We’ve been missing our tours at Melbourne Sports Tours so we’re making a series of blog posts for you and taking the opportunity to talk about some of the things that there’s rarely time to cover whilst on tour.
For our first article, we headed to Melbourne’s Sports Precinct. Most folks know the area for team sports and entertainment and with so much going on in this area there is always lots to talk about here. Which probably explains why there’s never enough time to cover everything as thoroughly as we’d like!
Given that it occurred before many of us were born, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that our favourite stadium also hosted an Olympic Games, way back in 1956. The XVI Olympiad, also known as The Friendly Games.
There are numerous tributes and monuments acknowledging the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games which are dotted around Melbourne’s Sports Precinct. Some you may already know; some you might have forgotten and maybe one or two will come as a surprise.
Melbourne Cricket Ground
Given that the majority of events took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, it is little surprise that there are many tributes around the stadium. First up, and probably the most obvious, is The Olympic Stand of the MCG.
The current Olympic Stand was built in the early 2000s to accommodate the Commonwealth Games. It replaced the Northern Stand that was built in 1955 for the Olympic Games and which was later renamed the Olympic Stand. Inside the Olympic Stand, you will also find the Olympic Room which is a multi-purpose room. During the footy season, the home club will use it for their Presidents Dinner but year-round, on non-match days, the room and adjoining spaces can be hired for meetings, conferences and such like.
Located between Gates 2 and 3 of the Olympic Stand is a plaque, carved in granite, it lists all the Gold Medallists from the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games.
There are numerous other tributes to the Melbourne Olympic Games inside the stadium but we’ll have to wait until their tours resume to have a better look at those!
Betty Cuthbert Statue
Betty Cuthbert was just 18 years old when she competed in her first Olympic Games, on home soil here in Melbourne. She was born in 1938 in Merrylands in Sydney’s West and died in Mandurah, Western Australia in 2017 aged 79. Betty Cuthbert won 3 gold medals here in Melbourne, in the 100 metres, 200 metres and also the 100-metre relay and was the first Australian of either gender to win 3 gold medals at a single Olympics. It is little wonder she was known as “The Golden Girl.
Injury prevented her from attending the 1960 Olympics in Rome but she returned in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics to win a 4th Gold Medal at the first Olympic 400 metre Women’s event. In addition to this statue, there is also a lounge inside the Olympic Stand which is named in her honour.
Shirley Strickland Statue
Shirley Strickland, also known by her married name Shirley de la Hunty, holds the Australian record for most Olympic medals for running sports, with a total of 7 medals across 3 Games. 3 of those medals were Gold, for the 80m Hurdles in Helsinki and in Melbourne and also the 100m relay alongside Betty Cuthbert also in Melbourne. She was part of the Silver winning Australian 100m relay team at the 1948 London Games. Her 3 bronze medals came in the 100m run and 80m hurdle in London 1948 and the 100m race in Helsinki 1952.
In actual fact, her medal tally should be 8. Shirley is on the record as finishing fourth in the 200-metre final at the 1948 London Games. But a photo of the race finish, discovered in 1975 and which was not consulted at the time, proves without doubt that Shirley did in fact finish in front of the American Audrey Patterson and thus should have taken home the bronze.
There is a line of English Oak trees alongside Brunton Avenue between the William Barak Bridge and the footbridge to Rod Laver Arena. They were gifted to the city of Melbourne by British industrialists. The trees were brought to Melbourne and planted by the British Olympic team in 1956 to commemorate the Olympic Games. How many of us drive past these trees regularly and never realise what they are?
Olympic Precinct Plaque
On the concourse separating Melbourne Arena from the National Tennis Centre and just south of the footbridge leading to Gate 7 of the MCG you will find a bronze plaque that outlines a 3D map of the Sports Precinct as it appeared in 1956. It was laid in 2006 to celebrate 50 years since the Melbourne Olympic Games. On the plaque, you will see the Olympic Park Pool, Olympic Park, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the old velodrome and hockey fields plus the transport car park.
Olympic Boulevard
The section of Swan Street from Punt Road west to the Yarra River was renamed in 2006 in tribute of the Melbourne Olympic Games. Interestingly, the bridge was not renamed and retains its original (but not that original) name Swan Street Bridge.
On the south side of Olympic Boulevard are Olympic Park, Gosch’s Paddock, and AAMI Park. The north side is taken up by Melbourne Park, the site of the Australian Open but popular year-round as a sports and entertainment precinct. Both parks are collectively managed by the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust.
Olympic Park and Olympic Park Pool
Olympic Park is so named because this was used by the Olympic track and field athletes for training.
It adjoins a building many Melburnians refer to as the old Glasshouse. Before it was known as The Glasshouse it was named Olympic Park Pool. The building housed an Olympic sized swimming pool and also a diving pool. Melbourne hosted fully enclosed pool events for the first time at an Olympics Games. The pool was filled in and covered in parquetry flooring in the 1980’s and for a brief time the building served as a concert hall while Rod Laver Arena was being built.
Both sites are now occupied by Australian Rules Football team, the Collingwood Magpies. These days the site is known collectively as The Holden Centre but unofficially as the Magpies Nest.
