Victoria Park, Park in East Parklands, Adelaide, Australia
Victoria Park, also known as Pakapakanthi, is a large park in the southeastern part of Adelaide, within the East Parklands area. The site has open grassy fields, tree-lined paths, and a heritage-listed grandstand that dates back to the 19th century.
Racing began on the East Park Lands in the early days of Adelaide, with a Turf Club formed in August 1838 and two-day meetings held in January 1839 and January 1840. The South Australian Jockey Club was formed in January 1856, and in 1865 a breakaway group founded the Adelaide Racing Club, whose rivalry with the SAJC lasted a hundred years. Known as the Old Adelaide Racecourse before 1897, the course had a main track 2,360 metres long with the longest home-straight in Australia.
The park's Kaurna name, Pakapakanthi, links the site to the traditional owners of the land. The grandstand's tiered ochre-brown wooden seating and white cast-iron balustrade recall race days of the Adelaide Racing Club, formed in 1879, which spent heavily on the stand beyond what the Council required.
The park sits close to Adelaide's city center and is easy to reach on foot from the central streets. During the Adelaide 500 motor race, the roads around the park form part of the temporary circuit, so access may be limited on those days.
Between 1985 and 1995, the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix was held on the streets surrounding the park, before the event moved to Melbourne. This makes it one of the few city parks in the world that once formed part of a Formula 1 circuit.
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