Qualla: Sydney Cricket Ground

Sydney Cricket Ground: Introduction

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit J Bar, CC BY 2.5. For three days in late November 2014, the whole of Australia held its breath over a patch of grass at Moore Park. A bouncer from Sean Abbott had struck Phillip Hughes on the neck, and the 25-year-old batsman never regained consciousness. He died on 27 November, two days short of his 26th birthday. Bats appeared on doorsteps across the country, propped up in a gesture that needed no explanation. That a single cricket ground could become the focus of a nation's grief tells you something about what the Sydney Cricket Ground means here. This is not just a venue. It is a place where Australians have gathered to celebrate, to argue, and occasionally to mourn, for a century and a half.

Read more: Sydney Cricket Ground on Qualla

Image: J Bar | CC BY 2.5

Sydney Cricket Ground: From Rubbish Dump to Hallowed Turf

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. The ground's beginnings were unglamorous. In the 1850s, this corner of the second Sydney Common was part sandhills, part swamp, and partly a rubbish dump. In 1851 a slice of it was handed to the British Army as a garden and cricket pitch for the soldiers of Victoria Barracks. The...

Read more: Sydney Cricket Ground on Qualla

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Sydney Cricket Ground: The Don and the Crowds He Drew

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Adam.J.W.C., CC BY-SA 2.5. No name is woven more tightly into the SCG than Bradman. In the 1929 to 1930 season, Don Bradman scored 452 not out here for New South Wales against Queensland, the highest first-class innings then recorded anywhere on earth. The crowds came in numbers the ground has never seen s...

Read more: Sydney Cricket Ground on Qualla

Image: Adam.J.W.C. | CC BY-SA 2.5

Sydney Cricket Ground: The Hill and Its Voices

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jason L, CC BY-SA 4.0. For most of its life the SCG had the Hill, a grassy bank with no seating where the cheapest tickets bought you a spot on the slope. It was the realm of the working-class fan, and above all of Stephen Harold Gascoigne, the rabbitoh and bottle-merchant remembered simply as Yabba. H...

Read more: Sydney Cricket Ground on Qualla

Image: Jason L | CC BY-SA 4.0

Sydney Cricket Ground: Every Code, One Ground

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Simon_sees on Flickr, CC BY 2.0. Cricket built the SCG, but it has hosted nearly every game Australians play. More than 1,390 top-grade rugby league premiership matches have been staged here, more than any ground in the country, and between 1913 and 1987 the Sydney grand final was almost always played on this tu...

Read more: Sydney Cricket Ground on Qualla

Image: Simon_sees on Flickr | CC BY 2.0