Albert Park, Melbourne: Can you walk around the Australian Grand Prix circuit?

Unless it’s Formula One race week, it’s possible to walk around the Australian Grand Prix circuit in Melbourne. The track is the Albert Park circuit near St Kilda.

Sometimes, when an idea takes hold, you just have to go through with it. It doesn’t matter that it’s the hottest day that Melbourne has thrown up for quite some time. And it doesn’t matter that the chosen course of action is going to involve very, very little shade. There’s a Formula One Grand Prix circuit in Melbourne. If you can walk around it before Lewis Hamilton and company show up, then that’s too tempting to turn down.

Melbourne likes to think of itself as Australia’s sporting capital. It’s where the majority of Aussie Rules football teams are based. It has the cricket ground that hosted the first Test match. Andthe world’s best tennis players descend en masse every January for the Australian Open.

But another notch on the global sporting bedpost is the Australian Formula One Grand Prix. Traditionally, it’s either the season curtain-raiser or one of the first events on the roster. And unlike the soulless purpose-built circuits in the likes of Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, the Australian Grand Prix takes place in the real world.

Albert Park circuit in Melbourne

The Albert Park circuit in the Victorian capital isn’t just a clever name – it genuinely does loop around a park. And an absolutely massive park at that. Albert Park covers 225 hectares, with a lake in the middle. The 5km walking track around said lake lies just inside the 5.3km Formula One track.

But, frankly, if the Grand Prix track’s there, you’re going to walk around that just to say you’ve done it.

The first realisation on the sweaty schlep around is that Albert Park is not one of those wild, woodland-esque parks that can be found elsewhere. It is frenetically busy, with seemingly every patch of grass given over to some sporting endeavour.

Sport in Albert Park, Melbourne

Despite the ferocious heat, dozens of amateur tennis players are mishitting their backhands and firing second serves into the net.

There’s also a baseball diamond, but that’s clearly a secondary sport to the main ball game here. Throughout the park, there are scores of ovals marked out for cricket games. To come on a summer weekend must seem like a festival of leather on willow. There’s also an 18 hole public golf course and an outdoor gym.

Further along in Albert Park, the water takes precedence over the turf. There’s a rowing pavilion, a yacht club, and a sailing club. Sydney may have the reputation as the outdoor city, but it seems Melburnians are content to throw themselves into any outdoorsy activity with gusto the moment Melbourne’s famously changeable weather takes a turn for the sunny.

Australian Formula One Grand Prix circuit preparation

But the most striking thing about the walk around the Australian Grand Prix circuit is how far in advance things are prepared for the big race. Visit a good seven weeks before the Grand Prix, and the temporary stands are already erected. The giant fences and crashboards are going up too. And, while the roads aren’t fully marked yet, it already has the visible appearance of a Formula One track. Formula One is big money – and that clearly leads to big preparation too.

The Albert Park circuit neighbours the St Kilda Sports Club – a fine place to try out barefoot bowling. You can also thwack a few golf balls at the Albert Park driving range.

More things to do in Melbourne

Visit Cooks’ Cottage in Fitzroy Gardens.

Learn about Australian history at the Immigration Museum.

Eat, drink and be merry in the Fitzroy neighbourhood.

Vintage shopping in the Block Arcade.

Take an Aboriginal cultural tour in the Botanic Gardens.