The VFL & Global Development of the Curvilinear Grandstand - a Melbourne History with a Tragic Ending

Condemned - the Jack Dyer Stand at Punt Road Oval
Source: Graeme Butler

As readers may be aware, Heritage Network - Victoria's nomination of the Jack Dyer Stand at Punt Rd Oval to the State Heritage Register has recently been declined by the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria, on the basis that it is assessed as being of local-level significance, rather than of significance to the entire State of Victoria.

Introduction

Today's blog will form part of a series which will look at various aspects of the stand's significance and history. 

Readers interested in having input into the final determination by the Heritage Council on Heritage Victoria's recommendation will find information on how they can do so at the conclusion of this article.

Current and future posts in this series:

The History of Punt Road Oval and the Jack Dyer Stand
Victoria's Oldest Sporting Grandstands
A Potted History of Yarra Park 
The History of the MCG and its Grandstands
Melbourne City Council - Casting Aside Heritage for Self-Interest 

Heritage Victoria Bequeathes World Sporting Heritage to the Scrapheap

Naturally enough, I disagree strongly with the Director's assessment - an assessment which rests on a specific rejection of those unique and important contextual aspects of the State's cultural and historic development to which the stand not merely speaks, but remains the most significant remnant structure in Victoria capable of so doing. 

The Executive Director asserts that "The Jack Dyer Stand at Punt Road Oval is of a class of ‘grandstand’. The guidelines state that a class should be readily discernible as a sub-category of a broad place type and should not be narrowed by multiple qualifiers."

HNV's extensively worded submission made the case that in fact the class of building that the Jack Dyer Stand represents is "curvilinear grandstand" - of which it is the second-oldest, largest and most elaborate remnant example in the state.

The Jack Dyer Stand at Punt Rd Oval, as originally constructed in 1914, seen here c.1920, prior to its 1921 extension, with a new western bay added in matching style to a design by architect, town planner and former Melbourne Lord Mayor, Frank Stapley.
Source: Hansen, B. (1989). Tigerland: The history of the Richmond Football Club from 1885. Richmond Former Players and Officials Association.

The Director's assessment seems somewhat disingenous in that the regulations specifically mitigate against MULTIPLE qualifiers, however HNV's submission that the typology of the building is "curvilinear grandtsand" can readily be discerned as containing only ONE qualifier, and so definitionally within the guidelines.

HNV's submission goes to great lengths to demonstrate the unique role that Victorian venues associated with the spectacular growth in popularity of the VFL in the early years of the 20th century played in the GLOBAL development of the curvilinear grandstand form, presaging the later development of the modern "stadium" form, and of the significance of that early period of growth in the game to the entire state of Victoria's history and sense of state identity.

Looking westerly across Punt Road Oval to the Jack Dyer stand today.
Source: Author's own image

By disregarding these arguments and leaving the stand with only local-level protections in place - Heritage Victoria have thereby condemned the building to its already approved demolition, and the state of Victoria will be left bereft of any possible future appreciation in built form of this significant phase in Victoria's cultural and social history.

I outlined recently The Case for Preserving The Jack Dyer Stand, and future posts here will examine some of those points in more detail, but today I want to focus on documenting for posterity the stand's significance to all Victorians and to the wider sporting world, even as the built fabric is now almost inevitably lost to us.

Detail of the western end of the Jack Dyer Stand as viewed today from Yarra Park.
Source: Author's own image.

The Importance of the Curvilinear Grandstand

Cricket is unique amongst the world's major spectator sports for being played on a large, oval-shaped field, and Melbourne is unique amonsgt those cities of the former British Empire where cricket became the main summer sporting passtime for developing a sporting code in Australian Rules Football to occupy those playing fields in the winter months.

A record 46,000 spectators pack Punt Road Oval to watch Richmond’s 15 point loss to Carlton in Round 9, 1946
Source: The Holy Boot's Football Emporium

It is a unique requirement for development at cricket/football ovals, as opposed to racecourses, showgrounds, athletics tracks, velodromes or rugby/soccer pitches that constructing grandstands beyond a certain scale to the traditional rectilinear form necessarily places some spectators at a greater distance from the action on the field than others - the ovoid form of the required playing field ensures this is a physical or geometric reality. 

The Victorian Football League underwent a spectacular period of growth in spectator demand following the establishment of the semi-professional competition in 1897, which created significant pressure for the development of expanded spectator facilities at grounds which hosted VFL matches - pressure which was not present in Sydney, Brisbane, nor any other of the world's major cricketing cities.

Looking west over Lakeside Oval, South Melbourne during a VFL game, with the ground's early curvilinear grandstand (destroyed by fire in 1963) on right, c.1930
Source: State Library of Victoria

Consequently, the already discussed geometric imperatives ensured that the larger grandstands that arose at these sites in the early years of the 20th century began to take on a curvilinear form as spectator numbers grew.

Prior to the widescale commercial adoption of reinforced conscrete construction methods in the early 20th century, multi-tiered grandstands were a rarity not merely in Melbourne, but worldwide. So the requirement for larger stands in the Victorian and early Edwardian eras generally meant building outwards around the perimeter of the field, rather than upwards.

