Lakeside Stadium is Melbourne’s premier athletics venue, located close to the Melbourne CBD in the suburb of Albert Park.
Sporting facilities have been located on the site of Lakeside Stadium since 1878, with Lakeside Oval serving as the ground for Australian Rules club South Melbourne until 1981.
The venue was converted to a soccer facility as Lakeside Stadium in 1995, serving as South Melbourne FC.
An athletics track was laid in 2011 in front of the existing football grandstand, due to relocation of athletics from Olympic Park, following the venue’s demolition. Since that time it has served as Melbourne’s main athletics venue.
Located near the coast and adjacent to a lake, and being largely exposed, wind conditions are generally unfavourable at the venue.
Lakeside Stadium was host to the Australian Championships in 2012 and 2014, as well as hosting the Melbourne Track Classic (2012 – 2016, 2020), Nitro Athletics series (2017) and Zatopek:10 (2011 – 2019).
A six-lane, 60m warm up track is located behind the back straight grandstand.
Connected to the main grandstand is Athletics House, which hosts Athletics Australia, Little Athletics Australia, Athletics Victoria and Little Athletics Victoria as tenants. A historic grandstand at the eastern end of the venue was converted into office and training facilities for the Victorian Institute of Sport when the venue was redeveloped in 2011.
The venue cannot generally be used during the month of March due to preparations for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix.
The track was last resurfaced in 2020 and is a Rekortan M99 surface.
Lakeside Stadium is managed by the Melbourne Sports Centre Trust, and is available for casual training when not otherwise booked.
The venue finished second in Australia’s Favourite Track in 2024. The venue was voted the fifth favourite track in Australia, and second favourite in Melbourne, behind Hagenauer Reserve, Box Hill in the 2021 Australia’s Favourite Track competition.
The track is a World Athletics Class 1 Certified Facility.
