Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16)

Curated by Adelaide Park Lands Association

The largest single park of the Adelaide Park Lands, Victoria Park (also known as Pakapakanthi or simply Park 16) historically has had a strong connection with horse racing, and motor racing among other sporting and recreational activities.


The Park is so large that it may take more than two hours to cover it all.

If you prefer, it can be easily broken up into smaller sections.


We commence on the corner of East Terrace and South Terrace and will come back here after walking a loop of about two and a half kilometres.

35-01 Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi in context

Covering 72 hectares, it represents about 10% of the entire Adelaide Park Lands, the largest single Park within them. Victoria Park/Pakapakanthi is bounded by Wakefield Road to the north, Fullarton Road to the east, Greenhill Road to the south, and…

35-03 The "Green Corridor" in Victoria Park

This so-called "green corridor" for commuters extends from Halifax Street right across the Park to Fullarton Road. It provides pedestrians and cyclists with an attractive passage between the city and the eastern suburbs. While this route…

35-04 Petanque Piste in Victoria Park

Other parts of Victoria Park are well used for a wide variety of intensive sports and recreation - from running and cycling, to equestrian activities. However not all of the sporting activities here require physical strength or fitness. This flat…

35-05 Sweat Track in Victoria Park

The sweat course includes opportunities for running, step-ups, bar dips (for triceps) a sit-up station, pull-ups (i.e. chin-ups) for biceps, log-lifts, and hurdles. There are also other, more recently installed exercise stations which create a…

35-06 Stone-lined Botanic Creek in Victoria Park

This waterway doesn't flow all year, but after rain it channels water through the eastern Park Lands and eventually drains into the Botanic Gardens lake about a kilometre north. It is unclear from City Council records exactly when the channel…

35-07 Equestrian jumps in Victoria Park

This structure plays no role for most of the year, but it becomes very important during three very special days, Horse racing left Victoria Park after 2007. However the Kaurna name of the Park - Pakapakanthi - is still relevant during Australia;s…

35-08 Olive grove in Victoria Park

By the 1860s, due to the effects of grazing and clearing for firewood, most of the Park Lands had become bare dust-bowls in summer and quagmires in winter. Concern over the aesthetic degradation led to an increased public demand during the…

35-09 Motor racing in Victoria Park

Motor racing came to Victoria Park in 1985 and annual events were held in most years up until 2019. Despite the popularity of motor sport at Victoria Park, there were also many people who questioned the disruption and alienation caused by these…

35-10 Horse racing history in Victoria Park

The white concrete planter bowl you can see here was previously the centrepiece of a rectangular garden, which was itself at the centre of the former stables area. If you look around you at the arrangement of ash, cedar, elm, plane, and Norfolk…

35-11 Victoria Park grandstand

It is constructed of bluestone with red-brick dressings, timber-framed openings (including some stained-glass windows), corrugated-galvanised-iron roof, and timber and cast-iron detailing in typical Victorian era style. This building was State…

35-12 Gates, RAC building & turnstiles in Victoria Park

From left to right (looking from inside the park), they are the the former offices of the Adelaide Racing Club (built 1954) the turnstile building (built 1926) and the Grandstand Entrance Gates (built 1954). The turnstile building, erected in 1926,…

35-13 Britannia Roundabouts next to Victoria Park

This place is known locally as the Britannia roundabouts – the name coming from the hotel that overlooks the busy intersection. There are few roundabouts within the City of Adelaide. Most major intersections have traffic lights instead. But here,…

35-14 Dragon Blood tree in Victoria Park

This tree is native to a small island off the horn of Africa in the Arabian sea - the island of Socotra, where the species is endangered. The island is part of the war-torn country of Yemen which is hundreds of kilometres away to the north, …

35-15 Former beer and refreshment stand in Victoria Park

This small blue building looks relatively modern but somewhat surprisingly, dates from the 1880s. During the days of horse racing, it provided beer and other refreshments to race goers. In 2017 it was converted to a kiosk. Now, walk south…

35-16 Central area for sports fields in Victoria Park

Dog off-leash area The central area of Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi is also a popular off-leash dog walking area. But canine association with Victoria Park has not always been so genteel. Back in the 1800's “coursing” matches were held here. …

35-17 Rare butterfly habitat in Victoria Park

The native grasses here have survived in this small patch, despite more than 180 years of European settlement. They include species such as Spear grass, Early Nancy, Tiny Star, and Garland Lily. This is one of the very last places on the Adelaide…

35-19 South Park Lands Creek and wetlands in Victoria Park

The creek is not a natural watercourse but an artificial drainage channel that was built in 1917 to channel water away from the Greenhill Road - Fullarton Road intersection, and through the South Park Lands. Over the following century, the condition…

35-20 Urban Woodland in Victoria Park

Way back in 1889 this urban woodland (in what was then Park 16A) was the site of the inaugural Arbor Day in Australia. This was a predecessor to the Landcare movement. The first Arbor Day featured a massive communal act of tree planting. About…