The Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known simply as "The G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne. The birthplace of Australian Football and Test Cricket was built in 1853 and remains today Australia’s most iconic sporting venue.
It has been the home of Australian football since 1859, and was the birthplace of Test cricket in 1877 and one-day international cricket in 1971.
It was the main stadium for the 1956 Olympic Games and 2006 Commonwealth Games, attracts up to 100,000 fans to the annual AFL Grand Final and the ‘G comes to life each Christmas at the Boxing Day Test.
Other sporting spectacles to have been held there include World Cup soccer qualifiers, rugby league home and away matches and State of Origin, international rugby union and Austral Wheel Races.
But the ‘G, as it is affectionately known to locals, is so much more than Australia’s biggest sporting stadium. It has hosted Papal and Royal visits and housed US Marines, the US Army airforces and our own RAAF during World War II. It has also been a concert venue for international and local performers, held open days, charity events, dinners and many more.
Nestled in Yarra Park, about a 10-minute walk from the heart of the city, the MCG is open every day of the year for events and functions and tourists and the general public alike can visit seven days a week.