The Western Australian Cricket Association was officially established on 25 November 1885 under the Presidency of JCH James. In 1893, the WACA ground was officially opened, occupying a site of old swamp land to the east of the city. The Association has freehold title to the ground. Originally the title was for 29 acres. However, part was sold to the Trotting Association in the early 1920s.
The first match played on the turf wickets took place in February 1894. However, difficulties encountered in transporting teams to Western Australia meant that the ground was not part of Australia's main cricket community for many years. Even with the building of a transcontinental railway, the trip from the eastern states still took several days. It took the introduction of scheduled flights to Western Australia to make the WACA readily accessible to interstate or overseas teams.
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James Gardiner, president of the WACA for three terms between 1897 and 1924, proposed the adoption of 'electorate' cricket whereby teams were established on a district basis for competition. He also inaugurated Country Week cricket, during which country teams compete against each other. In 1907, the WACA ground was under threat of being controlled by the
Perth City Council to recover debts. Gardiner led the bid to save the ground and secured a government loan. Further financial difficulties led Gardiner to again raise funds and donations with a cricket match by the Australian XI team in 1912.
In 1895 the first grandstand was built at the WACA Ground, seating 500 people and incorporating dressing rooms, a dining room, bathrooms, members’ rooms and bars.
In 1931 the Farley Stand was opened, named after W.J. Farley, the Association President from 1915–1916 to 1916–17 and Secretary from 1917–1918 to 1928–1929.
Donald Bradman played at the ground for the first time and attracted a crowd in excess of 20,000 in 1932
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In the 1960s the Players Pavilion was built to provide facilities for the players and the WACA administration. Seating was later added to provide extra seating for the WACA's inaugural
Test Match in 1970.
In 1970 the
Test Stand was opened, to celebrate the first
Test Match to be played at the WACA. It was later renamed the Inverarity Stand, after Western Australian, South Australian and Australian player
John Inverarity.
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From 1984 to 1988 the WACA underwent major renovations, including a complete resurfacing of the ground and the construction of new terracing and seating in the outer. Also built were the three tiered Prindiville grandstand and two tiered Lillee-Marsh grandstand, which increased the ground's seating capacity. Six large light towers were also installed in 1986 at a cost of $4.2 million, allowing for night time sports such as day-night cricket matches to be played at the ground. An icon of the WACA, the floodlights are 70 metres high and cost $600 per hour to run.
And to add a little more history , today there's a game at Mt Bundy on the old ww2 Cricket Pitch, I would have a guess and say this will be the first game held since 1945, this is a very unique Cricket ground , it has a couple of obstacles on the infield. If anyone is near the game starts at 1:30pm.
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