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Similar Canterbury Park Racecourse, Warwick Farm Racecourse, Harold Park Paceway, Rosehill Gardens Racecourse | ||
Victoria Park Racecourse was a racecourse in Zetland, an inner-city suburb, south of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was bordered by O’Dea Avenue, South Dowling Street, Epsom Road and Joynton Avenue.
The site was originally a lagoon and swamp which was drained in the early 1900s to create the racecourse. The racecourse was privately owned and developed by Sir James John Joynton Smith (1858–1943), a hotelier, racecourse and newspaper owner. It was said at the time to be the grandest and finest of the pony horseracing courses in Sydney.
In 1908 a clay-and-cinders track of 1.81 kilometres in length was built around the horseracing course and was utilised for speedway racing by both cars and motorcycles until the early 1920s.
In 1909 the first powered flight in Australia took place here in a Wright model A plane named "The Stella". The pilot was Colin Defries although only flying 120 yards at 15 feet it is acknowledged by Australian historians[6] and the Aviation Historical Society of Australia that the definition of flight established by the Gorell Committee on behalf of the Aero Club of Great Britain dictates the acceptance of a flight or its rejection, giving Colin Defries credit as the first to make an aeroplane flight. A 20-page booklet entitled The History of Aviation Souvenir Australian Tour by Ambrose Pratt under direction of J &N Tait 6d price was issued at the time. It shows pictures of the pilot & the plane and also a seated passenger with caption preparing to fly.
During World War II the site was used for an aircraft factory. In 1945 it reopened as a horse training course.
The racecourse was bought by British businessman Lord Nuffield in 1947 and from 1950 the site was utilised by Nuffield Australia for a motor vehicle assembly facility. Vehicle production was continued by Nuffield Australia and its successors BMC Australia and Leyland Australia until the factory was closed in 1975.
The site was acquired by the Commonwealth of Australia for a Naval Stores depot which operated until the mid-1990s. The site is currently undergoing redevelopment into high density housing. A three-storey totalisator building remains on the site, used as a site office by the redevelopers and now the Green Square library. The racecourse is also remembered in Tote Park, a small park on the site.