Fremantle Oval, also known by

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

sponsorship as Fremantle Community Bank Oval, is a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

in the centre of

Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, located on Parry Street. It currently has a capacity of 17,500 with terracing and a members area holding 750, though capacity was capped at 10,000 for Fremantle

AFLW AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football in Australia, Australian rules football competition for women's Australian rules football, female players. The 2017 AFL Women's season, first season of the l ...

games. Fremantle Oval was originally used for

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, but in 1895 hosted its first game of

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

and Australian Football quickly became the main attraction leading to the development of the ground. It is located between the

Fremantle Hospital Fremantle Hospital is an Australian public hospital situated on South Terrace in central Fremantle, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia. It was formerly the major hospital in its region; however, with the opening of Fiona Stanley Hospital in ...

Fremantle Markets The Fremantle Markets is a public market located on the corner of South Terrace and Henderson Street, Fremantle, Western Australia. Built in 1897, it houses over 150 shops for craftspeople, fashion designers, and merchants in the historic Hall ...

and the

Fremantle Prison Fremantle Prison, sometimes referred to as Fremantle Gaol or Fremantle Jail, is a former Australian prison and World Heritage Site in Fremantle, Western Australia. The site includes the prison cellblocks, gatehouse, perimeter walls, cottages, ...

South Fremantle Football Club South Fremantle Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Fremantle, Western Australia. The club plays in the Western Australian Football League (WAFL) and the WAFL Women's (WAFLW), commonly going by the nickname the ''Bulldogs ...

train and play their home WAFL matches at the ground and are one of the few sporting organisations in Western Australia to own their club rooms freehold, rather than on a long-term lease. Additionally, the oval is the primary home ground of the Fremantle Dockers women's team. The ground was also the training and administrative home of the

Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Dockers or colloquially Freo, is a professional Australian rules football club competing in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's elite competition. The team was founded in 1994 to represen ...

until February 2017. the ground has also hosted pre-season matches featuring Fremantle. Since 2021, the ground has been

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

team

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

's headquarters and training base.

History

Originally known as Barracks Green Field, the area was used by the

Pensioner Guards The Pensioner Guards were English military personnel who served on convict transportation ships en route to colonial Western Australia between 1850 and 1868, and were given employment and grants of land on arrival. Their initial employment last ...

who were used primarily as guards for

which house convict and ticket of leave prisoners. In 1861, Manning raised a volunteer defence force, who used the ground for manoeuvers, parades with volunteer bands providing entertainment. As Australian Rules Football developed in the late 19th century the ground became the base for the Fremantle Football Club and hosted many early WAFL as well as interstate games. Facilities remained relatively basic until 1897 when the Victoria Pavilion was built. The large stately structure provided seating for 500 people as well as club rooms located in the basement. By 1901 South Fremantle Football Club and

East Fremantle Football Club The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks and colloquially referred to as East Freo, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). The team's home ground is Eas ...

were established as regular cotenants of Fremantle Oval. The oval also hosted Fremantle Cricket Club and a cycling track that was in regular use throughout the year. In March 1907 Western Australia hosted New South Wales in the oval's only recorded first-class cricket match. New South Wales had three players (

Warren Bardsley Warren "Curly" Bardsley (6 December 1882 – 20 January 1954) was an Australian Test cricketer. An opening batsman, Bardsley played 41 Tests between 1909 and 1926 and over 200 first-class games for New South Wales. He was Wisden's Cricketer of ...

, Charles Macartney, and

Roy Minnett Roy Baldwin Minnett (13 June 1886 – 21 October 1955) was an Australian cricketer who played in nine Test cricket, Test matches from December 1911 to August 1912. He became a medical practitioner. Life and career Minnett was born in Sydney and ...

) who had represented Australia in Test cricket whilst Western Australia had one ( Ernie Jones). Western Australia won by 5 runs. East Fremantle Football Club vacated the ground in 1950, moving to new premises, located at Moss Street in

East Fremantle East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that eas ...

. In 1954 the oval was used for a ceremonial parade as part of Queen Elizabeth II's first visit to Fremantle. The Cycling Track and Cricket Pitch were removed in the 1960s due to the increasing demands of WAFL football. The ground remained relatively unchanged until 1968 when the South Fremantle Football Club acquired a portion of land freehold at the hospital end of the ground for the construction of social club, members pavilion and players changerooms. Further improvements were made to the ground with the growing demands of larger WAFL crowds in the 1960s and 1970s. These included a shelter behind the goals at the prison end of the ground and a large one at the hospital end of the ground named the ''Doig Pavilion''. A three level press box was constructed adjacent to the Victoria Pavilion. The eastern outer area of the ground was also fully terraced with concrete kerbing so as to allow for greater crowd capacity. The late 1970s witnessed a peak in crowd attendance at Fremantle Oval with over 23,000 people attending the Foundation Day Derby in 1979. Large crowds continued to flock to the ground into the early 1980s with the WAFL proving to be the most popular spectator sport in the state. From 1980 to 1985 the oval hosted motocross racing during the summer. Noise complaints from nearby Fremantle Hospital and the availability of more suitable venues lead to the racing moving. In 1986 the ground underwent its most dramatic structural change with the works related to the Parry Street extension, demolishing the historic Henderson Street and South Terrace entrance gates as well reducing the capacity of the ground on the western side. New entrance gates were built on Parry Street, however the South Terrace gates were never replaced. In 1987, the entry of the West Coast Eagles into the expanded VFL competition lead to a dramatic decline in WAFL attendances. In 1995 this was compounded by the entry of the Fremantle Dockers into the AFL. Attendances dropped from an average of 8000 in the early 1980s to 3000 in the early 90s and 2000 in 1999.

Fremantle Football Club

The

established their original training and administration base at the oval in 1995, when they were formed as a new club in the

AFL AFL may refer to: Education * Angel Foundation for Learning, a Canadian Roman Catholic charity * Ankara Science High School, a high school in Ankara, Turkey, natively referred to as ''Ankara Fen Liesi'' * Assessment for learning Military * ...

league that joined the league for their inaugural year in the 1995 season and in 1999, the club constructed a new training facility. This required the demolition of the Doig Pavilion and the levelling of the historic hospital end hill area that had once been one of the most popular positions for the general public to watch football matches from. In February 2017, the Fremantle Football Club moved their primary training and administration base to

Cockburn ARC Cockburn Aquatic and Recreation Centre (commonly known as Cockburn ARC) is an aquatic and recreation centre located in the southern Perth suburb of Cockburn Central. The facility also contains the administrative and training headquarters of pr ...

. In 2017, the Dockers AFLW team began playing most home games at the oval. The oval still continues to host WAFL matches as well as AFL pre-season games. It is also used a venue for conferences, rock concerts (including the

Big Day Out The Big Day Out (BDO) was an annual music festival that was held in five Australian cities: Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as Auckland, New Zealand. The festival was held during summer, typi ...

) and exhibitions.

Record crowd

23,109, when South Fremantle beat East Fremantle on 4 June 1979.

Gallery

References

External links