The earliest major curvilinear grandstand built in Victoria was the 1885 Northern Grandstand constructed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground after the ground's first major "reversible grandstand" was destroyed by fire. 

The destroyed stand's seating was reversible through an innovative rope pulley system to allow it to be used by spectators of the early Australian Rules Football games played in Yarra Park (or the "Richmond Paddock" as the informal football field was known).

Looking NE over MCG from Government House tower, early 1870s, with original wooden Members Pavilion on left. The "reversible" grandstand would be built to its right in 1876.
To the NE of the ground (ie top mid-image) is the area colloquially known as the “Richmond Paddock”, where the first games of Australian Rules Football were played.
Source: State Library of NSW, Call No: ON 4 Box 70 No 42a

This provision became unnecessary as the rough and tumble new football code - initially seen as unsuitable for the immaculately manicured turf of gentlemen's cricketing ovals - came quickly to be regarded as an effective means of utilising the expansive ovals during the winter months, and the coin that came with those attendant crowds proved a strong allure to administrators of those places, enabling development of spectator stands at the more popular venues that would otherwise have seemed financially dubious.

Thus, by 1885 there was no longer any need to rebuild a "reversible" grandstand at the MCG, as the Australian Rules games had moved from the "paddock" behind to front and centre onto the main playing surface.

Looking easterly from the 1906 Grey Smith Stand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, past the second Members Pavilion to the Northern Grandstand in 1912. 

The new grandstand was built in two phases, a single-tiered expanse in 1885 with new double-storey tiered bays being added to its extremities (as seen above) in 1897, almost doubling the stand's capacity to around 10,000 spectators.

While my research is admittedly not exhaustive, it seems that this was in fact the first curvilinear grandstand constructed at anything like its scale anywhere on earth.

As we will see shortly, Yarra Park and the MCG in particular became the late 19th and early 20th century cradle for the global development of the freestanding curvilinear grandstand and later the large-scale contiguous stadium, many decades ahead of similar developments in comparable places worldwide.

The Jack Dyer Stand is today the last remaining structure in Yarra Park connected to that period of innovation, and its loss will be to the detriment of the entire planet's sporting heritage.

Pre-WWII Curvilinear Grandstands Constructed in Victoria

The following table lists the major curvilinear grandstands constructed in Victoria prior to WWII, at which time Melbourne was the unquestionable global capital of the curvilinear grandstand form.

Note, all but one of the listed structures (Yarra Park's Motordrome garndstand) were built at VFL-associated venues, and in fact the basin of the motodrome was itself used as a football field, with the venue hosting matches in the amateur VFA competition at various stages, including the VFA finals series from 1925-7 and even some VFL regular season games while the MCG was being resurfaced in 1932.

Melbourne Motordrome, looking west towards grandstand, with Olympic Park Oval at rear, 1945.
Source: State Library of Victoria

In fact, the Richmond Football Club came within a single vote of moving its home games from Punt Road Oval to the Motordrome in 1936.

So, in actuality the entire pre-WWII development of the curvilinear grandstand in Victoria was in some way associated with the VFL competition.

Note also in the following table, the rapid proliferation of the form (unparalleled anywhere else on earth) in the early years of the 20th century - directly associated with the spectacular growth in popularity of the VFL competition in its formative decades.

Name	Location	Built	Demolished	Style	Material
Northern Grandstand	MCG	1885	1955	Victorian	Brick
Grandstand	Sth Melbourne Cricket Ground/Lakeside Oval	1903	1963	Edwardian	Wood
Grandstand	Nth Melbourne Recreation Reserve/Cricket Ground/Arden St	1906	1970s	Edwardian	Wood
Grey Smith Stand	MCG	1906	1966	Transitional Edwardian	Brick
Harrison Stand	MCG	1908	1936	Edwardian	Wood
Ald. Gardiner Stand	Princes Park	1909	Extant	Edwardian	Brick
Wardill Stand	MCG	1911	1936	Edwardian	Brick
Jack Dyer Stand	Punt Road Oval	1914	Extant	Edwardian	Brick
Dick Reynolds Stand	“Windy Hill”, Essendon	1925	Extant	Edwardian-Modernist	Brick
Jack Ryder Stand	Victoria Park	1929	Extant	Edwardian-Modernist	Brick
Motordrome Grandstand	Yarra Park	1932	c.1950	Edwardian	Brick
Robert Heatley Stand	Princes Park	1932	2008	Edwardian	Brick
Southern Stand	MCG	1937	1991	Industrial	Concrete
Michael Tuck Stand	Glenferrie Oval	1938	Extant	Modernist	Brick

Note also, the only stands on that list which are not lost to us today are the Gardiner Stand at Princes Park, the Jack Dyer Stand, the Dick Reynolds Stand (which has been modified from the original beyond all recognition), the Jack Ryder and Michael Tuck Stands.

