THE mighty Murray River is home to a glorious collection of golf courses well known to travelling golfers. But somewhere between Rich River and Tocumwal, just past the tiny Victorian town of Bearii with its population of 136, there is a golf course like no other.
At the end of a gravel road on the edge of the Barmah Forest is a remote property with a stunning emerald oasis of santa ana couch grass. Meandering through towering Red Gums are manicured fairways, perfectly level teeing grounds, landscaped garden beds and green complexes with challenging bunkering. A tree-lined driveway winds through the golf course to what looks like a great white clubhouse in the centre of the property.
Welcome to the exclusive Bearii Country Club with its membership of one. There is a fella riding a mower with a casual, hard-working cragginess about him. Wearing thongs, running shorts, a well-worn polo, an old golf hat and ear muffs, there’s a happy-go-lucky nature about him. One corner of his mouth turns up in a half-smile as though constantly ready to crack a joke.
Meet Kenny Miller – a laidback tradie who has “done alright” with his business. He’s made a hobby of building his own golf course at his holiday house. He drives the three hours from Melbourne most weekends to relax and mow some grass. But when he bought the 130-acre property in 2005, he had no idea what it would become.
“When we first arrived, it was a just bush paddock with two houses transported from Melbourne, dumped here and joined together,” recalls Miller. “When our kids got into motorbikes and boats we looked for some land near the river. A golf course was never in the plans; it was a lifestyle property for our family.”
Miller grew up on an orchard in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne; his mother an avid gardener. Family holidays to Mt Beauty introduced Miller to a sand-scrape golf course that caught his imagination. Living on the orchards perked his interest in horticulture, and the course at Mt Beauty a desire to be a greenskeeper.
“I remember saving up forty bucks for my first set of clubs from a second-hand dealer in Mt Beauty. From the age of 12, every holiday I spent traipsing up and down those fairways. I was never very good and I’m still not too flash now, but I’ve have always loved being out on a golf course.”
Aged 14, Miller completed work experience at Warrandyte Golf Course in Melbourne and decided he wanted to be a curator. His parents insisted that if he wasn’t at school he’d need a job. Miller left school after Year 8 determined to work on a golf course, but none of the clubs he approached were putting on apprentice greenkeepers. Then, his big break in the horticultural industry came at a nursery before being asked to help out a friend with a shop-fitting job. Another shop fit went well, so Miller decided to make a career change. He bought a black ute, painted ‘Australian Professional Shopfitters’ on the doors, and business took off. For years his childhood dream of being a golf course curator was dormant, but not forgotten.
“I have always enjoyed being on a golf course,” says Miller. “I like the grass [laughs]. If you’re a builder, you’ve got a nice home. If you’re a mechanic, you’ve got a nice car. I’m into horticulture, so I’m really fanatical about grass. All my homes have had nice lawns, like lots of men. It’s an outdoors version of a man cave.”
When the Millers first arrived at the property there were a couple of basic greens – circles of sand with flags in them. So he decided to add a chipping area and approached a local greenkeeper for some advice on building a putting surface.
“Back then, I didn’t know anything about the different grades of sand to use so the original green was just a pile of dirt that we shaped with some sand on it,” Miller recalls. “I didn’t want to wait to sow it, so we got some bentgrass turf shipped up from Tasmania that we laid straight away. I borrowed an old mower and I really enjoyed maintaining it so I thought, We’d better build another one!
“After building the second green, we did the third one pretty quickly. With spare land, we continued building holes in a loop around the property finishing back at the original green out the front. The scale of the holes seemed to grow as we went and the last tees off over a massive lake with a fountain in the middle.”
Today, a 40-acre circuit of five holes circumnavigates the house; each framed by magnificent gum trees. The playing surfaces are superb with a carpet of santa ana couch covering the entire area. Miller’s nursery skills are on display with the course featuring beautiful garden beds and decorative trees. Level teeing grounds are purpose-built and elevated. The greens and bunker complexes are also beautifully designed for a great test of golf.
The house itself has six bedrooms, a large dining room, cinema, tennis court, large outdoor entertaining areas and swimming pool. But it is the golf course that dominates Miller’s attention. His ambition is to create playing surfaces to rival Augusta National.
“It has been a massive project; grass takes a lot of maintenance,” says Miller. “People ask us who designed it, but it was just me, doing a bit at a time. I think I’ve only missed 12 weekends in 10 years of coming up here. I normally sit and think about what we can do next and over time I began to visualise what was possible. What matters most to me is it feels fitting for the area and that our family and friends have a lot of fun here.”
Though the property is out of the way, it is starting to attract attention. Miller is a friend of retired AFL star Glenn Archer, who founded Kode Entertainment Group (formerly Ultimate Sports Tours). Recently Archer asked Miller could he bring some clients to the property for a meeting, so two helicopters flew a group up from Melbourne. The day opened Miller’s eyes to the possibilities of the property.
“That was a real eye-opener for us,” says Miller. “We had wondered whether we could rent it out as a corporate retreat destination. It costs a bit to maintain, so we figure the property could do some work to cover its costs. Glenn believes we could do more, but it’s just an idea at this stage.
“We come here a lot and it’s great just to have for our family, kids and friends to enjoy.”
