Carisbrook

Lore & Background

Located at the foot of The Glen, a steep valley, the ground was flanked by the South Island Main Trunk Railway and the Hillside Railway Workshops, two miles southwest of Dunedin city centre in the suburb of Caversham. State Highway 1 also ran close to the northern perimeter of the ground. Carisbrook was named after the estate of early colonial settler James Macandrew (itself named after Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight). Developed during the 1870s, it was first used for international cricket in 1883, when Otago hosted a team from Tasmania, and for Test cricket from 1955. It hosted rugby union internationals from 1908. In 1922, Carisbrook hosted the first international football match between Australia and New Zealand. The hosts won 3–1. Floodlit since the 1990s, it could cater for both day and night fixtures. Known locally simply as 'The Brook', it was branded with the name 'The House of Pain', due to its reputation as a difficult venue for visiting rugby teams. The stadium was home to both the Highlanders in Super Rugby and Otago in the ITM Cup through each team's respective 2011 season. It also hosted 38 All Blacks test matches. It is also the former home of Otago cricket, which moved to the University Oval at Logan Park in the north of the city after its redevelopment in the early 2000s. Between 1884 and 2008 Carisbrook hosted 252 first-class cricket matches, including, between 1955 and 1998, 10 Test cricket matches. It was also the home ground of Otago United in the New Zealand Football Championship, which moved to the lower-capacity Sunnyvale Park for the 2008–09 season.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights hummed against the darkening sky as the All Blacks lined up on the grass. A hush fell over The Shed before the roar began, a sound that vibrated through the wooden seats. One last tackle echoed off the hills before the stadium lights were switched off forever, leaving only the wind to mourn the empty ground.

Reader's Guide

The ground's final regular capacity was around 30,000, but it hosted crowds as high as 42,000 with temporary seating. Until 1998 the teams of the Caversham bypass motorway allowed a free view of the ground and was known as the 'Scotsman's Grandstand'. Occasionally trains would slow to a crawl or stop on the track above the stadium, allowing passengers to watch. In 1998 a new stand and corporate boxes were built that blocked the view. Partly due to Dunedin's relatively large number of tertiary students (20,000 of the city's 120,000 population), Carisbrook had a unique atmosphere. This was enhanced by the terraces, an uncovered concrete embankment at the eastern end of the ground. The closure of Carisbrook was first announced in 2006, to be replaced as a rugby venue by a 30,000 capacity covered stadium built in Dunedin North. Construction and ownership of the new $NZ 198 million stadium, officially named the Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza, would be overseen by the Carisbrook Stadium Trust. Until the new stadium was completed, all international and Super Rugby games were still held at Carisbrook, with the last scheduled match played against Wales on 19 June 2010, and a later Test match played New Zealand and Fiji as a fundraiser for the Christchurch earthquake appeal on 22 July 2011. The All Blacks played against every major Test-playing nation at Carisbrook at least once. In 2011, the Dunedin City Council decided that Carisbrook would be sold after the 2011 Rugby World Cup – which featured no matches at Carisbrook. Demolition began at the start of 2012, with the floodlight towers being dismantled and sent to Christchurch for use by the new temporary Christchurch Rugby Stadium at Addington Showgrounds. Originally the floodlights were to be reused at the University Oval for day/night cricket matches. The corporate box stand, which was only 14 years old, was always designed to be dismantled for use elsewhere, and there are proposals to move parts of the structure to University Oval and some to Queenstown's Stadium. The turnstile building on Neville Street is a category I historic building and were protected during any potential developments on the site. Carisbrook was sold to the Dunedin City Council in 2009 for $7,000,000. It was sold on in 2013 for $4,700,000.

Did You Know?

• The first rugby Test at Carisbrook was in 1908 (New Zealand vs Anglo-Welsh), not 1905 or 1935.
• The final Test match at Carisbrook was in 2011 (All Blacks vs Fiji), not 2008.
• Demolition began at the start of 2012, not 2014.
• The nickname 'The House of Pain' referred to the stadium, not 'The Shed'.
• The venue was 'sometimes incorrectly referred to as Carisbrook Stadium'.