Plainer & much smaller than the Jack Dyer Stand - the Alderman Gardiner Stand, Princess Park, Carlton, as seen in 2008
Source: Picture Victoria

In addition to being smaller and significantly less elaborate than the Jack Dyer Stand, Princess Park's Gardiner Stand makes no contribution to the heritage values of a place already recognised as being of state significance (Yarra Park - with the Jack Dyer Stand being visible from over 20% of the entire protected area), with major view lines existing to the Jack Dyer from other significant locations- most  notably the southern and eastern suburbs railway lines and Punt Road.

Appreciation of the Gardiner Stand in its historic context is also severely hampered by the addition of other much larger modern grandstands abutting it on either side. 

It should of course be noted that the Carlton Football Club easily managed what Brendan Gale's Richmond was incapable of - retaining a built form linkage to the club's proud heritage in the Gardiner Stand while redeveloping the site as a modern training and playing facility.

How much competitive advantage will Carlton players at training gain by being able to look up and be inspired by a hard, physical reminder of the hundred plus years of club heritage - the proud lineage of former heroes which they continue themselves, having being chosen to don the guernsey?

Richmond take on Collingwood at Punt Road Oval in the 1927 VFL finals series, as crowds watch on from a packed Jack Dyer Stand.
Source: Richmond FC - The Tigers, Trevor Ruddell, Slattery Media Group, 2012, p.47 (image from Richmond FC Museum)

Whatever your answer to the above question, the Richmond Football Club will have thrown away more than the same quantum by robbing its training place of a far more impressive and larger scale stand, before which the legendary Jack Dyer played and coached most of his games, and for whom the stand was later named.

Brendan Gale and Peggy O'Neil will be so plainly robbing their club of so much intangible worth through this project that it's clearly pointless making any entreaties to people who demonstrably haven't the depth of either perception or emotion to even comprehend them.

The moderne-styled Michael Tuck Stand at Glenferrie Oval, Hawthorn c.1956
Source: State Library of Victoria

Continuing with the other relevant remnant stands, the Michael Tuck Stand at Glenferrie Oval was constructed significantly later in a modernist, rather than edwardian style, and represents in essence a second phase of curvilinear grandstand development in the state. 

The Dick Reynolds Stand today retains almost nothing of its original form, and the Jack Ryder Stand at Victoria Park is atypically plain and unelaborated - being the product of depression-era austerity. 

In many senses it beggars belief that the Ryder Stand is considered of state-level heritage significance, while the Jack Dyer Stand is not - and to such an extent that it actually calls into question the criteria being employed by Heritage Victoria.

The Dick Reynolds Stand at Windy Hill, as originally constructed and packed with spectators at its grand opening match - Essendon vs Carlton, May 6, 1922 - a crowd of 21,000 was in attendance.
Source: Essendon FC

Only Princess Park's significantly smaller, less elaborate and slightly older Gardiner Stand presents as any sort of viable comparitor to the Jack Dyer Stand as a representative early exemplar in the development of the curvilinear form, but it is clearly and by any assessment the less significant of the two almost contemporaneous structures.

Yarra Park - The Cradle of Curvation

Of the seven curvilinear stands built before the Jack Dyer, four of these were also located within Yarra Park at the MCG. Of the fourteen stands identified, seven of those were built within the originally gazetted Yarra Park, and five of those at the southeast corner of the park as protected today.

The almost featureless industrial utility of the Jack Ryder Stand at Victoria Park (protected on the State Heritage Register for being of state-level significance while Heritage Victoria asserts the Jack Dyer Stand is only of local-level significance 🤪😳), as seen in 2003
Source: Victoria Park.net

In the period following the removal of the East Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1921 and up until construction of the first grandstand at Olympic Park in the 1950s, every one of the major stands situated within the originally gazetted Yarra/Flinders Park recreation area was of a curvilinear form, underlining the importance of the place to the form's emergence.

The Jack Dyer Stand is the only survivor among those original stands today (and has been so since the Grey Smith Stand was replaced by the Ponsford in 1966), yet now we are prepared to wipe that sole remnant built form away, even while Yarra Park is supposedly a protected place on the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR).

It begs the question in the context of Heritage Victoria's determination; what exactly is the point of Yarra Park's registration on the VHR, excised of all the recreational spaces that are effectively actually part of it, just sitting there protecting little more than a bunch of trees, to which the registration is of course incapable of granting immortality?

Melbourne - Birthplace of the Curvilinear Grandstand

The rapid rise in Victoria’s population owing to the gold rushes that began in the 1850s, and sustained long after the gold ceased rushing by the associated speculative “land boom”, dovetailed perfectly with the rise in popularity of team-based sports such as cricket, rugby and soccer throughout the British Empire and its former colonies.

The Grey Smith Grandstand at the MCG, seen at its opening in 1906.
Ever since the stand's 1966 demolition, the Jack Dyer Stand has been the sole remnant in Yarra Park of the freestanding curvilinear grandstands for which the place is so notable in giving rise to.
Source: Blueseum

Yet Victoria was the first place anywhere on earth where a new football game was codified, and alone of anywhere on earth for codifying a sport that enabled the utilisation of a cricket oval during winter months.

