Manuka

Manuka Oval, known as just Manuka, is the main football venue in Canberra, the capital city of Australia located in the Australian Capital Territory.
==Construction and early years==
When Canberra was planned the venue was originally a park called Manuka Circle Park. An early push by locals to create an enclosed oval bore fruit in 1929. In the ensuing years the venue was used for cricket during the Summer and both rugby league and football during the Winter.
==Cricket led improvements==
In 1951, the very first international cricket match was played at Manuka when the Prime Minister's XI played against the West Indies. Driven by the then Prime Minister Robert Menzies, it led to six more such matches and the development of the Sir Donald Bradman Pavillion in 1962. The 1963 match featured a return to cricket by the Don, possibly to also open the pavillion officially. The game disappeared when Menzies retired.
Throughout this period, Manuka had it's own football team that played it's home games at the venue.
==Further development==
The scoreboard from the MCG arrived at the venue in 1982.
Upon the return of the Prime Minister's XI cricket in 1984 due to the influence of the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke, there were more improvements to the venue. In 1987 the Robert Menzies Stand was built, and this was followed by the Bob Hawke Stand in 1992 under the watch of Hawke's successor Paul Keating. Manuka merged with Eastlake in the mean time as Southern Districts before reverting to Eastlake and continuing to play their home games there. Also in 1992 the first international cricket match not involving the PM's XI was played between South Africa and Zimbabwe at Manuka as part of the 1992 World Cup.
==AFL arrival==
In 1998 North Melbourne started playing games in Canberra at Manuka as part of their Kangaroos campaign. At the same time the Australian Capital Territory AFL moved it's headquarters to the venue and Manuka became the main local finals venue in the place of Football Park in Woden. North Melbourne's arrangements only lasted until 2006. After that Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs played the odd game there - always against Sydney.
During this period the short lived Canberra Comets played it's home games at Manuka as part of the one day domestic cricket competition.
==Further expansions==
In 2008 international cricket outside of the PM's XI returned with a tri series match between India and Sri Lanka.
But in 2011 expansion moves gained strength. West Sydney were planned to play games at the venue as a second home ground and combined with the formation of the North East AFL sending the local Canberra clubs into the competition the venue became a crucial cog in the game's expansion. In the second half of the year, an upgrade took place adding seating capacity to the eastern side of the ground while also upgrading the Hawke Stand and Bradman Pavillion including media and corporate facilities.
As part of the AFL requirements in fixturing, floodlights were erected at the venue in 2012. This led firstly to the first international cricket match outside of the PM's XI to be played involving Australia in 2013, on the back of the first use of the lights - also for cricket in the annual PM's XI match. The Sheffield Shield final in 2014 was played at Manuka due to the SCG being unavailable because of the Major League Baseball games.
Throughout their membership of the NEAFL, Belconnen and Eastlake played their home games at Manuka. But when they reformed AFL Canberra it became just Eastlake again, alongside West Sydney's odd games and the AFL Canberra grand final at least.
==Most recently==
The most recent improvements to the venue have been for cricket with media facilities placed at the southern end. The venue hosted it's first cricket Test match in 2019 between Australia and Sri Lanka. It also hosted the Big Bash League final in 2015.
==Other uses==
Aside from cricket and football, Manuka hosted a rugby league international in 1948 between Great Britain and a representative team from the local rugby league competition. Aside from that an NRL game was played at Manuka in 2001 involving the Canberra Raiders due to Bruce Stadium being used by the ACT Brumbies. Rugby union team the Canberra Kookaburras used the venue as part of the Sydney club competition from 1995 until 2000. National Soccer League team the Canberra City club played at Manuka in 1977 before moving to it's planned home at Bruce Stadium the next year. Boxing and wrestling has also been hosted at Manuka.
The venue attendance record at present is 15,807 for the PM's XI match against the West Indies in 1985. The record AFL attendance is 14,974 for West Sydney's 2016 game against Richmond
Category:Venues