Claremont Showground
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Claremont Showground, Perth, Australia — opened 1905, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of primarily home to the annual Perth Royal Show and Claremont Speedway (1927-2000, reportedly among the longest-running speedway venues of its type); Australian Rules football (WAFL) has also been played here; no rugby league club was ever a tenant — two one-off Western Australia representative fixtures against touring international sides.
Sourcing caveat: Floodlight and playing-surface details for the 1950/51 era were not found in any source. A specialist WA rugby league history source describes the 1951 crowd as "over 15,000... a record crowd," a mild rounding discrepancy against the 14,500 figure independently confirmed here directly from Rugby League Project.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1905 (The showground site was reserved in 1902 and the first Perth Royal Agricultural Show was held there in October-November 1905 — decades before its first rugby league use in 1950; readers should not conflate the venue's opening with its rugby league history.) |
| Home club | primarily home to the annual Perth Royal Show and Claremont Speedway (1927-2000, reportedly among the longest-running speedway venues of its type); Australian Rules football (WAFL) has also been played here; no rugby league club was ever a tenant — two one-off Western Australia representative fixtures against touring international sides |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 14,500 |
| Capacity | approximately 10,000 for WAFL matches today, up to 40,000 for large events — modern-era figures not necessarily reflective of 1950/51 conditions, when a 14,500 crowd likely stood on open banks |
| Test matches hosted | 2 |
| First rugby league match | 14 May 1950 — Western Australia 4-87 Great Britain, 1950 Great Britain Lions tour (attendance 7,000) |
| Years used | 1950–1951 |
| Location | Perth, Western Australia |
Name history
- Claremont Showground — also informally "Claremont Royal Showgrounds" — no substantive renaming identified
Rugby league history
Both matches were the Western Australian rugby league competition's flagship early fixtures against touring international sides during the WARL's formative years, with the touring side each time continuing on to contest the full Ashes/international series in the eastern states — the 1951 French side went on to win the Ashes in Sydney. A specialist Western Australian rugby league history source describes the 1951 match as featuring a notable kicking duel between France's legendary fullback Puig-Aubert and WA's own Bob Sampson, though this detail comes from a single source.
Home of the annual Perth Royal Show and, from 1927-2000, Claremont Speedway.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 14 May 1950 — Western Australia 4-87 Great Britain (7,000)
- 26 August 1951 — Western Australia 23-70 France, 1951 French rugby league tour of Australia and New Zealand (attendance 14,500, our recorded top crowd) — independently re-verified via a direct fetch of Rugby League Project's own venue results page
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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