The resultant demand for increased spectator capacity at cricket grounds was thus a uniquely Victorian phenomenon - where the greenfields nature of the new settlement, surrounded by vast tracts of land free of permanent existing structures (if not peoples), enabled the construction of grounds that were truly oval in geometry, which combined with the laws of physics to ensure that the state’s capital city became the premier city anywhere on earth for the emergence and development of the curvilinear grandstand form.

Aerial view of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, with its freestanding curvilinear stands, c.1928 - namely the Northern Grandstand bottom left, Harrison Stand at top, Wardill stand top right, and Grey Smith stand adjacent to an under construction Members Stand, bottom right.
Source: Australian Sports Museum

Today the Melbourne Cricket Ground boasts the second largest spectator capacity of any cricket ground on earth behind India’s Narendra Modi Stadium, and is the 10th largest sportsground by capacity anywhere on earth.

As the table above highlights, on its way to attaining that status in the early years of the 20th century, the MCG was certainly the planet's major location for large scale curvilinear grandstands, boasting no fewer than four such structures built to a scale and degree of elaboration unparalleled at the time for any other cricket venue on earth.

Detail from ‘Aerial View of Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne’, showing the new Southern Stand now the dominant feature at the ground, c.1950
Source: State Library of Victoria

The transformation of the ground from a series of isolated curvilinear stands into a contiguous "stadium" format occured in stages, arguably the most momentous of which was the 1937 construction of the Southern Stand, which presaged by many decades a similar pattern of development at today's largest cricketing arenas.

The global significance of Melbourne's early freestanding curvilinear VFL grandstands in the development of the modern stadium form, cannot therefore be overstated.

Global Comparisons

The next largest cricket ground after the MCG is the 68,000 capacity Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkatta - which has itself hosted cricket matches since the 1860s, but where development to accomodate large numbers of spectators did not occur until well after WWII.

While the country dominates the lists of the world's highest capacity cricketing venues today, cricket in India was in the early years of the 20th century a game predominantly played and enjoyed by social elites. 

The game's growth in popularity as a mass spectator sport did not occur there until well in to the second half of the 20th century, and consequently the place did not contribute in a major way to the early development of the curvilinear grandstand. Most construction at Indian cricket grounds in the years prior to WWII was limited to small pavilions and rectilinear stands.

As the following images indicate, stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground, the only major cricket ground in an Australian city comparable to the MCG in spectator capacity were all rectilinear in form until well into the 20th century.

Stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1911, with 1909 Sheridan pavilion at centre and 1880s Brewongle Stand to its right.
Source: Google Arts & Culture

“Reverse Angle” of stands at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1903, with Brewongle Stand on left, then (L-R) Members pavilion, Lady Members pavilion, Northern Stand and Hill Stand, all built to rectilinear plans.
Source: Wikimedia Commons

The highest capacity cricket venue in New Zealand today is Auckland’s Eden Park, with room for just 48,000 spectators - making it the 17th largest on earth. All other cricket grounds ranked ahead of it for capacity are either in India, where cricket has become the highly populous country’s premier spectator sport by a significant margin, or Australia, where Australian Rules football is played during the winter months at all of the subject grounds.

Stands at The Oval (a geometric misnomer if ever there was one), London in 1950 show a mostly rectilinear form at one end of the ground, with the remainder of the playing field surrounded by uncovered single tier embankments and a small and wholly unstyled grandstand being the only architectural feature at the other end of the ground. When the first Australian national touring side played here in 1880, the MCG was already set to overtake the ground for both architectural significance and spectator capacity
Source: Google Arts & Culture

Many of the playing fields at the main cricket “ovals” in metropolitan areas in the UK are in fact not geometrically ovoid in shape at all. A detailed comparative analysis is beyond the scope of this study, but this is largely a consequence of those grounds mostly being developed within existing and built-up residential areas as opposed to the bounteous expanses of land available for recreation in the country's newer colonies. 

These geographic and demographic realities, coupled with an absence of any utility for the places in the winter months mitigated heavily against British cricket grounds facing similar development pressure to that experienced at Melbourne's VFL-associated venues. 

Consequently the UK made no significant contributions to the development of the curvilinear grandstand form until the latter half of the 20th century, many decades after the Victorian VFL venues had begun pioneering it.

Playing field geometries at all venues used in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup in England/Wales. The only ground which is a true ovoid is the Rose Bowl ground, which was constructed as a greenfields venue in 1987
Source: Sports India Show

Thus the popularity of Australian Rules Football is clearly linked to the enhanced development pressure at cricketing venues that play host to its games, and which thus essentially see year-round utilisation. And the VFL competition's growth in popularity in the early years of the 20th century is clearly linked to the pioneering development of the curvilinear form at its associated venues, and was an important precursor in the emergence of the modern stadium form

Grandstands at Nth Melbourne Recreation Reserve/Arden Street with early curvilinear stand on right - seen here c.1950s. The stand was set back so far from the playing field to accomodate a greyhound track around the playing field at the time of its construction.
Source: State Library of Victoria

The globally pioneering development of the curvilinear grandstand in Victoria is therefore a direct consequence of those two uniquely significant patterns of development in the state’s history - the gold rushes, and the origin, development and growth of Australian rules football.

