Ascot Racecourse is a former racecourse in the southern Sydney suburb of Mascot, close to the Mascot Aerodrome. It was named after Royal Ascot Racecourse in the United Kingdom. It is now part of the site of Sydney Airport. [1] It operated from 1904 to 1941, and was one of four racecourses in Sydney where unregistered proprietary horse racing took place. [2]
Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders". As of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,230,330 and is home to approximately 65% of the state's population.
Mascot is a suburb in the Inner-South of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mascot is located 7 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is one of the administrative centres of the Bayside Council. A small part of Mascot is located in the Inner West Council. Mascot is on the north-west side of Botany Bay and contains Sydney Airport.
Sydney Airport is an international airport in Sydney, Australia located 8 km (5 mi) south of Sydney city centre, in the suburb of Mascot. The airport is owned by the ASX-listed Sydney Airport Group. It is the primary airport serving Sydney, and is a primary hub for Qantas, as well as a secondary hub for Virgin Australia and Jetstar Airways. Situated next to Botany Bay, the airport has three runways, colloquially known as the east–west, north–south and third runways.
Large crowds were moved to and from the racecourse by a dedicated tramline from Botany Road. [3] The first aeroplane flight over Sydney was made from Ascot Racecourse on 5 May 1911, by J.J. Hammond in his Boxkite plane. [4] The racecourse closed during World War II when it was used as a military camp. It did not reopen after the war, and was demolished as part of expansion works for Sydney Airport. The only surviving physical evidence of the racecourse are fifteen fig trees which formerly lined the racecourse entrance. These trees are located near the airport's long-term carpark, and are the subject of heritage preservation. [4]
The Sydney tramway network served the inner suburbs of Sydney, Australia from 1879 until 1961. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth of Nations, and one of the largest in the world. The network was heavily worked, with about 1,600 cars in service at any one time at its peak during the 1930s . Patronage peaked in 1945 at 405 million passenger journeys. Its maximum street trackage totalled 291 km in 1923.
Joseph Joel Hammond was a pioneering New Zealand aviator. On 17 January 1914 at Epsom showgrounds he took New Zealand's first military plane, a Blériot XI-2, for its first flight.
World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 70 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.
