With the assistance of the Australian athletics community, who enthusiastically voted via our Instagram page in a series of elimination voting contest, we have an answer. After over 15,000 votes were cast we can advise that the winner is…
Hagenauer Reserve, Box Hill
It’s perhaps a surprising choice, with the suburban Melbourne track beating the Queensland Sport & Athletics Centre, Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre and Lakeside Stadium along the way. But the venue has become a very popular one, with national 10,000m (Stewart McSweyn) and 1500m (Linden Hall) records set there over the past 18 months. It’s become known as ‘the home of PBs’ and was well voted for by Box Hill Athletics Club, which is quite possibly the best athletics club in the land at the moment.
Hagenauer Reserve is located in Box Hill in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. The original track at the venue was opened in 1969, with a synthetic track laid in 1992. At the time, this was the second synthetic track in Melbourne, after Olympic Park. The track is home to Box Hill Athletics Club, who manage the venue. The venue regularly hosts Athletics Read more…
The Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre was opened in 1975 and was officially named the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Sports Centre in 1977 (colloquially known as QEII). The venue is currently planned (at September 2024) to be redeveloped to host the athletics for the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane. However, this has been a subject of much controversy, with the Read more…
The Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre is Sydney’s premier athletics venue. It’s name is abbreviated as SOPAC, by which it is often referred. The venue was opened as the Sydney International Athletics Centre on 12 March 1994 at the Australian Championships by Betty Cuthbert, who the grandstand is named after. It has served as Sydney’s main athletics venue since. The Read more…
The AIS Track and Field Centre is Canberra’s main athletics venue. The venue was originally constructed in 1985 as the warm up venue for the IAAF World Cup Athletics meet, which was held at the adjacent Bruce Stadium. The track is part of the Australian Institute of Sport, which was opened in 1981 as a high performance sport training centre. Read more…
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, Read more…
The WA Athletics Stadium was opened in 2009 to replace the ageing Perry Lakes Stadium. It hosted the 2010 Australian Championships and host often hosted a significant a domestic series meet each season. The track surface is Mondo and was last resurfaced in 2023. The track is managed by Venues West and is available for use from 6am to 9pm Read more…
The Gold Coast Performance Centre at Runaway Bay was founded in the late 1990s by former world record holder Ron Clarke. The venue was originally named the Runaway Bay Sports Super Centre. The venue was sold to the Queensland government in 2007. The venue was known as the BLK Performance Centre under a naming rights sponsorship during 2019 until June Read more…
ES Marks Athletics Field was originally named Sydney Athletics Field, with the track being constructed in 1906. It was renamed in the 1940s after former Lord Mayor of Sydney and leading athletics administrator, Ernest Samuel Marks. The first cinders athletics track in New South Wales was laid at the venue in 1947. The track had six lanes at this time. Read more…
Here’s a summary of the other tracks in the top 33 in the country.
Duncan Mackinnon Reserve is located in Murrumbeena in Melbourne’s south eastern suburbs. The track was established in the 1970s and was last resurfaced in 2018 with a Spurtan BV surface. The track is regularly used for Little Athletics and Athletics Victoria Shield competition and also hosted one of the two weekends of the Victorian Championships in 2020. The venue is Read more…
The Casey Fields Regional Athletics Centre was opened on Saturday 9 April 2011. The track was originally red in colour but is now blue after being resurfaced in March 2024. The track is used for training and competition, including the Little Athletics Victoria State Championships. The venue is managed by the City of Casey. The track is a Spurtan BV Read more…
The UQ Sport Athletics Centre is located at the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus. The venue was opened in 1998. The track was last resurfaced in 2011, following damage caused by flooding. The venue is currently closed for resurfacing, until May 2023. To fully accommodate a rugby field, the only field event facilities within the track perimeter are the Read more…
The Townsville Sports Reserve played host to the 2019 Oceania Championships. The track has a picturesque background dominated by Townsville’s Castle Hill. The venue is managed by the Queensland government. The track is a Spurtan BV and is a World Athletics Class 2 Certified Facility. Read more…
The Mingara Regional Athletics Centre is located on the NSW Central Coast. The track was opened on 5 November 2000 and was most recently resurfaced in April 2019 as a blue Rekortan surface. The venue is managed by the adjacent Mingara Club. The track is a Spurtan BV surface and is a World Athletics Class 2 Certified Facility. Read more…
The Campbelltown Athletics Centre was built in 1999 as a training track for international teams prior to the 2000 Olympic Games. It replaced a grass athletics track that was marked on the adjacent Campbelltown Stadium, which hosted regional Little Athletics competition. The track hosted two editions of the Telstra A-series, in 2002 and 2003, when Athletics Australia decided not to Read more…
Blacktown International Sportspark Athletics Centre was opened in 2000 as a training venue for international teams prior to the Olympic Games. The track is a Mondo surface and is managed by Blacktown Sports Park, on behalf of Blacktown Council. In addition to hosting interclub level competition, Athletics NSW has in the past used the venue for the NSW Relay Championships. Read more…
