Brisbane Exhibition Ground
Brisbane (Bowen Hills), Queensland, Australia
Brisbane Exhibition Ground, Brisbane (Bowen Hills), Australia — opened 1876, 456 rugby league games hosted, home of None (shared home venue for multiple Brisbane Rugby League premiership clubs, pre-Lang Park era).
Sourcing caveat: Sources describe rugby league fading from the ground as the QRL gradually shifted its major fixtures to Lang Park, but no source found gives a precise year the venue stopped hosting rugby league entirely (or a formal 'closure' date for rugby league use) — that detail is omitted rather than guessed.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1876 (1876 is when the showgrounds themselves opened (as the Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition venue); rugby league specifically was not played there until the code's earliest Queensland seasons from 1908 onward.) |
| Home club | None (shared home venue for multiple Brisbane Rugby League premiership clubs, pre-Lang Park era) |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 456 |
| Top recorded crowd | 40,500 |
| Test matches hosted | 2 |
| First rugby league match | QLD Firsts 12-34 New Zealand, 16 May 1908, attendance 2,500 (Rugby League Project) |
| Years used | 1908–1970 |
| Location | Brisbane (Bowen Hills), Queensland |
Name history
- Queensland Intercolonial Exhibition Ground — 1876
- Brisbane Exhibition Ground / RNA Showgrounds — since; also known as "The Ekka" showgrounds
Rugby league history
Long before Lang Park (Suncorp Stadium) became Queensland rugby league's home, the Brisbane Exhibition Ground hosted the code's earliest interstate, international-tour and Brisbane Rugby League premiership fixtures, with clubs including North Brisbane, Fortitude Valley, South Brisbane, Ipswich, Carlton and Wests all playing there across the ground's 456 recorded matches. Its rugby league heyday peaked with the 1946 Great Britain Lions tour Test against Australia, drawing an estimated 50,000-plus (attendance plus locked-out fans) on the tour that delivered Great Britain's first Ashes series win on Australian soil. The venue also hosted first-class and Test cricket between 1893 and 1931 (including Don Bradman's Test debut in 1928/29) before both cricket and rugby league moved to purpose-built grounds — cricket to the Gabba after 1930/31, and rugby league eventually to Lang Park.
Far better known today as the Brisbane Showgrounds, permanent home of the Royal Queensland Show ("the Ekka"), Queensland's largest annual agricultural and industrial exhibition, held every August since the 19th century; the site also hosted first-class and Test cricket 1893-1931.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 2 Jul 1910 — Australia 17-22 Northern Union (Ashes Series tour match), attendance 18,000
- 6 Jul 1946 — England (Great Britain Lions) v Australia, attendance 40,500 with a further estimated 10,000 locked out — the ground's highest recorded attendance for any sport, from the tour on which Great Britain won its first Ashes series on Australian soil
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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