Corio Oval
Corio Oval was an Australian rules football ground, located in Geelong, Victoria and used by the Geelong Football Club in the VFL from 1897 to 1941.[1] Sited in Eastern Park, the oval was served by trams from 1930 when the line was extended along Ryrie Street to the football ground.[2]
Corio Oval had been in use as a cricket oval since 1862.[3] In that year a Geelong and District 22 team played an all England 11 team. In 1878 it became the home ground of the Geelong Football Club during its time in the VFA. At the end of the 1940 season, the club was forced to relocate from Corio Oval. In 1941 the venue became the first major VFL ground to be used by the Army as a Military Training Camp during World War II. Kardinia Park was decided upon as a temporary location, with the start of the 1941 season seeing the ticket boxes and turnstiles relocated to the new venue. Due to the problems of travelling during the war years, the club went into recess during 1942 and 1943, and at the start of the 1944 season there was much debate over whether to return to Corio Oval. The supporters of Kardinia Park won out.
After the departure of the military, Corio Oval lay unused until 1956 when the Geelong Trotting Club held its inaugural meeting there. In the same year, the Geelong Greyhound Racing Club began to use a new track constructed inside the trotting circuit, employing a mechanical "tin hare" as the lure.[4]
In the 1970s, plans were announced for the new Australian Animal Health Laboratory to be built near Eastern Park. Because the new facility was designed to deal with highly infectious diseases, large congregations of animals could not be permitted in the vicinity and the greyhound and trotting clubs were told they would have to vacate Corio Oval. Both moved to a newly constructed complex at Beckley Park, adjacent to the Princes Highway in Corio.[4]
In the early 1980s, the oval finally went out of existence when the surviving main grandstand was demolished and a conference centre, now owned by the Salvation Army, was constructed on the site.[5]
The attendance record for Corio Oval was set on 29 August, 1925 when 26,025 fans saw Geelong defeat Collingwood by nine points.[6]
References
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- Peter Begg (1990). Geelong - The First 150 Years. Globe Press. ISBN 0-9592863-5-7
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