Perry Park

Perry Park is a 5000-capacity sporting ground located in the Brisbane suburb of Bowen Hills. Perry Park is home to the Brisbane Strikers Football Club, which plays in the National Premier Leagues Queensland.

Perry Park is owned by Brisbane City Council, and managed by the YMCA, who run facilities in the complex. Brisbane Strikers hold a sub-lease from the YMCA.

History

Scotsman William Raff was granted ownership of the land in 1857. He then subdivided the land in 1875, and the lot where Perry Park is now situated was sold to William Perry, among three other lots. Mr Perry was a prominent Brisbane ironmonger. He used the land essentially as his family cattle and horse paddock.

In the 1940s it was used as a base for the Z Special Unit of the Australian, British and New Zealand armed forces for their 1943 raid on Japanese occupied Singapore harbour. The ground was the home of Mayne Football Club and Valleys Cricket Club from 1925 to 1942 and 1948 to 1967.

Brisbane City Council acquired the land for soccer grounds in 1967 and converted the oval into two rectangular pitches with the main pitch along Abbotsford Road allocated as the main Perry Park stadium.

In 1977, Perry Park Stadium hosted its first National Soccer League (NSL) game between Brisbane City and Sydney club Marconi Fairfield.

Perry Park hosted its sole international football match on 20 September 1992, when the Australian national football team hosted Tahiti in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier, as part of the Oceania Football Confederation qualifying draw.