WACA Ground
Perth (East Perth), Western Australia, Australia
WACA Ground, Perth (East Perth), Australia — opened 1893, 74 rugby league games hosted, home of Western Reds / Perth Reds (rugby league, home ground 1995–1997); primarily the home of the Western Australia cricket team and the WACA.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1893 (1893 is the ground's own opening (on former swamp land east of Perth), per Wikipedia; the first turf-wicket cricket match followed in February 1894. This predates any rugby league use by decades — rugby league only began appearing there in 1957.) |
| Home club | Western Reds / Perth Reds (rugby league, home ground 1995–1997); primarily the home of the Western Australia cricket team and the WACA |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 74 |
| Top recorded crowd | 24,932 |
| Years used | 1957–1997 |
| Location | Perth (East Perth), Western Australia |
Name history
- WACA Ground — 1893–present, named for its operator, the Western Australian Cricket Association
Rugby league history
The WACA is overwhelmingly a cricket ground — the historic home of Western Australian and international Test cricket — but it carries a real, if secondary, rugby league history. Rugby League Project records 74 rugby league matches there, starting with a 1957 Great Britain Lions World Cup tour match and touring French ('Chanticleers') games in 1964 and 1990. In August 1989 it hosted the NSWRL's first-ever match played outside New South Wales or Queensland — Canberra vs Canterbury, drawing 21,992 — part of a run of NSWRL exhibition/showcase matches there through to 1994. It became a genuine home ground when Western Australia's first professional club, the Western Reds, entered the ARL in 1995: their debut, a 28-16 win over St George on 12 March 1995, drew a record WACA rugby league crowd of 24,392. The club (renamed Perth Reds) played on through the 1996 ARL season and the 1997 Super League season, and the WACA also hosted three 1997 World Club Challenge matches, with Perth facing Sheffield Eagles, Castleford Tigers and Paris Saint-Germain.
Primarily a Test and first-class cricket ground (home of the WA cricket team and, historically, the WACA itself); also hosted Australian rules football over the same era.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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