Reviewed by Richard Tutin
Sport is an integral part of Australian life. Everywhere you look some form of sport at whatever level you enjoy the most is being carried out on just about any day of the week.
Sports require appropriate venues so that games can be conducted and both participants and audiences can be accommodated. These facilities vary in size and scope since they are dependent on the ability to attract sponsorship and funding to be built and maintained.
Over the years, numerous sporting venues have earned the label of “great” due to their significance within their sports and the admiration they receive from the public.
Glen Humphries has, with the assistance of other sports writers, brought together in one volume a descriptive list of some of Australia’s great sporting sites. Not all of them are playing fields with grandstand facilities. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht race begins in Sydney Harbour and so it is regarded as a sporting site. Likewise, the various racing circuits for horses, cars and motor bikes are also included in the book for the same reason. Most of the sites have hosted elite forms of their various sports for many years. Their association with a particular sport is as famous as the sport itself.
Each of the contributors to this volume has provided a small history of both the site itself and the sport that is most closely associated with it. These vignettes reveal both the tenacity of the site’s early days and the ways in which many of them have kept up with the growing needs of both sport and the spectators who flock to them to see the action.
Photos are included in each chapter. They can help the reader relive the time they may have visited a site to cheer on their favourite team. Many sites have been expanded over the years to accommodate the growing demand for seats and other facilities.
The style presentation makes this book an easy read that can be referred to at any time. The table of contents, for example, is easy to read and navigate while the chapters are written and presented in an attractive way. The information that can be gleaned from this book makes for fascinating reading.
Stories about these iconic Australian sporting venues contribute to the nation’s rich sporting history and its wide variety of sports. Behind the commercial activity associated with sport these days there is one thing that has supported sport that we often overlook. It is the sheer enjoyment that ordinary Australians have for their favourite sport that drives teams and individuals to do their best. As long as sports loving Australians continue to derive satisfaction from their experience, these distinguished sites have effectively fulfilled their purpose.
Glen Humphries has reported on all sorts of things: transport, the Port Kembla steelworks, local councils, movies, TV and politics. He has won several awards for his writing.
Great Sporting Sites – Australia
Edited by Glen Humphries
(2025)
Gelding Street Press
ISBN: 978 192266 215 6
$39.99; 224pp