The Public Stand: An Ode to Avondale Racecourse
The past, present and future of Avondale Racecourse
There is currently debate about the fate of the Avondale Racecourse and the land usage proposed for the area. Heritage images show a long history related to horse racing at the track, but this area has also served the local community as green fields with well used sport fields, a market venue, bird nesting areas, and flood plan mitigations. With the end of racing at the site, the question of future best use for the 35-hectare site is up for consultation.
Connecting community with this process is the Avondale Racecourse Alliance, whose website features a short video on a creative audio activation where we are invited to imagine the past, present and future of this space.
The soundtrack was originally created for the event, The Public Stand 2: An Ode to Avondale Racecourse, a participatory ‘walk about’ presented as part of the 2025 Whau Arts Festival.
Explore Avondale Racecourse through a self-guided audio walk
Now, you can explore these stories of Avondale Racecourse through a self-guided audio walk. Take this soundtrack with you to walk around the track* or listen on your own device to experience the sounds and voices of this important community space in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
The co-creators of the experience, Becca Wood and Molly Mullen, drew on oral histories with Avondale residents held in Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections. These reflections are mixed with more recent voices recorded for the project. Together with a soundscape that evokes a strong sense of place, this half hour gallop around the track brings the stories of Avondale and the Racecourse to life.
*A note on listening to the audio walk
If you want to listen to the audio while walking at the Avondale Racecourse, start by standing on the track, facing West, next to the Wingate Reserve Entrance, 43 Wingate Street, Avondale, then press play on your audio device. We suggest you listen through headphones.
Historic photos: Avondale Racecourse in the early 1900s
Heritage photos from Kura Heritage Collections reflect the central place that the Racecourse has held in the Avondale landscape for more than a century.
View of the lawn and the bookmakers’ corner at the Avondale Racecourse, Auckland Weekly News, 24 April 1902, p.9, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19020424-09-02
Showing the track and grandstand at Avondale Jockey club racecourse with two boys standing on the track, Frederick George Radcliffe, c1910, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 35-R0158
Avondale Racecourse, 1947
Avondale from the air 1947, Whites Aviation Collection, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 580-ALB22-011
A decade later, this Whites Aviation photograph shows the growth of housing and community in the land surrounding the Racecourse.
Avondale Racecourse, 1957
Avondale Race Course 1957, Whites Aviation Collection, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections 580-ALB22-163
Avondale Racecourse in 1990
Avondale Sunday Markets: a community tradition
This detailed map shows the layout of the Avondale Sunday Markets, which have been held on the Avondale Racecourse since the 1970s. Created using photographic survey mapping techniques, it presents the market viewed from above.
The main business of each stall is named (vegetables, second hand items, clothing etc), and there is extensive information about the market, traffic density, those involved in the map creation, timeline etc. The Hoopla Collective compiled the map in 2021 to show the market’s importance to the community in response to suggestions that it would be closed and the land sold for housing.
Avondale Sunday market Avondale Racecourse, Ash Street, Tamaki Makaurau, 2021, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections Map 9656
Learn more about Avondale Racecourse
For more about the Avondale Racecourse and the live performance for which the original sound was created, go to:
Look out for more at the 2026 Whau Arts Festival.
Audio credits
Co-creators: Becca Wood & Molly Mullen
Sound design: Peter Hobbs
Voices (in order): Pita Turei; Jan Skinner; Lisa Truttman; Marlene Milverton; Trina Smith; Mandy Siitia; Jo Smith; Lance Blair; Franca Wood.
Plus: Mrs Valda Braithwaite, Mrs Foster, Vera Fowler, Mr McKellow, Mr Mays, Merv Raymond, and Mrs Thomas from the Avondale Oral History Project, 1990, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections
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