Sydney’s Kogarah Golf Club is investigating a potential relocation so up to 5,000 new homes and a new FIFA-approved stadium can be built on its present site under a $100 million proposal.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the club – which has pursued a new home for longer than a decade – would relocate to Cook Cove in Botany on the opposite of the M5 motorway. Part of the project would see a new clubhouse, including a 200-person function room.
According to the Herald, “developer Cook Cove Inlet Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of John Boyd Properties, will reconstruct the 18-hole course across 52 hectares of parkland in the southern precinct of the Cook Cove site, which takes in Barton Park, a number of wetlands, and the heritage-listed Arncliffe Market Gardens.
“The developers have also promised to deliver a publicly accessible walkway through the golf course, a bird-watching space near the Landing Lights Wetlands and the creation of ponds for the green and golden bell frogs, which are native to the area.”
For the new golf course, Kogarah is proposing a 99-year lease of the land from Bayside Council in place of the mix of local and state government authorities it currently negotiates with. Two years ago the layout was pruned to nine holes due to the construction of the new M5 twin tunnels as part of the WestConnex motorway project.
Golf course and club relocations are in vogue as a means to secure long-term financial security. Croydon Golf Club in Melbourne was the first significant club to move when it voted to build a new course and base at the 27-hole Yering Meadows late last decade. The city’s Eastern Golf Club followed suit by also relocating to the Yarra Valley in 2015.
In Sydney, Ashlar Golf Club shifted its operations seven kilometres down the road from its Blacktown home in 2012 to become Stonecutters Ridge Golf Club, host of the past three New South Wales Opens. Under the land-swap deal, the old Ashlar site near Blacktown Station is gradually being redeveloped as a residential precinct.
As golf clubs continue to feel the financial and membership squeeze and demand for more property remains on the rise, chances are Kogarah’s relocation intentions represent a broader indicator of the future shape of suburban golf rather than a one-off proposal.