Conclusion

The Jack Dyer Stand at Punt Road Oval is by far the most significant and representative remnant of the form standing in the State of Victoria today, and is particularly significant as the only remaining representative comparator to the curvilinear form that was pioneered more than anywhere on earth in Yarra Park and in particular the ground's neighbouring Melbourne Cricket Ground.

With the exception of the long demolished Northern and Grey Smith Stands at the MCG, it is also the most architecturally significant such building ever constructed in Victoria. 

As the finest remaining exemplar of its typology and its period, its loss will leave Yarra Park, the Richmond Cricket and Football Clubs, Australian Rules Football, Punt Road Oval, the history of world sport, and indeed the entire State of Victoria so greatly denuded, that it is hard to conclude with any other assessment than that Heritage Victoria has failed tremendously in its duty to posterity, and that the systems of assessment which the body employs are too arbitrary by half in their application.

Architect's render of the uninspired, unremarkable, insipid, ahistorical and anti-spectator substitute Jack Dyer Stand, for which Brendan Gale's Richmond Football Club will now void their own history and foist upon future Melbourne for absolutely no good reason.
Source: Richmond Football Club Redevelopment, Cox Architecture, 2022

How You Can Help

The Executive Director of Heritage Victoria provides recommendations to the Heritage Council, which is a separate body that will make the final adjudication. 

It would be fairly unusual, but not unprecedented for the Heritage Council to make a finding contrary to the Director's recommendation, but as this is our final opportunity to save the Jack Dyer Stand, we are encouraging everyone with an interest to make a submission to the process.

The biggest obstacle for many may be that doing so requires the creation of an account at the Heritage Council's Heritage Hub, but it really is a simple process, akin to creating a new account on any website.

To have your say, just follow these simple steps
PLEASE NOTE SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY SUNDAY JANUARY 29, 2023

STEP 1 (Recommended) - Download Executive Director's Recommendation (PDF)
This step is obviously recommended as this is the document which the Heritage Council will either uphold or reject. The Council is unlikely to consider arguments that do not pertain directly to the document. Talking about your own perception of the place's heritage value is important, but those points should ideally be expressed in terms of "I believe the Executive Director is in error in determining the place is only of local level significance because ..." and then introducing your argument.

Download the Executive Director's Recommendation here:
https://heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/registrations-reviews/executive-director-recommendations/
(see screenshot below to locate exact link)

STEP 2 - Create a Short Word Document (or PDF) of Your Objections

For many this will be the trickiest bit of the application - I don't want to waste too many words here, nor put words in anyone's mouth, but I would be very happy to assist anyone out there in forming their submission. If you're interested please CLICK HERE to send us an email.

I am working on a separate post which will dot-point some of the key bases for objections, and once that is complete will also link that here.

STEP 3 - Create HCV Hub Account

Either use the following link, or click the red "HCV Hub" button shown top right in the screen shot above

https://application-hub.app.planning.vic.gov.au/hc

You should then see a window as follows. Click the "Sign Up" link at the bottom as shown, not the "Sign In" button, to create a new account (or simply add your login details if you already have an account).

Then simply supply your email, first and last names and a secure password as shown below and click "Sign Up". You will then be sent a link to confirm the validity of your email to the address you supplied.

STEP 4 - Login

After confirming your email, you should then be able to login per the following login screen with your HCV Hub credentials.

You can login at any future time again via

https://application-hub.app.planning.vic.gov.au/hc

STEP 5 - Form A Submission

Once logged in, you should see a screen as shown below. Choose the top left option - "Form A Submission"

You will then see a screen as shown below. Feel free to read the content in depth, but it's all just administrative palaver, and you can feel safe in simply clicking the red "Next" button bottom left.

At the next screen, you need to make sure you've selected the checkbox relating to Punt Road Oval (see screenshot below - at the time of writing it appears at the top of the list of recommendations), then click the red "Next" button again, bottom right.

At the next screen, you need simply to fill out your contact details (then click "Next" bottom right)

And the following screen gives you the option of submitting on behalf of one other person. Most people will leave this box unchecked and simply click "Next" again.

At the next screen as seen below - be sure you first select the SECOND option: "Objects to the Executive Director's Recommendation"

Then state a brief summary of your objection in the field shown at 2 above, and attach your full objection document at 3, before clicking the "Next" button.

You should then be able to naviagte quickly through the final couple of screens and should receive an email confirmation of your submission.

If anyone gets into any trouble and needs assictance, either CLICK HERE to email me directly, or for technical support in using and accessing the HCV Hub, including creating a log in, please contact Planning Support on 1800 789 386 (select option 1) or email [email protected]

Again, for anyone who needs any actual help writing a submission, please contact me via the email above, otherwise, we'll be dot pointing a pro forma response for interested readers and pasting a link to it here shortly.

Thanks hugely to anyone who is able to help out.

Curvilinear love and mung beans,

Adam.

Why The Jack Dyer Stand Must Be Saved

The Jack Dyer Stand, Punt Rd Oval - Image Courtesy Graeme Butler, 2022

Heritage Network - Victoria has recently received confirmation that the state's peak heritage body, Heritage Victoria, will formally hear our application to have the Jack Dyer Stand and Punt Road Oval added to the State's Heritage Register.

