Location Queenstown, Tasmania Construction cost Unknown Opened 1895 | Surface Gravel Architect Various Capacity 5,000 | |
 | ||
Similar Mount Sedgwick, Crotty Dam, Mount Huxley, John Butters Power St, Mount Jukes | ||
Queenstown Oval, known colloquially as The Gravel or The Rec (for Recreation Ground), is a sports arena in Queenstown located on the west coast of Tasmania, infamous for its gravel playing surface. Built in 1895, the venue is used primarily for Australian rules football, and also hosts cricket and athletics. The ground has a main concrete grandstand and a total capacity of 5,000.
Queenstown Oval was the grand final venue for the now defunct Western Tasmanian Football Association for nearly a century and is currently the home ground for the local Queenstown Crows in the Darwin Football Association.
The ground was the first ground in Tasmanian that had a siren installed to signal the start and end of each quarter, with the siren being borrowed from the Mt Lyell Mines.
The Queenstown Oval was inducted into the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame in 2007.
There is a subtle reference to the ground's gravel playing surface in Jamie Cooper's Tasmania's Team of the Century painting, with gravel visible in the knees of Queenstown-born Australian football legend Ian Stewart.
The oval was due for updating in the 2010s and is a part of the The Unconformity festival in 2016.