creation of Princes Park showed great foresight and introduced a number of highly influential ideas. First and foremost was the provision of open space for the benefit of townspeople and local residents within an area that was being rapidly built up. Secondly it took the concept of

4524-612: The park. A housing subdivision was excised from the park in 1881. Since this time major excisions have been made for Melbourne's eastern and southeastern rail lines, the Hurstbridge railway line , Olympic Park Sporting Complex , Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park's National Tennis Centre. However, Gosch's Paddock still links Yarra Park to the Yarra River at the Morrell Bridge for cyclists and pedestrians. In 2007,

4602-420: The past three years and 95 per cent expect their funding will continue to reduce". Parks can be divided into active and passive recreation areas. Active recreation is that which has an urban character and requires intensive development. It often involves cooperative or team activity, including playgrounds , ball fields, swimming pools, gymnasiums, and skateparks . Active recreation such as team sports, due to

4680-482: The players. Not only was the team he selected of doubtful representation but it was also probably not the strongest available as some players had declined to take part for various reasons. Demon bowler Fred Spofforth refused to play because wicket-keeper Billy Murdoch was not selected. Paceman Frank Allan was at Warrnambool Agricultural Show and Australia's best all-rounder Edwin Evans could not get away from work. In

4758-457: The principal influences on Olmsted and Calvert's design for New York's Central Park of 1857. Another early public park, the Peel Park, Salford , England, opened on 22 August 1846. Boston Common was purchased for public use grazing cows and as a military parade ground and dump in 1634. It first started to get recreational elements in 1728, arguably making it the first municipal park in

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4836-464: The profits for Speirs and Pond from this game alone was enough to fund the whole tour. At that time it was the largest number of people to ever watch a cricket match anywhere in the world. Local cricket authorities went out of their way to cater for the needs of the team and the sponsors. They provided grounds and sponsors booths without charge and let the sponsors keep the gate takings. The sponsors however, were not so generous in return. They quibbled with

4914-866: The public.) and some EU states that have mostly recreation grounds for kids to play within a park, but may also have a duck pond, large grassy zones not meant exclusively for sports, many trees, and several bushy places. When it occurs as a separate facility on its own, without any parkland, at a street corner or by a shop, the play facility is called a playground . MCG Melbourne Football Club (1858–present) Richmond Football Club (1965–present) Collingwood Football Club (1993–present) Essendon Football Club (1991–present) Hawthorn Football Club (2000–present) Carlton Football Club (2005–present) Australian cricket team (1877–present) Victoria cricket team (1851–present) Melbourne Stars (2011–present) Melbourne Storm (2000) The Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ), also known locally as The 'G ,

4992-455: The railway. The South Melbourne ground was in the path of Victoria's first steam railway line from Melbourne to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne ). Governor La Trobe offered the MCC a choice of three sites; an area adjacent to the existing ground, a site at the junction of Flinders and Spring Streets or a ten-acre (about 4 hectares) section of the Government Paddock at Richmond next to Richmond Park. Between European settlement in 1835 and

5070-445: The sun. Some estimates put the crowd at the MCG that day at 25,000. It must have been quite a picture with a new 6000 seat grandstand, coloured marquees ringing the ground and a carnival outside. Stephenson said that the ground was better than any in England. The Victorians however, were no match for the English at cricket and the visitors won by an innings and 96 runs. Over the four days of the 'test' more than 45,000 people attended and

5148-509: The toss but New South Wales captain George Gilbert successfully argued that the visiting team should decide who bats first. The MCG was a grassless desert and Gilbert, considering players fielded without boots, promptly sent Victoria into bat. Needing only 16 to win in the final innings, New South Wales collapsed to be 5 for 5 before Gilbert's batting saved the game and the visitors won by three wickets. In subsequent years conditions at

5226-435: The wealthy. In The Politics of Park Design: A History of Urban Parks in America, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1982), Professor Galen Cranz identifies four phases of park design in the U.S. In the late 19th century, city governments purchased large tracts of land on the outskirts of cities to form "pleasure grounds": semi-open, charmingly landscaped areas whose primary purpose was to allow city residents, especially

