Western Australia’s only purpose-built circuit is the undulating Wanneroo Park, 20 miles north of Perth. The Western Australian Sporting Car Club needed a new circuit when the Department of defence announced it was reclaiming the RAAF Caversham airfield in 1968. MP Herb Graham was instrumental in securing land for a new venue in a former quarry outside Wanneroo and WASCC vice president Max McCracken designed the seven-turn layout that remains today. Opened in March 1969, it continued the Le Mans 6 Hours for sports and touring cars that had been a fixture at Caversham since 1955. Wanneroo was renovated in 1979 with pits and startline moved to hold the Australian Grand Prix which mixed Formula 5000 and Formula Pacific machinery with a couple of elderly F1 cars. Johnnie Walker, who had earlier been delayed, inherited victory when John Wright’s engine expired with a lap to go. The Australian Touring Car Championship visited for the first time in 1973 before becoming a regular annual fixture four years later. Alf Barbagallo financed further improvements in 1992, and it was renamed after its benefactor until 2020.
