[2] By its first annual meeting in June 1885, the company had purchased about 15 acres of land on the northern edge of the town between Trafalgar Street and the mouth of the Maitai River.

[3] The ground was formally opened on 21 April 1888, when a rugby match was played by local teams on a surface marred only by "an inconvenient number of stones".

The park is also the venue for matches in other sporting codes, and hosted the final of the 1978 Chatham Cup, a premier knock-out New Zealand football competition.

Due to the closing of other sports facilities as a result of the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Trafalgar Park hosted three Crusaders Super Rugby home games in March 2011.

[6] Trafalgar Park hosted three games in the 2011 Rugby World Cup in September 2011, with matches between Italy, Russia, USA and Australia being played.