Goold Park was located in Mitchell Avenue, near the corner of Northcote Street . It is currently an industrial site, Solid Engineering, at 113 Mitchell Avenue, Kurri Kurri.

Kurri Kurri had a strong football team in the early half of the twentieth century. In the 1920s the club played in green and white stripped shirts. The shirt colour was changed to blue for the 1928 season. In the 1928 season, Kurri Kurri played Aberdare at the Drill Hall Ground in Kurri Kurri before a crowd of 3,200. Kurri won the match 3 -2. (The Cessnock Eagle and South Maitland Recorder (NSW : 1913 - 1954) 7 May 1954, page 3)

The first game on Goold Park was played on Saturday 4 April, 1931. (Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 6 April, 1931, page 6)

The last games at Goold Park was two semi-finals on 24 September, 1950. Weston Worker's Club played Ex-servicemen and Greta No. 2 played North End.

https://www.cessnockadvertiser.com.au/story/7342835/unlocking-the-past-kurris-forgotten-soccer-ground/

Unlocking the Past: Kurri's forgotten soccer ground

• Kimberly O'Sullivan

A passion for soccer runs deep in Kurri Kurri, with the first soccer club formed in 1904. For years soccer matches were held on the open ground next to the Drill Hall in Lang Street. Although it was a great central location, it was a poor quality ground.

Players, fans and officials looked for a more suitable local site, eventually deciding on a bushland area known as the Victoria Street Reserve. Local State Member for Kurri Kurri, George Booth, used his influence to get a long lease on seven acres of the Reserve. The site was located in Mitchell Avenue, near the corner of Northcote Street, not far from the (then) North Kurri Kurri railway platform.

While it was a great site, the dense scrub meant that it was unusable. An enthusiastic group of volunteers started work, toiling for three years through Kurri Kurri's cold winters and hot summers, to turn it into a first-class soccer ground.

To show her support for the project, the licensee of the Kurri Kurri Hotel, Molly Waugh, donated a gallon of beer and two bottles of lemonade to the workers on the days they laboured on the site. Although its creation had truly been a collective effort, the club decided to name the park after long-time volunteer Richard Goold.

On April 4, 1931 Goold Park was opened with due ceremony. A blue ribbon was stretched across the ground's gateway and Molly Waugh was given the honour of cutting it with silver scissors. A large crowd surged in to find that as part of the celebrations a miniature goal post had been built in the centre of the playing field. Hanging from it, by a ribbon, was a bottle of champagne. Still armed with her trusty scissors Molly Waugh cut this ribbon and the bottle smashed to the ground - and with this George Booth officially declared the ground open.

One of the distinctive features of Goold Park was the outer circle where the fans sat. This part of the ground had been built up, so that an uninterrupted view was available to all spectators. It was believed that this first-class ground would be a soccer centre for decades to come, but it was not to be.

The last game reported as being played at Goold Park was in September 1950. After that the ground closed and eventually became an industrial site. But if you look closely the distinctive banked sides of the ground remain on the site, along with the original fence, all telling the story of Kurri Kurri's once grand soccer ground.

Kimberly O'Sullivan is the Local Studies Librarian at Cessnock City Library.