The Adelaide Showgrounds, formerly the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds and most commonly known as the Wayville Showgrounds holds many of Adelaide's most popular events, including the Royal Adelaide Show

Royal Adelaide Show

The Royal Adelaide Show also known as the Royal Show or simply The Show, is an annual agricultural show/fair held in Adelaide, South Australia that begins on the first Friday in September, or the last Friday in August, and runs for 9 days. It is held at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds, located in...

.

The Showgrounds are located in the inner-southern Adelaide suburb of Wayville

Wayville, South Australia

Wayville is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide in the City of Unley. It is most notable for its hosting of the Royal Adelaide Show at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds. The suburb is bordered to the north with the South Park Lands of Adelaide, and to the south with the tramline.Wayville Post Office...

, just south of Greenhill Road

Greenhill Road, Adelaide

Greenhill Road is a major road in Adelaide, South Australia, that provides a vital transport artery for those living in the eastern and hills suburbs. In Adelaide's early days, trams used to run up and down the road...

. They are bordered by Goodwood Road

Goodwood Road, Adelaide

Goodwood Road is a major north-south arterial road, approximately 10 kilometres long, in Adelaide, South Australia. It runs between the Adelaide city centre and the suburbs of Pasadena and Panorama, and has a speed limit of ....

 (east), Leader Street (south), the railway line (west) and Rose Terrace (north). The Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia (RAHS) has controlled the site since the 1920s, the land having been purchased by the South Australian government prior to the First World War. The Royal Show moved to the present site in 1925.

The showgrounds has one of the largest under-cover exhibition spaces in the Southern Hemisphere, and hosts over 140 exhibitions and conferences each year, as well as University of Adelaide

University of Adelaide

The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...

 and University of South Australia

University of South Australia

The University of South Australia is a public university in the Australian state of South Australia. It was formed in 1991 with the merger of the South Australian Institute of Technology and Colleges of Advanced Education. It is the largest university in South Australia, with more than 36,000...

 examinations. The RAHS also leases the former Investigator Science and Technology Centre to the Edge Church

Edge Church

Edge Church is a Pentecostal Christian church affiliated with Australian Christian Churches, the Assemblies of God in Australia. The church is pastored by Danny Guglielmucci and his wife.-Establishment:...

.

Main arena

The main arena of the showgrounds, which at its peak in the 1920s and 30s held 35,000 people but now can hold approximately 14,000, was known as the Speedway Royale during its heyday from 1926 until 1934, and is sometimes referred to as "The birthplace of Australian Speedway", even though speedway in Australia actually started in Maitland, New South Wales

Maitland, New South Wales

Maitland is a city in the Lower Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia and the seat of Maitland City Council, situated on the Hunter River approximately by road north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle...

 in 1923, three years before it started at Wayville. Speedway has been held on the egg-shaped track that is the main arena since approximately 1926. The track itself has a dirt and sand mixture over a concrete base and is 510m (557 yards) in length. When used it is one of the fastest speedway's in Australia with wide open corners and both the front and back straights being 100m in length.

While the arena only ever holds one or two speedway meetings per year, it has held may Australian championships including the Australian Solo Championship

Individual Speedway Australian Championship

The Australian Individual Speedway Championship is a Motorcycle speedway championship held each year to determine the Australian national champion...

 as well as hosting such events as the Speedway

Motorcycle speedway

Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...

 500 series involving World Champion riders such as Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

s Hans Nielsen

Hans Nielsen (speedway rider)

Hans Hollen Nielsen - a prominent speedway rider active from the 1970s to the late 1990s; a former World Champion....

, the late Simon Wigg

Simon Wigg

Simon Wigg was a speedway, grasstrack and Longtrack rider who finished runner-up in the Speedway World Championship in 1989....

 from England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Australian riders such as Adelaide's own Ryan Sullivan

Ryan Sullivan

Ryan Geoffrey Sullivan Ryan Geoffrey Sullivan Ryan Geoffrey Sullivan (born 20 January 1975, in Fitzroy, Victoria (a suburb of Melbourne) is an Australian international speedway rider.-Early years:...

, Shane Parker

Shane Parker (speedway rider)

Shane Andrew Parker is a speedway rider, currently riding with the Sheffield Tigers in the British Premier League in what will be his last season in Britain....

 and Shane Bowes

Shane Bowes

Shane Bowes is a former Motorcycle speedway rider. Bowes was a finalist in the 1990 Under-21 Speedway World Championship, finishing in eighth place...

 as well as 10 time Australian champion Leigh Adams

Leigh Adams

Leigh Scott Adams is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider. He is a multiple Speedway Grand Prix winner and World Team Champion...

 (who won his 5th Australian championship at Wayville in 2002). Australia's leading Sprintcar

Sprint car racing

Sprint cars are high-powered race cars designed primarily for the purpose of running on short oval or circular dirt or paved tracks. Sprint car racing is popular in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa....

 series, the World Series Sprintcars

World Series Sprintcars

World Series Sprintcars is a Dirt track racing series held in Australia for Sprintcars. It is the richest and best known Speedway series in Australia....

 has also raced many times on the showgrounds track.

The speedway at Wayville holds the record in Australian speedway for the longest wait between hosting an Australian championship. Before the 2002 Australian Solo Championship, Wayville had not hosted the title since 1932, a gap of an incredible 70 years, only just eclipsing the former record of 69 years between championships held by the Newcastle Showground which hosted the title in 1927 and then again in 1996.

The main arena was also the home ground of the West Adelaide Football Club

West Adelaide Football Club

West Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League . Commonly known as The Bloods and Westies, the clubs home base is City Mazda Stadium located in Richmond, an inner-western suburb of Adelaide.-Early Years :West Adelaide was formed in...

 in the South Australian National Football League

South Australian National Football League

The South Australian National Football League is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in South Australia....

 from 1927 until it was taken over by the Australian Army

Australian Army

The Australian Army is Australia's military land force. It is part of the Australian Defence Force along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. While the Chief of Defence commands the Australian Defence Force , the Army is commanded by the Chief of Army...

 after the 1939 season due to the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. West Adelaide were forced to play their home games at the Adelaide Oval

Adelaide Oval

The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...

 until their current home, Richmond Oval

Richmond Oval (South Australia)

Richmond Oval is an Australian rules football oval in Richmond, a western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia...

, was opened in 1958.

The arena's track was also the home of harness racing

Harness racing

Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait . They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, although racing under saddle is also conducted in Europe.-Breeds:...

 in Adelaide from 1934 until moving to the purpose built Globe Derby Park in 1973.

Centennial Hall

Centennial Hall, built to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the Colony (later State) of South Australia, and to house the 1936 Centennial Empire Exhibition, was opened on 20 March 1936. It was considered to be a significant historical landmark, and was one of the few remaining examples of 1930s Art Deco architecture in Adelaide.

However, the building developed "concrete cancer

Concrete cancer

Concrete cancer is a colloquial name for the deterioration of concrete caused by the presence of contaminants or the action of weather combined with atmospheric properties. While often used in the context of the rusting of concrete reinforcement bar , the term can equally be applied to any number...

" and was closed at the end of the 2005 Royal Show because it was unsafe. Demolition of Centennial Hall commenced on Wednesday 18 July 2007.

In addition to the exams and the shows, some of the more notable events held in Centennial Hall were:

• 12-13 June 1964 - The Beatles
  The Beatles
  The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
  
  ' first four Australian concerts.

External links

• New Official website homepage (Adelaide Event & Exhibition Centre)
• History of the Showgrounds
• History of the RA&HS of SA Inc.
• http://www.theshow.com.au "The Show"