The SA Athletics Stadium is the main synthetic track in South Australia and is made of Rekortan M99. The track was opened on 26 January 1998 and replaced Olympic Sports Field as Adelaide’s premier athletics venue. The venue regularly hosted a high performance domestic season meet from 1998 until around 2010, with infrequent meets since then. Notably, the venue played Read more…
The Rawlinson Track is located at Melbourne University. The track was developed as a training venue for the 1956 Olympic Games, partly funded by the Olympic Organising Committee. It is named after biochemistry professor, three-time Victorian javelin champion and World University Games competitor, William Arthur Rawlinson. Wilfred Kent Hughes and Alf Lazer, along with Professor Rawlinson, were central to the Read more…
The Knox Park Athletics Centre is located in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Knox, at the foothills of the Dandenongs. The venue was opened in 1979 and was originally a six lane track with an eight lane straight, surfaced with Resilite. It has been progressively upgraded to its current configuration of an eight lane track with ten lanes in the Read more…
John Landy Athletics Field is located in Geelong, Victoria. It is named after 1956 Olympic 1500m bronze medalist, John Landy, who was the second man to ever break four minutes for the mile. Landy was the catalyst for the creation of the track, following a speech made in 1956 at a dinner honouring the region’s Olympic Games representatives. In the Read more…
The Moonee Valley Athletics Centre opened in 1973. The venue is also known as Aberfeldie Park and regularly plays host to Athletics Victoria Shield competition. The original track was rubberised bitumen. The venue underwent a major refurbishment in 2006. The track was last resurfaced in 2018. New lighting was installed at the venue in 2022. The venue is managed by Read more…
The Nudgee College Athletics Track is located on the grounds of St Joseph’s Nudgee College, a private boy’s school in Brisbane. The track is a blue Reckotan surface. Read more…
The Griffith University Athletics Track is located on the Gold Coast. The venue was opened in 1998, with the Gold Coast City Council leasing the land from Griffith University. The track is a Spurtan BV surface and was last relaid in 2013. The venue has hosted multiple editions of the Australian University Games and also hosted the 2008 Australian Junior Read more…
Barlow Park is located in Cairns and is the city’s premier football and athletics facility. The track is a Rekortan surface, last relaid in 2018. The venue hosted the 2018 Australian All School Championships. The long jump and pole vault runways are located adjacent to the first bend of the track, perpendicular to the direction of the straights. Barlow Park Read more…
The Ridge Athletics Track is located in southern Sydney. The venue was constructed in 2004 and is a Rekortan surface. It was resurfaced in 2023. The track is located within a sporting facility at Lucas Heights and is rather exposed to the elements. As such, it can have favourable tailwinds for sprinters but can be a challenging venue for events Read more…
The Crest is located in Bass Hill and is managed by Canterbury Bankstown Council. The venue was originally a grass track before being resurfaced with Rekortan in the late 1990s. The track is open for training from 5:30pm to 9pm Monday to Thursday. In recent years the venue has hosted the Albie Thomas Mile, which in 2018, 2019 and 2024 Read more…
The Sydney Academy of Sport and Recreation at Narrabeen was built in 1971 and contains sporting facilities, accommodation and athlete services across a range of sports. The location is surrounded by natural bush lands. The original track was rubberised bitumen, before being converted to a Chevron surface. The track was last resurfaced in 2018. It is open for training from Read more…
The Hunter Sports Centre is a Rekortan track, located adjacent to Stockland Glendale Shopping Centre. The venue played host to Telstra A-series meets in 2001 and 2002 and the Hunter Track Classic from 2012 to 2019. It has also hosted the NSW Country Championships on a number of occasions. The venue is managed by Lake Macquarie City Council and is Read more…
Kerryn McCann Athletic Centre is located in Wollongong. The venue was originally named the Beaton Park Athletics Centre. It opened in 1993, with the track being renamed after the late Kerryn McCann in 2009. McCann was the two-time Commonwealth Games Marathon champion, and passed away from cancer in 2008 at the age of 41. The track is a Rekortan surface Read more…
The Domain Athletic Centre opened in 1977 and hosted the Australian Championships that year. The track is the main athletics venue is Tasmania and has previously hosted high performance meets as part of the domestic season. The track is managed by the City of Hobart. The track is a Spurtan BV surface and is a World Athletics Class 2 Certified Read more…
Arafura Stadium is the only synthetic track in the Northern Territory and is Australia’s most isolated synthetic track. The Arafura Stadium track is managed by Athletics NT and is open from 7am to 7pm weekdays, and 7am to midday on Saturdays. The track was resurfaced in 2022 at the cost of $2.6 million. The venue will host the Oceania Championships Read more…
The Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre Warm Up Track is adjacent to the Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre and was opened at the same time in 1994. Following the 2000 Olympic Games, the Mondo athletics track from the Olympic Stadium was relaid on this track. The warm up track is used primarily as a training venue, with competition generally only Read more…
The State Athletics Facility was built as the warm up track for the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre – Main Stadium, which hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games. The track is the main competition venue in Queensland, playing host to regular interclub meets, Queensland championships and the Queensland Track Classic. The main stadium is used for national championships, the Little Athletics Read more…
