Bundaberg Showground
Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia
Bundaberg Showground, Bundaberg, Australia — opened not confirmed, 9 rugby league games hosted, home of not a dedicated rugby league club home ground — hosted Wide Bay representative matches against touring international sides; Bundaberg's regular rugby league home ground is the separate Salter Oval, home of the Bundaberg Grizzlies.
Sourcing caveat: A separately reported 1967 "Bundaberg Centenary Match" (Bundaberg 12-31 Australia) is recorded only as being played generically "at Bundaberg," without confirming whether that was this Showground or Salter Oval; it does not appear in the Showground's own 9-match Rugby League Project ledger, so it is not included above as a Showground fixture.
Ground facts
| Opened | not confirmed (The showground itself existed by the late 1920s (agricultural shows are photographically documented there from around 1928), well before rugby league use began in 1946, but no specific founding or opening year was found.) |
| Home club | not a dedicated rugby league club home ground — hosted Wide Bay representative matches against touring international sides; Bundaberg's regular rugby league home ground is the separate Salter Oval, home of the Bundaberg Grizzlies |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 9 |
| Top recorded crowd | 12,672 |
| Capacity | not confirmed |
| Challenge Cup Finals hosted | 1 |
| Floodlights installed | not confirmed |
| Surface | not confirmed |
| First rugby league match | 25 June 1946 — Wide Bay 12-16 England, Lions tour (attendance 6,356) |
| Years used | 1946–1991 |
| Location | Bundaberg, Queensland |
Name history
Rugby league history
Bundaberg Showground's rugby league role was almost entirely as a large-capacity venue for touring international sides — England/Great Britain's "Lions" and France's "Chanticleers" — to play the Wide Bay regional representative team, spanning nearly 40 years from 1946 to 1984. Its highest-profile day of rugby league came later, in February 1991, when it hosted a Brisbane Broncos fixture as part of a Lotto Challenge Cup doubleheader, in just the Broncos' fourth NSWRL/NRL season. Outside these occasional showcase matches, the ground's primary identity both before and after this period is as Bundaberg's agricultural show and events venue rather than a purpose-built or regularly used football ground.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 17 February 1991 — Brisbane Broncos 24-10 North Sydney Bears, Lotto Challenge Cup Round 1, attendance 12,672 (a doubleheader with Newcastle Knights 22-20 Balmain Tigers on the same day, reported at the same attendance figure — likely a single combined crowd count rather than two independently ticketed ones)
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.
← Rugby League · Champions list · All-time records · Grand Final results · World Cup · All competitions · Teams · Players