Logan Park is a sporting venue in the city of Dunedin

Dunedin

Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. It lies on land reclaimed

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

 from the former Lake Logan.

History

Lake Logan was reclaimed in the early 20th century. Originally an inlet of the Otago Harbour

Otago Harbour

Otago Harbour is the natural harbour of Dunedin, New Zealand, consisting of a long, much-indented stretch of generally navigable water separating the Otago Peninsula from the mainland. They join at its southwest end, from the harbour mouth...

 called Pelichet Bay, it frequently silted up, especially after a causeway

Causeway

In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...

 was built to allow for the South Island Main Trunk Railway

South Island Main Trunk Railway

The Main North Line between Picton and Christchurch and the Main South Line between Lyttelton and Invercargill, running down the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand, are sometimes together referred to as the South Island Main Trunk Railway...

 between Dunedin and Port Chalmers

Port Chalmers

Port Chalmers is a suburb and the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, with a population of 3,000. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast from Dunedin's city centre....

.

Reclamation began in 1913 and continued after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The reclaimed land was turned into a park and was used as the site of the 1925 New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition. For many years the Dunedin Public Art Gallery

Dunedin Public Art Gallery

The Dunedin Public Art Gallery holds the main public art collection of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located in The Octagon in the heart of the city, it is close to the city's public library, municipal chambers, and other facilities such as the Regent Theatre.-History:The gallery was founded by...

 stood in one of the buildings constructed for that exhibition. Shortly after the exhibition the reclaimed land was converted into playing fields and now goes by the name of Logan Park. Its location close to the city's two tertiary institutions (Otago Polytechnic

Otago Polytechnic

The Otago Polytechnic is a public New Zealand tertiary education institute, centred in Dunedin with campuses throughout the region of Otago including Cromwell, Wanaka and Queenstown....

, and the University of Otago

University of Otago

The University of Otago in Dunedin is New Zealand's oldest university with over 22,000 students enrolled during 2010.The university has New Zealand's highest average research quality and in New Zealand is second only to the University of Auckland in the number of A rated academic researchers it...

, especially the Dunedin College of Education

Dunedin College of Education

The University of Otago College of Education is a teacher-training facility in Dunedin, New Zealand, run as part of the University of Otago since 2007. Formerly called Dunedin College of Education , the college was founded in 1876, and has the longest continuous history of teacher education in New...

) and one of the city's larger high schools (Logan Park High School

Logan Park High School

Logan Park High School is a high school in Dunedin, New Zealand. It was opened in 1975 on the site of a former rifle range in a small wooded valley adjacent to Logan Park, an area of land reclaimed from the former Lake Logan and now largely converted into a park and playing fields in Dunedin North...

) makes it an important and heavily used venue.

Features

The park contains soccer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 and rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 pitches, an artificial hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 turf, bowling greens, and tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 courts, and part of the park is now occupied by two stadia, the University Oval cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 stadium and the Caledonian Ground

Caledonian Ground

The Caledonian Ground, often simply known as "The Caley", is a major sports venue in the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is primarily used for soccer and athletics, and has a capacity of 7,500.-Location:...

, which is an athletics venue and also the city's main soccer venue. A new multi-purpose stadium, the Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza, is being built close to the southern end of the park. A small creek, the Opoho Creek

Opoho

Opoho is a suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It sits on the western flank of Signal Hill, New Zealand, to the northeast of the city centre, overlooking North East Valley and the Dunedin Botanic Gardens....

, flows along Logan Park's eastern perimeter, between the park and Logan Point quarry

Signal Hill, New Zealand

Signal Hill is a prominent landform in the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. It is located close to, and due north of, the head of the Otago Harbour and reaches an elevation of 393 m . The suburbs Ravensbourne, St. Leonards, and Opoho lie on its southern, eastern, and northwestern flanks, respectively...

and the Logan Park High School.