Great Eastern Steeplechase
South Australia Horse Race
The Great Eastern Steeplechase was an Australian Thoroughbred steeplechase horse race held annually at Oakbank, South Australia on Easter Saturday and Monday at the Oakbank Racecourse as part of the Oakbank Easter Racing Carnival. The first fixture of that name was held in 1877, following a race in 1876 which has been called the "Onkaparinga Handicap Steeplechase"; both just prior to formation of the Onkaparinga Racing Club (now Oakbank Racing Club).
The distance of the race is 4950 metres making it the second longest horse race held on a public course in Australia.
The most famous jump is the fallen log which is literally a log about a metre high. All other jumps are brush fences. The height of jumps has been reduced in recent years to reduce the risk of falls and make for safer racing.
The race uses a different course to other races held at Oakbank with horse using an inner track passing on the inside of a hill. Unlike other races that require two race callers the Great Eastern can be viewed in its entirety from the grandstand.
On October 1, 2021, it was announced that jumps racing will no longer be conducted in South Australia mainly due to the small number of South Australian jumps horses. There were plans to run the Great Eastern and Von Doussa Steeplechase as a flat race.
The public source identifies “Great Eastern Steeplechase” as south Australia Horse Race. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Great, Eastern and Steeplechase.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Great Eastern Steeplechase”, the useful work is to connect “south Australia Horse Race” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5599092. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1877, 1876 and 2021.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Great Eastern Steeplechase”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Great Eastern Steeplechase primary sources, Great Eastern Steeplechase archive and Great research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Great Eastern Steeplechase”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Great Eastern Steeplechase” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.