If Heritage Victoria finds in favour of our submission that the stand is of state-level heritage significance, this will add a new layer of approvals required for any redevelopment of the ground.

The hurdles that would then need to be passed in order to be allowed to completely demolish a building of significance to the entire state are extremely high, such that the Club should then reconsider its plans.

Looking northwest towards the Jack Dyer Stand, with MCG in background c.2020

Architectural render of new proposed Jack Dyer Stand, where the best views and undercover areas would be reserved for corporate facilities. Source: Cox Architecture

City of Melbourne and the former Planning Minister, Richard Wynne, have all previously approved the stand’s demolition within a $60m plan lodged by the Richmond Football Club for the redevelopment of the oval. The State Government has commited $15.5m towards the proposed redevelopment, and the previous LNP Federal Government a similar amount.

A record 46,000 spectators pack Punt Road Oval to watch Richmond’s 15 point loss to Carlton in Round 9, 1946. Source: The Holy Boot's Football Emporium

WHAT DO WE WANT?

HNV is NOT seeking to stop the ground’s redevelopment for improved facilities at AFLW matches, nor prevent the Tigers developing state of the art training facilities. 

HNV is not opposed to the redevelopment of Punt Rd Oval, only to the senseless demolition of significant heritage.

There is plenty of space at the ground to the east of the existing stand for a new training and administration building alongside refurbished seating in the Jack Dyer Stand. It would be the most picturesque ground in the AFLW competition.

Aerial view of Punt Rd Oval, with area available for a new stand/admin facility to the east of the Jack Dyer Stand identified in red. 

HNV calls on our State and Federal Governments to make any funding for the redevelopment of Punt Road Oval conditional upon the retention of the stand, and for the club to revise its existing plans to achieve this.

We call on all all political parties in the forthcoming state election, and in particular candidates for the seat of Richmond to commit to advocate for the stand's retention. We will be contacting all candidates directly, and publishing their responses accordingly.

Richmond v Collingwood 1927 VFL finals series, showing the additional bays built at the Jack Dyer stand’s western end and new stairways. Source: “Richmond FC - The Tigers”, Trevor Ruddell, Slattery Media Group, 2012, p.47 (image from Richmond FC Museum)

As Guy Rundle recently wrote for Crikey, "to simply destroy [the Jack Dyer Stand], to destroy everything like it and imagine that football can retain its soul, is worse than hubris — it’s an error about how things matter and why we hold on to them."

To quote Mr Rundle again from a separate article on the topic, "the question of demolishing something like this shouldn’t even arise. Richmond Football Club should simply be respectful enough of their own history for it to be out of the question."

Rear Facade of the Jack Dyer Stand, as viewed from Yarra Park, 2022 - Image, Adam Ford

HOW CAN I HELP?

If you have any questions, or you would like to support or be involved in the campaign, or to join the mailing list to help Save the Jack Dyer Stand, 

CONTACT HERITAGE NETWORK-VICTORIA (click the image below for email link)

Some further images of the proposed redevelopment (Cox Architecture)

Note that the architects' claim they are respecting the heritage of the place, without even a solitary hint of red brick employed anywhere within the structure, shows just how much bulldust that statement is, and how challenged most contemporary architects are in discerning what heritage context even means.

In fact, architectural history is no longer a mandatory component of most achritecture courses, and this is why you have so many architects graduating without the slightest notion of how to even reference it.

 

WHY IS THE JACK DYER STAND OF MAJOR HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE?

The Jack Dyer Stand at Richmond's Punt Road Oval is of state level, national, and world heritage significance as one of the earliest curvilinear grandstands ever built in Victoria, most likely one of the earliest anywhere on earth, the second-oldest remnant such structure in the state, and for being highly typical of the Victorian (meaning by geography) and Edwardian (by style) interpretations of the form.

The Jack Dyer Stand is further significant to the state of Victoria as;

·         It is the largest and most architecturally significant remnant pre-WWII structure at any former VFL venue, and the largest and most architecturally significant grandstand ever built at a VFL venue outside of the MCG.

·        It is the oldest and most architecturally significant grandstand structure within the Yarra Park Sporting precinct, a title it has held for over 60 years following the 1966 demolition of the 1906 Grey Smith Stand at the MCG.

·        It is a major public work by the important early architectural firm of Thomas Watts and Sons, whose private works are represented extensively on the Victorian Heritage Register, and for its associations with two of the three most significant architects in the history of grandstand design in the state in Thomas Watts and Frank Stapley.

·        It is the only unprotected and intact Edwardian grandstand in Melbourne, and by far the largest, most intact and architecturally elaborate of all the state’s remnant Edwardian grandstands.

·        It contributes significantly to view lines from within and towards Yarra Park - a place already found to be of major significance to the state for its foundational status among the state’s recreation reserves.

·        It is representative of the built form associated with the major wave of construction within the originally gazetted parklands, as driven by the growth in popularity of the Victorian Football League in the early years of the 20th century, and is significant for being a highly typical example of that built form.

