Manuka Oval

When the six Australian states became the Federation of Australia in 1901, New Zealand was not included but almost until the Great War began in 1914 hopes were expressed that New Zealand would wish to join a greater Confederation of Australasia. Accordingly, when Walter Burley Griffin named the eight thoroughfares radiating out from Capital Hill on his plan of Canberra in 1912 he named them after the capital cities of the six Australian states and the Northern Territory and New Zealand. Wellington Avenue was the name of the thoroughfare running south from the site of the future Parliament House and it seemed appropriate therefore to give a New Zealand name to the shopping centre planned to be built on one side of the avenue and the park to be located on the other side. The ti-tree "leptospermum scoparium" is a native of southern Australia and New Zealand and was particularly prolific in that part of Canberra. Thus the shopping centre on one side of Wellington Avenue and the park on the opposite side were given the Maori name for ti-tree, Manuka.

However, fate sometimes confounded the logic of the bureaucrats. Before the name Wellington Avenue was gazetted it was realised that New Zealand was not going to become part of a Confederation of Australasia. The name Wellington Avenue was quietly forgotten and the thoroughfare became Canberra Avenue. Nevertheless, the name Manuka was retained. Within the park and occupying about half its area, was an open field. It fell away markedly to Spring Creek, now an underground storm-water drain, which ran along the eastern side of the park. When houses were built behind the shopping centre the new suburb was named Blandfordia and the park opposite the shops was occasionally referred to as Blandfordia Park. It was officially, however, Manuka Circle Park - the park within the Manuka Circle roadway but by the end of the 1920s it was usually known as Manuka Oval.

In July 1926, the Cricket Association and the Australian Football League, supported by Rugby League and Soccer, wrote to the Federal Capital Commission seeking to have Manuka Circle Park enclosed. The Park originally had a fence consisting of two strands of wire designed to prevent stock straying into it but no grounds in Canberra were securely fenced and it was therefore not possible for clubs to charge admission. It would be impossible, the Associations said, to persuade interstate and international teams to visit Canberra because there was no other way to recoup the expense of bringing teams to Canberra. In the following month, the same authorities wrote to the Federal Capital Commission to say that "our champions in the making will never develop" until they had an opportunity to play against interstate teams. Thus, they argued, it was necessary to have an enclosed ground to enable admission fees to be charged to defray the costs incurred. It was also necessary to have a pavilion, ie, a grandstand with dressing room facilities underneath it.

In 1927 the Cricket Association, "in furtherance of its desire to advance its status in the cricket world," urged the Federal Capital Commission to establish turf wickets on several Canberra grounds, and to enclose the grounds to enable an admission fee to be charged. Although there was no pitch (concrete or turf) at Manuka the Association hinted that the Australian Board of Control might be willing to include Canberra in the itinerary of the MCC team which was to tour Australia in 1928-29 if an oval was enclosed and a turf pitch established on it. The Commission replied that the work would be undertaken as soon as possible and in October 1927 the Commission's draft estimates provided for a pavilion with seating for 500 spectators and for the erection of a fence around the playing area. However, the plans of the Commission were delayed by a reduction in its funds and the match was played at Goulburn.

The Commissions' basic policy in the allocation of grounds was to ensure that matches played against teams visiting the town from interstate were given first priority and that important local matches in all the sports, such as semi-final and final matches, were also played on the best grounds. League and Soccer had been weakened by the exodus of many of their players. Rugby Union and hockey were only played at the Royal Military College. The Commission's policy therefore meant that Manuka Circle Park was virtually an Australian Football ground.

Canberra was visited in May 1928 by T. S. O'Halloran, the Chairman of the South Australian National Football League and John Curtin, a member of the Western Australian Umpires Board and a future Prime Minister of Australia. Western Australia was to play the Federal Capital Territory at Manuka on 25 July and Curtin's report to his league on the facilities at Manuka was significant. During their visit, he and O'Halloran watched Ainslie play Manuka at the Park and after the match Curtin reported that the:

'Accommodation for players was unworthy of the Capital City, it was disgraceful that
(footballers) should have to indulge in their sport without showers and rub-down tables.'

There was no permanent changing facilities at any sports ground in Canberra, but there were two "cubicles," ie, wooden huts about three metres by two metres, which were constructed on a set of wheels and were pulled by a horse to wherever they were needed. After O'Halloran and Curtin expressed their views the Commission decided to harrow, water and roll the ground, "being not only hard but full of tussocks," and to make available two more cubicles for the day of the match against Western Australia. Thus, each team had a total area of twelve, not six, square metres for 18 men to change into, and out of, their playing uniforms.

On 14 September 1928, the Commission commenced to peg out the ground for a turf wicket. Accordingly, the Australian National Football League, which had intended to play its Final at the Park on the following Saturday, was advised that the match would have to be played at Northbourne Oval. As a temporary measure, an old galvanised-iron shed (60 feet x 25 feet), which had been used as a mess hut at one of the construction camps, was moved to Manuka Oval in 1929 for use as a dressing-room. The dressing room was divided into two sections, but there were no toilets, no showers and no electric light in the rooms, but as a temporary measure it was better than nothing. At the same time the surface of the Oval was graded (but nothing was done to correct the falling-away of the ground to the eastern boundary), grass sown, a turf wicket of Bulli soil laid and a wire-mesh fence erected round the perimeter of the ground, replacing the simple two-strand wire fence. No attempt was made to level the ground. It fell away by 2.03 metres from pitch to boundary. It was the same slope, Canberra cricketers said proudly, as the slope at Lord's. The first cricket match on the oval was played on Easter Monday, 13 April 1930 and thereafter all major matches were played at Manuka Oval. It had been expected that the work would take five months but in fact it took 19 months.

In June 1929, Don Bradman had suggested during a visit to Canberra that the Australian Test team should be invited to play a Federal Capital Territory (F.C.T.) team on the new pitch before the team's departure for England in the following year and F.C.T.C.A asked the Australian Board of Control to arrange for the team to travel through Canberra, but the team had left for England by the time the pitch was ready. Tentative arrangements were then made for the New South Wales Sheffield Shield team to play F.C.T. on 22 February 1930. However, the NSW Cricket Association asked F.C.T. Cricket Association to meet half the cost of the visit and the Federal Capital Commission asked the Association (and the Australian Football and Rugby League bodies) in January 1930 to advise how much it would contribute to the cost of 1030 for the pavilion. Both requests were beyond the capacity of the Cricket Association and the proposed visit was cancelled, which was fortunate because the pitch was not ready until April 1930.

Mr D. Selth
ACT Cricket Association Historian
1925 - 2006