2006 Commonwealth Games

The following venues were used at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The sport(s) that were played at that venue are listed after it.[5]

Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre

Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

Multi Purpose Venue (Melbourne Park)

• Docklands Precinct: Walks and Marathon
• Melbourne Cricket Ground: Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Athletics (Track and Field)
• Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre: Badminton, Boxing and Weightlifting
• Melbourne Gun Club: Clay Target Shooting
• Melbourne International Shooting Club: Small Bore and Pistol Shooting
• Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre: Aquatics, Squash and Table tennis
• Multi Purpose Venue (Melbourne Park): Basketball Finals, Track Cycling and Netball Finals
• Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne Park): Gymnastics
• Royal Botanic Gardens Circuit: Cycling Road Race events
• State Lawn Bowls Centre: Lawn Bowls
• State Netball and Hockey Centre: Netball preliminaries and Hockey
• St Kilda: Triathlon and Cycling Time Trial
• Docklands Stadium: Rugby 7s

Ballarat

Ballarat Minerdome: Basketball

Bendigo

Bendigo Stadium: Basketball
Wellsford Rifle Range: Full Bore Shooting

Geelong

Geelong Arena: Basketball

Lysterfield Park

State Mountain Bike Course: Mountain Bike Cycling

Traralgon

Traralgon Sports Stadium: Basketball

Early concerns arose about the large cost of staging the Games, with projected costs likely to be over AUD 1 billion and a high likelihood the Victorian taxpayer would have to cover the expense. The cost was described in some local media as excessive. National Party leader Peter Ryan said that the Labor government should win "gold (medal) for burning money".[17] However, not all of this money was wasted. The actual costs for hosting the games was AUD 1.144 billion and prior to the Games, accountants at KPMG were estimating that the gross income generated by this event could be as high as AUD 1.5 billion.

Melbourne's premier sporting ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), was redeveloped in preparation for the Games. An athlete's village in the inner suburb of Parkville housed approximately 7,000 athletes and support staff during the Games, and has been transformed into commercial housing with a distinctly eco-friendly image. The creation of this village attracted controversy, with critics claiming it was created by alienating public parkland, while proponents maintained that it represented the renewal of an otherwise derelict inner-city area.[18]

The change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time in Australian states that follow it was delayed from 26 March to 2 April for 2006 to avoid affecting the games. In addition, state and private schools amended their usual term times so as to allow the first term holidays to coincide with the Games.[19]

Melbourne's public transport system – train, tram and bus – ran to altered timetables with some amended or substituted services for the duration of the Games. For the most part, timetabled services were unchanged but suffered due to higher loads.[20]

For the first time ever, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games appointed a Goodwill Partner, Plan International Australia.[21]

Fireworks at the Yarra River during the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Yarra River were centrepieces for the ceremony, which included many fireworks, and other spectacle. The Games were opened by Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also Head of State of a number of Commonwealth countries.[23]

Both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Yarra River were again centrepieces for the ceremony. Samresh Jung of India was given the David Dixon Award at the closing ceremony. He was the "Best Athlete of the 18th Commonwealth Games". The games were closed by The Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward.

The logo of the 2006 Commonwealth Games is an image of 2 figures, which represents sport and culture, achievement and excellence, while the colours green, yellow, and red represents celebratory, fresh and youthfully optimistic character of Melbourne city. The two figures in the logo joined to form a letter M, which is the initial letter of Melbourne, the games host city.[32]

Karak was the mascot for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He was modelled on a red-tailed black cockatoo, a threatened species within the host country, Australia.[33][34]

On 20 March 2006 it was reported that two athletes had gone missing from the Commonwealth Games village: Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Bangladeshi runner Mohammad Tawhidul Islam.[36][37]

On 22 March 2006 it was reported that seven athletes from Sierra Leone (three women and four men) had also disappeared. A further seven Sierra Leonean athletes also went missing during the course of the Games, bringing the total runaway count to fourteen (two-thirds of the team). Victoria Police believed that they had fled to Sydney where the Sierra Leonean community is much larger than Melbourne's.

Two hours before the Closing Ceremony on 26 March, officials from the Cameroon team reported to police that nine of their members had also vanished.

These incidents were not without precedent: 27 athletes similarly disappeared from the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England (21 from Sierra Leone, 5 from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan), and over 80 athletes and officials overstayed their visas after the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.[38]

On request of Sierra Leone officials, the Commonwealth Games Federation cancelled those athletes' Games accreditation, allowing the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) to cancel their visas at midnight on 27 March, and begin investigating their disappearance. At 7.20 am on that day, New South Wales Police located six of the Sierra Leonean athletes in a house at Freshwater near Manly Beach in Sydney. All six indicated they wished to seek political asylum in Australia, and were granted bridging visas by DIMA while their refugee applications were arranged. The athletes claimed to have been subjected to violence and torture in their home country; seventeen-year-old Isha Conteh stated she could be forced into female genital cutting if she returned.[39] On Tuesday 28 March, six further Sierra Leoneans turned themselves in to immigration authorities in Sydney and were also granted bridging visas.[40]

Two of the missing Cameroonian athletes were later found in Perth, Western Australia.

The Stolenwealth Games were protests at the 1982 and 2006 Commonwealth Games. People were protesting because they believed that the Commonwealth Games led to the erasure of indigenous people.[41][42] There were also problems with land rights. These protests led to the creation of the Global Indigenous Games.