The Basin Reserve is also surrounded by numerous other Wellington landmarks, including Mount Cook Barracks, the National War Memorial, several colleges and high schools, the Caledonian Hotel and the former Dominion Museum.

Although natural grounds, such as the Te Aro flat, provided a small area for matches, the colonists wanted more recreational land than they had.

The matter became dire as buildings began to be erected on these plains, as flat land was hard to find in the mountainous Wellington.

So, after the 1855 earthquake, which historians estimate measured magnitude 8,[8] influential citizens seized the chance in 1857 to suggest that the new land be drained and made into a recreational reserve.

The Wellington council accepted the proposal and on 3 February 1863 prisoners from the Mount Cook Gaol began to level and drain the new land.

However, massive population influxes from 1863 to 1866 (caused mostly by the Parliament being situated in Wellington) hampered construction on the Basin Reserve as workers were pulled to other areas.

Soon after, on 11 January 1868, the first game of cricket was played, although the ground had numerous stones and thistles on it, which the umpire later apologised for as some players got injured from them.

However, for the following years, even up until reportedly 1872, the Basin Reserve grounds were still extremely swampy, with small pools of swamp water and various weeds and shrubs sprouting over the fields.

The monument had been in storage for many years, and it was finally erected to commemorate a controversial[9][10] early Wellingtonian, William Wakefield, at the main sports ground.

[12] In 2012 the Museum Stand of the Basin was declared an earthquake risk and closed; a new players' pavilion was opened in December 2018 and renamed in 2020 in honour of the former Test cricketer Ewen Chatfield.

This was finally remedied in late 1872, which allowed the ground's inaugural first-class cricket match, between Wellington and Auckland, to be played on 30 November 1873.

The Basin Reserve reputedly held the first rugby football match in the North Island,[8] between a Wellington team and the crew of HMS Rosario, which the sailors won by a single goal.

[21] Before embarking on the 1921–22 Kangaroo tour of Great Britain, the Australian rugby league team stopped in Wellington for an exhibition match at the Basin Reserve.

Players involved in the match included Shane Warne, Stephen Fleming, Tana Umaga, Richard Hadlee, Martin Crowe, other famous former New Zealand cricketers, rugby union players Richie McCaw and Conrad Smith and actors Russell Crowe and Ian McKellen.

[24] On 17 March 2019 the Basin Reserve hosted an estimated 11,000 people at a vigil mourning the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings,[25] after indications the original venue would be too small.

During the 1950s and 1960s the ground was the main association football (soccer) venue in the Wellington area, and was used for a number of international matches and Chatham Cup finals.

Late in that year, Tom Blundell scored his maiden Test century on debut, then walked home while still in uniform as he lives near the ground.