Goalposts down as work begins for National Aboriginal Art Gallery at Anzac Oval

The goalposts have again become the centre of attention at a storeyed Red Centre sporting ground – but this time for the wrong reasons. Read on to find out more.

Workers dismantling the Anzac Oval goalposts.

After a century of operation, the end for one of the Red Centre’s historic ovals has begun with the goalposts being removed.

Anzac Oval in Alice Springs is set to be the new location of a $150m National Aboriginal Art Gallery, with the first contractors beginning works at the site Monday, May 20.

The goalposts were the first to be removed, with a worker in a scissor lift and another in telehandler pulling the posts apart on a cold morning.

It is the beginning of the end in a long chapter, which saw the Alice Springs Town Council challenging process, as the town’s rugby league and union teams have relocated to Jim McConville Oval in Gillen.

According to Alice Springs historian Alex Nelson, Anzac Oval, originally known as the Alice Springs Recreation Reserve, was established by World War I veterans in the 1930s.

It was Alice Springs’ first sports ground, he said.