5304-436: The workers, to relax in nature. As time passed and the urban area grew around the parks, land in these parks was used for other purposes, such as zoos, golf courses and museums. These parks continue to draw visitors from around the region and are considered regional parks , because they require a higher level of management than smaller local parks. According to the Trust for Public Land , the three most visited municipal parks in

5382-468: The world are joining together to support local parks that have suffered from urban decay and government neglect. A linear park is a park that has a much greater length than width. A typical example of a linear park is a section of a former railway that has been converted into a park called a rail trail or greenway (i.e. the tracks removed, vegetation allowed to grow back). Some examples of linear parks in North America include New York's High Line and

5460-437: The £1000 and only managed to travel to Melbourne after half the team's travel cost of £181 was put up by Sydney barrister Richard Driver. The game eventually got under way on 26 March 1856. The Victorians, stung by criticism over the £1000 stake, argued over just about everything; the toss, who should bat first, whether different pitches should be used for the different innings and even what the umpires should wear. Victoria won

5538-399: Was a long-standing tradition for Victoria to host New South Wales in a first-class match on Boxing Day. Victoria also played its limited overs matches at the ground. Since the introduction of the domestic Twenty20 Big Bash League (BBL) in 2011, the Melbourne Stars club has played its home matches at the ground. It is also the home ground of the Melbourne Stars Women team, which plays in

5616-487: Was known, increasing capacity to 9,000. In 1900 it was lit with electric light. More stands were built in the early 20th century. An open wooden stand was on the south side of the ground in 1904 and the 2084-seat Grey Smith Stand (known as the New Stand until 1912) was erected for members in 1906. The 4000-seat Harrison Stand on the ground's southern side was built in 1908 followed by the 8000-seat Wardill Stand in 1912. In

5694-414: Was led by James Lillywhite . On Boxing Day 1866 an Indigenous Australian cricket team played at the MCG with 11,000 spectators against an MCC team. A few players in that match were in a later team that toured England in 1868 . Some also played in three other matches at the ground before 1869. Up until the fourth tour in 1877, led by James Lillywhite, touring teams had played first-class games against

5772-530: Was of secondary importance. As urban land prices climbed, new urban parks in the 1960s and after have been mainly pocket parks . One example of a pocket park is Chess Park in Glendale, California. The American Society of Landscape Architects gave this park a General Design Award of Honor in 2006. These small parks provide greenery, a place to sit outdoors, and often a playground for children. All four types of park continue to exist in urban areas. Because of

5850-547: Was rented out to the Batthyány family to carry out such a project but the city had eventually taken back control and in 1813 announced a design competition to finally finish the park; works started in 1816. An early purpose-built public park, although financed privately, was Princes Park in the Liverpool suburb of Toxteth . This was laid out to the designs of Joseph Paxton from 1842 and opened in 1843. The land on which

5928-624: Was revised down after the 1956 VFL Grand Final , which could not comfortably accommodate its crowd of 115,802. Ten years later, the Grey Smith Stand and the open concrete stand next to it were replaced by the Western Stand; the Duke of Edinburgh laid a foundation stone for the Western Stand on 3 March 1967, and it was completed in 1968; in 1986, it was renamed the W.H. Ponsford Stand in honour of Victorian batsman Bill Ponsford . This

6006-678: Was still in a New Zealand prison after a brawl in a Christchurch pub. England was nonetheless favourite to win the game and the first ever Test match began with a crowd of only 1000 watching. The Australians elected Dave Gregory from New South Wales as Australia's first ever captain and on winning the toss he decided to bat. Charles Bannerman scored an unbeaten 165 before retiring hurt. Sydney Cricket Ground curator, Ned Gregory , playing in his one and only Test for Australia, scored Test cricket's first duck . Australia racked up 245 and 104 while England scored 196 and 108 giving Australia victory by 45 runs. The win hinged on Bannerman's century and

6084-482: Was the stadium's highest capacity configuration, and the all-time record crowd for a sporting event at the venue of 121,696 was set under this configuration in the 1970 VFL Grand Final . The MCG was the home of Australia's first full colour video scoreboard, which replaced the old scoreboard in 1982, located on Level 4 of the Western Stand, which notably caught fire in 1999 and was replaced in 2000. A second video screen added in 1994 almost directly opposite, on Level 4 of

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