The concept of a Women's Memorial Playing Fields emanated from the concern of sporting women for the lack of playing areas. From this concern the South Australian Women's Amateur Sports Council was formed in 1953.
The Premier the Hon Tom Playford set aside 20 acres of reserve land on the corner of Shepherds Hill Road and Ayliffes Road, St Marys for a centre for women's sport.
From 1953-55 the fields progressed and prospered. In 1956 to honour those who had paid the supreme sacrifice, a memorial drinking fountain was erected, and the grounds as a whole were dedicated to the South Australia Servicewomen who served in World Wars I & II by the Reverend Leslie Gunn. A Bangka ceremony, remembering the nurses and other women in the services, is held each February.
The work of early Trust members is commemorated in the naming of the Helen Black oval, the Gordon Brown oval and the May Mills Pavilion.
The Women's Memorial Playing fields are the only dedicated women's memorial of this calibre in Australia.
The Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing (ORSR) and Department for Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) are upgrading the Women’s Memorial Playing Fields, St Marys to deliver an enhanced sporting precinct.
Amenities which will be upgraded include:
Project timelines:
Bangka Day 2021 will be held at Government House and will return to Women’s Memorial Playing Fields in 2022.
Women's Memorial Playing Fields
Cnr Shepherds Hill Road and Ayliffes Road
St Marys SA 5042
Operator
Office for Recreation, Sport and Racing
Phone: 1300 714 990
Blackwood Hockey
Cumberland United Women's Soccer
Sturt Lacrosse
Will be updated after construction is complete.
We acknowledge and respect Aboriginal peoples as South Australia's first peoples and nations, we recognise Aboriginal peoples as traditional owners and occupants of land and waters in South Australia and that their spiritual, social, cultural and economic practices come from their traditional lands and waters; and they maintain their cultural and heritage beliefs, languages and laws which are of ongoing importance; We pay our respects to their ancestors and to their Elders.