·        The Jack Dyer Stand and Punt Road Oval are of historical and social significance to the state of Victoria for their associations with the development of the Richmond Cricket Club, the Victorian Football League and one of its most significant participant clubs - the Richmond Football Club, and for their consequent association with some of the most important historical figures in the development of the two most popular spectator sports of cricket and Australian rules football within the state.

·        Both the stand and the wider place – Punt Road Oval are more architecturally, historically and socially significant to the state on the above bases than the Victorian Heritage Registered ovals and grandstands at the former South Melbourne Cricket Ground and Victoria Park, Abbotsford or any such VHR-registered stands in regional Victoria, and therefore warrant the same level of protection.

Punt Rd Oval - A Pictorial History

Pre-European Settlement

Yarra Park and the area occupied today by Punt Rd Oval were observed on European settlement to be a popular summer camping and gathering place for the Wurundjeri-willam people of the Woi wurrung language group, from whence the men hunted kangaroo, possum, emu, bandicoot and brush turkey. These practices likely dated back tens of thousands of years.

The area continued to be similarly utilised by indigenous groups through the 1840s, including as a ngarrga (dance) and ceremonial ground.

1837

Yarra Park area established as a formal Government Reserve.

Annotated detail from “Sketch plan and map showing Melbourne and detail of block of land adjacent to Government reserve”, C.J. La Trobe, 1940
1 - Mounted Police, 2 - Native Police, 3 - Langhorne’s Aboriginal Mission, 4 - Gov. La Trobe’s Cottage, 5 - Capt. Lonsdale’s (Police Magistrate’s) Cottage.
Source: State Library of NSW, Call No. D Ca 84/23

1850

Reservation of lands for a “Yarra Park” first announced by Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe, but this is not formally gazetted until 1873.

1855

The Richmond Cricket Club successfully applies to play its home games in Yarra Park on a site to the east of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The area was initially known as the Richmond Cricket Ground.

1856

The first documented match at the Richmond Cricket Ground was played by the club on 27 December.

Detail from early 1870s ‘Panorama of Melbourne taken from Government House tower’, showing Richmond Cricket Ground with original wooden pavilion far left. Source: State Library of NSW, Call Number ON 4 Box 70 No 41a

1858

A meeting critical to the codification of Australian Rules Football was held at the Richmond Cricket Ground on Saturday 31 July when cricketer James ‘Jerry’ Bryant, stated he ‘would have a ball to practise on the Richmond cricket ground, after which a meeting would be held to draw up rules’

Looking northwest from within Yarra Park near the Richmond Cricket Ground towards the “Richmond Paddock” where an early game of Australian rules football is underway. The MCG with its original wooden pavilion can be seen on left. Source: ‘Australiasian Sketcher’, July 27, 1866, State Library of Victoria

The first recorded matches of Australian Rules football are played in Yarra Park, aka “Richmond Paddock”, adjacent and to the north-west of the Richmond Cricket Ground, and the place continues to host Australian Rules games into the 1870s.

“The Metropolitan Cricket Grounds’, 1874, looking north-west from around Punt Rd today across the Richmond Cricket Ground with its early wooden pavilion building on right. Source: State Library of Victoria, Accession Number H18227

1862

The Richmond Cricket Ground was reputedly the first Victorian ground on which the first touring All England XI played during their momentous inaugural Australian visit.

Buildings at the Richmond Cricket Ground/Punt Rd Oval in 1894, showing covered areas at the western end of the ground, and caretakers residence top left. Source: SLV

c.1880

The first Members Pavillion from the MCG is relocated to the Richmond Cricket Ground.

Looking northerly from the western end of Punt Road Oval, with covered marquee structure to the left of the relocated former MCG Members Pavilion, c.1910

1885

The Richmond Football Club is formed and the club both trains and plays its home games in the amateur VFA competition at the Richmond Cricket Ground.

1904

The newly formed Hawthorn Football Club briefly plays its home games in the Metropolitan Junior Football Association at the Cricket Ground/Punt Road Oval, before moving to the East Melbourne Cricket Ground for the 1905 season.

1908

The Richmond Football Club is admitted along with University into an expanded VFL competition.

1913 Plans for Construction of the Jack Dyer Stand - Public Record Office of Victoria, VPRS 7882

1914

Stage one of the Jack Dyer Stand is completed (originally known as the Dave Chessell Stand).

The Jack Dyer Stand, seen prior to its enlargement - Richmond v Fitzroy, Round 4, 1924
Source: Caruso, Santo., et al. Football Grounds of Melbourne / Santo Caruso with Mark Fiddian and Jim Main. Pennon Publishing, 2002, p.129

1920-1

The Richmond Football Club wins its first VFL Premiership in 1920, and then goes "back to back", defeating Carlton in the Grand Final the following year.

