Norwood Oval in east suburbs of Adelaide a versatile venue from 1901; leader in sports lighting for Australia

Lighting at Norwood Oval, in Adelaide's eastern suburbs, set an Australian first in the 1950s. It hosted Australia rules football up to the top level but also a mix of other sports including a 1950s tennis exhibition match between Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall (bottom left), baseball (bottom middle) and the world double-wicket competition in 1968 (bottom right).
Images courtesy Norwood Football Club

Norwood Oval, from 1901 in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, proved itself one of Australia’s most versatile and trend-setting venues. Norwood Oval set national trends as the first suburban oval in Australia in 1951 to erect light towers (since upgraded three times) and, in 1954, the first Australian venue to host a night football game.

The sports hosted at Norwood Oval also ranged from an exhibition tennis match between Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall in the 1950s to the world double-wicket competition in 1968 with two-batsmen teams representing Australia, England, South Africa and West Indies on a turf wicket. Four years later, the oval’s cricket pitch was removed and East Torrens Cricket Club moved to Campbelltown Oval after 71 years at Norwood.

Amid the variety of events that Norwood Oval hosted from 1901, it was officially opened in 1906 to host Australian rules football matches as the home of the Norwood club. A match between Norwood and traditional South Australian National Football League (SANFL) rivals Port Adelaide in that opening year attracted a packed-out crowd of 10,000. (The same teams set a oval record crowd of 20,280 in 1971.)

In 1910, a £2,000 donation by Edwin T. Smith enabled then-Kensington & Norwood council to gain freehold title to Norwood Oval area that had been privately owned and partly a vineyard since 1850. As a generous patron of Norwood Football Club from its start in 1878, Smith’s name was given to the oval's main grandstand.

Norwood Football Club took over managing the oval for the later-Norwood, Payneham and St Peters Council. Coopers Brewery, with local origins, became a long-time oval sponsor.

The approval to install six light towers in the early 1950s allowed Norwood Oval to host regular night SANFL night football matches. It also enabled it – besides adding soccer, rugby league and American gridiron football to its mix of sports hosted – to became the home to South Australia baseball, including being the venue for the national Claxton Shield competition between 1951 and 1988 and home base for the Adelaide Giants in the Australian Baseball League 1989-99.

As a South Australian National Football League oval, Norwood also set firsts for Adelaide suburban ovals with a players’ race from the Sir Edwin T Smith Pavilion to the oval in 1955. The races at all suburban grounds were the result of clashes between players and spectators at the Port Adelaide-West Adelaide 1954 grand final.

After being the first Adelaide suburban oval to host a South Australian National Football League final in 1973, Norwood was honoured with a higher level of Australian rules football as the regular host of the Australian Football League Women’s national competition games involving the Adelaide Crows. It was also chosen as a venue for the Australian Football League’s Gather Round in Adelaide in 2023 and 2024.

But memories of Norwood Oval could stretch beyond sport to events such as singers Col Joye, Judy Stone and Sandy Scott at a concert compered by radio station 5AD disc jockey Bob Francis in 1964 or back to 1952 when the popular American cowboy figure Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd) and his white horse Topper entertained thousands of fans on the oval as a fundraiser for the Crippled Children's Association.