About Us

The Pavilion

The Victoria Park Pavilion (access from Halsey Street) is the home of Grafton United Cricket Club, Auckland and District Pipe Band and Northern Regional Football Referees. This building is owned by the Victoria Park Sports & Cultural Trust (VPS&CT). The VPS&CT leases to the Auckland Council the changing room facilities, toilets, and groundsmen facilities, for the benefit and use of the public who enjoy the use of Victoria Park.

History of Victoria Park

• 1905: Opened and named after the Queen who had died four years earlier.

• 1908-11: Hosts first-class cricket (Auckland Cricket Association).

• 1910: First ever match of international rugby league played on New Zealand soil when Great Britain played against the New Zealand Māori.

• 1918: During the 1918 flu pandemic the park was used as an open-air depot for the storage of the bodies of the many hundreds who died. The Pavilion was used as a temporary morgue.

• 1942-45: During WW2, the park was used for accommodation of the US Armed Forces and covered with temporary huts.

• 1960: The kindergarten moved to Tahuna Street, and the vacated building was occupied jointly by Grafton United Cricket Club, Ponsonby Soccer Club, and the Auckland and District Pipe Band.

• 1962: The four-lane Victoria Park Viaduct was constructed overtop of the park, as a part of the Auckland North Motorway.

• 1989: Auckland City receives ownership of Victoria Park from the Auckland Harbour Board.

• 1992: The Victoria Park Sports and Cultural Trust (VPS&CT) founded.

• 2007: Auckland Football Referees (now Northern Regional Football) join the VPS&CT.