1927

Stage two development extends the Chessell/Jack Dyer Stand to the west

1931

Jack Dyer plays his debut game for the Richmond Football Club

Richmond unfurl their 1933 Premiership flag before the eastern end of the Jack Dyer Stand. Source: Richmond FC

1933-4

Richmond go "back to back" for the second time, winning two VFL Premierships in successive years

Detail from ‘Aerial view of Richmond’ c. 1930, with Jack Dyer Stand and Caretaker’s Residence/Melbourne City Council nursery with associated outbuildings. Source: SLV

1936

VFL Commission narrowly rejects a proposal to relocate the Tigers’ home ground to John Wren’s Melbourne Motordrome (roughly the site of AAMI Park today) by a single vote.

1938

The Ernest A King, aka Cricketers Stand is added immediately south-west of the Jack Dyer stand. The stand’s surrounds are terraced in concrete, and a new scoreboard is added at the ground’s SE corner.

Looking west over Punt Rd Oval in 1945 with Jack Dyer Stand on right, Melbourne City Council Nursery top right, Ernest A King Stand top centre and scoreboard bottom left. Source: SLV

1940s

A war funds fundraiser match takes place at the ground between a “Combined Services” side and a VFL combination team. Singer Gracie Fields also entertains the crowd.

Detail from “RAAF Football Team” showing stairways with original balustrading, and decorative elements on post supports, since removed, Jack Dyer Stand, 1942. Source: SLV

The ground is briefly tenanted by the Melbourne Football Club during and immediately after WWII, when the MCG was in use as a military base, making the Demons the third VFL/AFL club to have ever called Punt Road Oval home.

1941

Jack Dyer is appointed as Captain and playing coach of the Richmond Football Club.

Another full house at the Jack Dyer Stand, c.1940s. Source: SLV

1946

The ground achieves its all-time official record attendance of 46,000 spectators at a Richmond v Carlton game.

Detail of a capacity Jack Dyer Stand, 1946. Source: “Richmond FC - The Tigers”, Trevor Ruddell, Slattery Media Group, 2012, p.87 (image from Richmond FC Museum)

1949

Jack Dyer retires as playing coach of the Richmond Football Club but continues on as the club’s coach. By this time, he has kicked a total 443 VFL goals, and been voted the club's best and fairest player four years in a row from 1937 – 1940 as well as in 1946. To this day, he holds the club record for the highest number of best and fairest awards.

Looking westerly from terraced embankments past the Jack Dyer Stand, with Ernest King Stand in background, c.1953. Source: SLV

1952

Jack Dyer is sacked as coach of the Richmond Football Club, and enters a new phase in his career as a media commentator.

1960

A small single storey brick structure is added to the east of the Jack Dyer stand.

Looking north-easterly past the Jack Dyer Stand, with 1960s brick additions, mid-2000s

1964

Punt Road is widened by around 50 ft, claiming much of the ground’s outer on its eastern side, and reducing ground capacity to around 22,000 spectators. The Richmond Football Club moves its home games to the MCG, retaining Punt Rd as its training and administration base.

Evolution of the caretaker’s residence and surrounds in aerial photos. Source: Cox Architecture, pp 14-15

Late 1970s

The caretaker’s residence was demolished sometime post 1974, and is today a fenced off area used for the preparation of the MCG’s “drop in” cricket pitches. A further bitumen area for car parking was added on the northern side of the Jack Dyer Stand around this time.

Aerial view of Yarra Park 2022, with cricket pitch preparation area. Source: Google Earth

1980

The Cricketers Stand is re-modeled as a new Social Club/administration building, aka “Tigerland”. Alterations are also made to the Jack Dyer Stand around this time, altering the roofline and replacing elements of the stairways with cyclone mesh

1979 plans for alterations to the Jack Dyer Stand. Source: Public Record Office of Victoria

1996

The Jack Dyer Stand is formally renamed in honour of the club great.

Dyer is admitted as one of only 12 inaugural “Legends” in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

2003

Jack Dyer passes away.

Commemorative celebration at Punt Road Oval in honour of Jack Dyer, after his death in 2003 (‘17’ was Dyer’s guernsey number). Source: Richmond FC

2010

Following years of campaigning by the Football Club, the Richmond Cricket Club moves its home games to Mt Waverley, ending their 155-year association with the ground.

2011

The old Social Club/”Tigerland” is demolished for the new David Mandie Building, aka Swinburne Centre.

2014

The 1930s scoreboard is replaced by a new, modern version.

Locked out fans do their best to catch a glimpse of Richmond’s last pre-Grand Final Punt Road Oval training session from the Punt Rd perimeter, 2017. Source: Fox Sports

2017

Lockout scenes are witnessed at Punt Road Oval for the first time in over fifty years, as Richmond fans flock to the ground to witness the team’s training for their first Grand Final appearance since 1982.

2020

Richmond gains entry to the AFLW competition, with the team playing home games at Punt Road Oval.

2021

Richmond Football Club announces plans to demolish the Jack Dyer stand within a wider redevelopment of the ground.

Western end of the Jack Dyer Stand with glazed enclosure, as viewed from Yarra Park, 2022. Image: Adam Ford

2022

State government announces funding for the ground redevelopment.

Melbourne City Council and Planning Minister Richard Wynne approve plans to demolish the Jack Dyer Stand.

Jack Dyer Stand nominated for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Jack Dyer Stand, as viewed from Brunton Ave., 2022. Image: Adam Ford