Eagle Farm Racecourse and Ascot Railway station is a heritage-listed pair of racecourse and railway station at 230 Lancaster Road, Ascot, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1863 onwards. The racecourse is also known as Ascot Racecourse and Brisbane Racecourse, and Ascot railway station was previously known as Racecourse railway station. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 25 June 2004.
History The Eagle Farm Racecourse was established in 1863 and continues to operate as one of Queensland's premier racecourses. Additions and extensions include the establishment of the Pinkenba railway line (1882), the Paddock Stand (1889), the St Leger Stand (1913 with extensions in 1938), the Totalisator Building (1913 with extensions in the 1920s and 1950s), the entrance gates (1913), ticket boxes (1914), the Members' Stand (1925) and the John Power Stand (1958), as well as a number of other timber and brick buildings and timber stabling areas. The Ascot railway station opened in September 1882 to bring race-goers to the Eagle Farm Racecourse.
Horse racing was one of the earliest sports practiced in Queensland following the opening of the Moreton Bay district in 1842. Organised by the Moreton Bay Racing Club, the first recorded horse races in Brisbane were held at Coopers Plains on 17 July 1843. A racecourse at New Farm had been established by May 1846, when the first races were held there during that year and operated until the early 1860s.
The establishment of the Eagle Farm Racecourse in 1863 signaled the demise of the course at New Farm. A grant of was approved with the site being named the "Brisbane Racecourse". The Deed of Grant for the racecourse land, signed by Governor Bowen on 12 October 1863, stipulated that "the appropriation thereof [was] as a racecourse and for no other purpose whatsoever". It was placed under the trusteeship of Maurice Charles O'Connell MLC, John Frederick McDougall MLC and George Harris MLC, members of the Queensland Turf Club. A grandstand capable of seating 350 people was erected and a saddling paddock was constructed before the first three-day meeting at the Eagle Farm Racecourse took place on 14 August 1865. Attended by about 2000 people, the races took place in a thickly forested area, and race-goers could catch only occasional glimpses of the horses. The first Chairman was Colonel MC O'Connell who served the club in this capacity until 1875. At the time of his appointment, O'Connell was president of the Queensland Legislative Council, a position he held from 1860–1879.
The Queensland Turf Club (QTC) assumed a leadership role in the state's racing industry, which was formalized by the Brisbane Racecourse Act 1875 coming into force. It empowered the Trustees to deal with the land covered by the 1863 Deed of Grant and initiated sale of parts of it to the north of the present-day race track, starting in 1876 and continuing into the 1880s.
Despite the early establishment of the QTC, horse racing in Queensland did not become popular on a larger scale until the 1880s. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the club divested itself of some of its land in order to pay off the considerable mortgage which earlier borrowing had necessitated. The racecourse was also used for other purposes – cricket matches during the 1870s as well as polo matches from 1877 to . By the end of the 1880s, however, the boom in racing had resulted in an increase in the number of meetings. A new code of rules (1885) modelled on those of the English Jockey Club was adopted and a system of registration of all racing clubs under the QTC rules was instituted. The club thereby constituted itself the supreme racing authority in the colony and the ultimate court of appeal. Another significant step undertaken during the 1880s was the publication of the first edition of The Queensland Racing Calendar in 1886.
A boom in racing at the end of the 1880s led to a mushrooming of clubs and meetings. The senior club was the QTC, which staged four 2–3 day meetings per year at Eagle Farm Racecourse, coinciding with the main public holidays: Christmas, New Year's Day, the Queen's Birthday, the Brisbane Exhibition and the Prince of Wales's birthday. With several clubs and courses in operation in Brisbane, meetings often clashed; consequently, in May 1890 the leading racing clubs agreed to empower the QTC to allot dates for meetings, thereby confirming it as the premier club. The second major metropolitan club was the Tattersall's Club, which did not have its own track but preferred to rent the Eagle Farm course for per year for its two meetings, in autumn and near the end of the year. The Tattersall's Club held its first meeting at the Eagle Farm Racecourse on 10 December 1884.
In the early years, race-goers drove in their buggies or rode their horses to the track. Others were reported as arriving by a small steamer known as the "shuttlecock boat". A major achievement for the Queensland Turf Club was the opening of the Brisbane and South East Railway Line extension from Eagle Junction to Ascot on 3 September 1882. Unlike Melbourne and Sydney, Brisbane was too small to have railways built just to serve its suburbs; however, some of its lines, such as the seaside lines to Sandgate and the branch to Eagle Farm Racecourse, were built solely to benefit Brisbane residents.
While horseracing was controlled and patronised by the elite, large numbers of people from all strata regularly attended race meetings. The spatial organisation of the Eagle Farm Racecourse reflected class hierarchies. All non-members paid to enter the racecourse and once inside, patrons, if they wished to pay more, were separated according to the additional price for certain areas. Entrance to the St Leger Stand cost less than the entrance to the Paddock Stand and saddling area, while members were located in their own stand. The area where the totalisator (introduced 1879) was located was one space that was less defined where punters of all classes placed bets. Working-class people tended to gather in the "outer", an area in the middle of the racetrack. This space was especially popular during major race programmes, with all manner of entertainment including boxing tents, sideshows and drinking booths, competing with the bookies stands in operation.
