Ten things you almost definitely didn’t know about The Melbourne Cricket Ground… and if you did, you’re a certified sports nut.
Everything there is to know about one of Australia’s most treasured sporting arenas? We assure you, the beloved “G" has plenty of secrets, and we’re here to divulge just a few…
1. The record crowd crammed into the ground was more than 130,000 – but not for a sporting event. It was for a religious event led by Billy Graham in 1959.
2. The G holds the world record for having the highest light towers.
3. The Melbourne Cricket Club had to move from their original ground because the government decided to plan a route for a steam railway straight through their oval.
4. While best known for cricket, the MCG also holds the record for the highest attended baseball match, which happened during the 1956 Olympic Games.
5. The incomparable Don Bradman averaged a whopping 128 runs per Test innings at the MCG.
6. During the first ever cricket game held there, there was a dispute, with the NSW team insisting, as visitors, that they had the right to choose whether to bat or field first.
7. In 1977, Australia played England at the ground to celebrate 100 years of Test cricket. Remarkably, the result was the same as in the first clash – Australia winning by 100 runs.
8. During WWII, the ground was taken over by US troops and nicknamed “Camp Murphy."
9. The wickets and goalposts originally ran from east to west, but were changed so that it was north to south in 1881.
10. Though looking nothing like a velodrome, the first bicycle race in Victoria was held at the ground in July 1869.
A town charmingly paused in time has become a hot mountain biking destination.
There’s a forest reserve full of eucalyptus and pines surrounding town – when you combine all the greenery with a main street of grand old buildings still standing from the Victorian Gold Rush, Creswick looks more period movie set than a 21st-century town.
Grand buildings from the Victorian gold rush. (Image: Visit Victoria)
This entire region of Victoria – the Central Goldfields – is as pretty-as-a-picture, but there’s something extra-special about Creswick. I used to live 30 minutes north; I’d drive in some evenings to cruise its main street at dusk, and pretend I was travelling back in time.
It was sleepy back then, but that’s changed. Where I used to walk through its forest, now I’m hurtling down the state’s best new mountain bike trails. There’s a 60-kilometre network of mountain bike trails – dubbed Djuwang Baring – which make Creswick the state’s hottest new mountain biking destination.
Meet Victoria’s new mountain biking capital
This historic town has become a mountain biking hotspot.
Victoria has a habit of turning quiet country towns into mountain biking hotspots. I was there in the mid-2000s when the tiny Otways village of Forrest embarked on an ambitious plan to save itself (after the death of its timber cutting industry) courtesy of some of the world’s best mountain bike trails. A screaming success it proved to be, and soon mountain bike trails began popping up all over Victoria.
I’m no expert, so I like that a lot of Creswick’s trails are as scenic as they are challenging. I prefer intermediate trails, such as Down Martuk, with its flowing berms and a view round every corner. Everyone from outright beginners to experts can be happy here. There’s trails that take me down technical rock sections with plenty of bumps. But there’s enough on offer to appeal to day-trippers, as much as hard-core mountain-bikers.
I love that the trails empty onto that grand old main street. There’s bars still standing from the Gold Rush of the 1850s I can refuel at. Like the award-winning Farmers Arms, not to be confused with the pub sharing its name in Daylesford. It’s stood since 1857. And The American Creswick built two years later, or Odessa Wine Bar, part of Leaver’s Hotel in an 1856-built former gold exchange bank.
The Woodlands is set on a large bushland property. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)
Creswick is also full of great cafes and restaurants, many of them set in the same old buildings that have stood for 170 years. So whether you’re here for the rush of the trails or the calm of town life, Creswick provides.
A traveller’s checklist
Staying there
Inside the Woodlands, a chic 1970s log cabin. (Image: Vanessa Smith Photography)
RACV Goldfields Resort is a contemporary stay with a restaurant, swimming pool and golf course. The Woodlands in nearby Lal Lal comprises a chic log cabin set on a 16-hectare property abundant in native wildlife.
Eating there
Le Peche Gourmand makes for the perfect pitstop for carb and sugar-loading.
Miss Northcotts Garden is a charming garden store with tea room. (Image: Visit Victoria)
Creswick State Forest has a variety of hiking trails, including a section of the 210-kilometre-long Goldfields Track. Miss Northcotts Garden is a quaint garden store with tea room.
