Hawker’s Paddock – the birthplace of the North Adelaide Football Club

Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama (Park 6)

In 1881 a group of schoolboys played football on this section of the Park Lands. Years later they were a part of the North Adelaide Football Club.

Image courtesy of the North Adelaide Football Club

George Charles Hawker (1818-1895) was a South Australian settler and politician. He was a supporter and follower of sports and Hawker's Paddock was named after him.

Charles Nitschke was one of the schoolboys that formed the club back in 1881.

In 1881 a group of schoolboys from Prince Alfred College and Whinham College (currently the Australian Lutheran College) got together and played football on this section of the Park Lands, previously known as Hawker’s Paddock.

It was so called locally because it was leased from the City of Adelaide by George Hawker (pictured below, far left), a well known citizen of the suburb of Medindie.

The schoolboys dubbed their football team the Medindie Football Club. They wore the red and white colours of Prince Alfred College and played other football teams on the site.

In 1888 the Medindie Football Club joined the SAFA (South Australian Football Association, today known as the South Australian National Football League or SANFL). Five years later, they changed their name to the North Adelaide Football Club. The club still exists today.

The park was not used exclusively for football. With a growing population in Adelaide, the park also hosted baseball, cricket, lacrosse and archery. These were sports entrenched in Adelaide’s colonial history.

The grounds were eventually licensed to the local Wilderness School who still use the grounds to this day.

Today, the park is named Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama (Park 6) after Sir John George Shaw-Lefevre (1797-1879), one of South Australia’s colonisation commissioners. Nantu Wama translates to “horse plain” in the Kaurna language. The park was given this name due to the horse depasturing which occurs on the site, bordered by Lefevre Terrace to the west.

City of Adelaide acknowledges the traditional Country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and pays respect to Elders past and present. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today. We also extend that respect to other Aboriginal Language Groups and other First Nations.

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