A riot at the Spring Meeting on 12 November 1887 highlighted these divisions. During the Sandgate Handicap, clear favourite (and heavily backed Touchstone) was beaten by Honest Ned, due to a controversial start. The QTC decision to judge the race legitimate led to an outraged crowd from the outer occupying or surrounding a range of spaces including the grandstand, stewards' room, saddling paddock, judges stand and QTC committee enclosure. While minor fighting occurred and nine rioters had charges brought against them, the transgression of these elite spaces occurred in a fairly peaceful manner.
This incident resulted from a series of false starts before the disputed final race start. At this time horses raced at the drop of a flag. By the turn of the century a rope barrier was introduced. Barrier stalls were used shortly afterwards, however, it was not until 1959 that mobile gates were introduced.
On 21 September 1889 tenders were called by Hunter and Corrie and JH Buckeridge, as joint architects, for the construction of a grandstand, as well as stables and sheds. The grandstand, constructed in the Paddock area, became known as the Paddock Stand after it opened in 1890.
The depression in 1893 severely affected racing. Attendances dropped considerably and the prize monies offered fell from 3,455 sovereigns in 1890 to 1,615 sovereigns in 1894 for the Queen's Birthday meeting. All the main clubs found themselves in financial difficulties. Consequently, a decision to extend the track from 8 furlongs (one and a half kilometres) to 10 furlongs (two kilometres), was reversed, and the extension was not made until 1901.
The railway enabled access by a larger racing public, although the competition of cheap weekend rail returns to Sandgate (then Brisbane's most popular beach) lessened the anticipated numbers. By 1885, a fork siding for turning around the rail engines had been laid adjacent to the grounds, in what is now the members' car park at the corner of Lancaster and Kitchener roads. In 1897 the name of the railway station was changed from Racecourse to Ascot (after the famous Ascot Racecourse in England), and in the same year the line was extended to Pinkenba. The timber station was built in 1898. The advent of the electric tram along Racecourse Road from 1899 also provided an alternative means of transport for patrons.
The early twentieth century brought with it further improvements to the grounds and facilities. Over a period of 29 years, from the late 1880s, conferences between the major racing clubs of Australia were held to reach agreement on uniform rules of racing. On 14 October 1912, Queensland agreed to and accepted the final draft of the Australian Rules of Racing. From that time, the club progressed. In January 1913, GHM Addison, architect, placed a tender notice for the construction of a totalisator building (also known as the Tote Building). Also in January 1913, Hall and Dods, architects, placed a tender notice for the construction of a new St Leger Stand at Ascot Racecourse. Tenders for the construction of entrance gates to the Eagle Farm Racecourse were called on 11 January 1913. Designed by architects Chambers and Powell, the gates were constructed by A Gillespie at a cost of . Later, on 6 February 1914, Addison called for tenders for the construction of latrines at the racecourse, which were constructed by Manuel Hornibrook at a cost of . GHM Addison was also the architect for the ticket boxes at Eagle Farm Racecourse. Tenders were called on 10 April 1914 and accepted on 17 April 1914. The successful tenderer was James Malskrey and the cost of the ticket boxes was . On 17 March 1916, W Lindsay's tender of was accepted for the construction of a bandstand at Eagle Farm Racecourse; the architects were Atkinson and McLay.
Railway facilities at the Eagle Farm Racecourse were also improved at this period. A railway overbridge adjacent to the Ascot Railway station was completed in October 1911, and in 1912 a new siding was constructed at the Hendra end of the platform, to store trains on race days. At this time the 1880s fork siding was removed. Following lobbying from the Hamilton Town Council, a second railway station was constructed on the western side of the line in 1913–14, opening on 20 February 1914. This was a pre-cast concrete building with a terracotta tile roof, and is now the earliest surviving pre-cast concrete railway station still in operation. Earlier (now demolished) examples were Northgate (1911–12) and Chelmer (1913), while Kuranda (after September 1914) is the next oldest surviving.
Congestion on race days at the racecourse station resulted in several further changes in the first decades of the twentieth century. The QTC had found that the level crossing gates, inserted when the rail line was extended to Pinkenba, obstructed access to the course. In 1914 the club agreed to pay the cost of building a subway underneath the railway embankment. Wartime delays hindered its completion until April 1916. In 1920, plans were devised to duplicate the railway line to cater for the ever-increasing number of patrons, but this did not come to fruition.
In 1924–25 a new Members' Stand was constructed, designed by Hall and Prentice, the architects responsible for the design of Brisbane City Hall. Later additions by Hall and Prentice included alterations to the main and "flat" totalisators as well as a new lavatory block in April 1923. In June 1938, tenders for extensions to the St Leger Stand were closed. The architects were Hall and Cook.