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August 2022

Par for the Course

The Federal Gold Club's move to Red Hill

Arerial view of Federal Golf Club - March 19881

According to historian Donald Clues, the first golf course in Canberra was created in 1913 behind the Institute of Anatomy and was later relocated to the Acton Sports Ground which is now submerged by Lake Burley Griffin. This ground was maintained by the Federal Capital Commission and was for a variety of sports including cricket, football, horse racing and school sports. It was also bordered by a dairy farm and wasn’t considered to be a permanent solution for the future of the sport of golf in Canberra. A new Golf Club was opened in 1925 near the Hotel Canberra and used by the recently formed Canberra Golf Club, later to become the Royal Canberra Golf Club. Golf was still played on the Acton links, however and this group of players went on to form the Federal Golf Club[i]. This month’s article uses the documents on an ACT Government lease file to follow some of the early history of the club.

Attempts to form a second club named the Acton Golf Club were made as early as 1928 but despite some improvements to the course the quality was not good. Another club was formed under this name in 1933 and soon after changed to the Federal Golf Club in the expectation that it would be able to move away from Acton to another location in the future. The membership of the new club waxed and waned for over ten years with weekly competitions being hampered by Saturday horse racing days, the loss of golf balls in Sullivan’s creek and grazing sheep and dairy cows sometimes creating ‘messy’ conditions[ii]

Letter from club accepting the Red Hill site2

By 1946 the interference to golf days from the racing on Acton Racecourse was becoming too troublesome. In August a deputation from the Club visited the Minister for the Department of the Interior to request that another site be made available for them to develop a nine-hole course. It appears the Minister and departmental staff were in agreement that there was a need for the Club to move to another location and they were willing to assist as best they could. There were three options put forward for the site but two of the locations could only be used temporarily. The third option was a parcel of land that had been put aside for the use of the Royal Canberra Golf Club which was now not required by them. Initially there was some indecision on the Red Hill site among the Federal members but it was soon decided this was the best option for them. There was however some intervention from the Parks and Gardens section of the department. Following a meeting of the Consultative Committee on Parks and Gardens the Secretary wrote to their Superintendent, Lindsay Pryor, suggesting that any second course should be located on the north side of the river. In a letter to the Canberra Services section he agreed that;

If there is to be a second golf links it should be made with a view to determining a likely site on the north side of the city rather than in the Red Hill area in view of the fact that a first class site is now available in Westbourne Woods.[iii]

Alas, despite some investigation, the north side residents would have to wait for a golf course of their own on the north side, due to uncertainty around the future land development between the Federal Highway and Yass Road.[iv]

The decision to relocate The Federal Golf Club to its current location was made in late 1946 but it wasn’t until April of the next year that Ministerial approval was granted. The Canberra Times[v] reported that it expected that play would begin on the course in September 1947. In the interim members continued to play their rounds at the Acton Sports Ground.

An early planning sketch of the first clubhouse3

There was no time lost in the planning. From the earliest discussions it was agreed that members of the club would contribute voluntary labour for minor work on the fairways and to erect a club house with material supplied by the department. The department carried out much of the work requiring heavy machinery. Not all went according to plan though. Some of the materials promised to the club for the building of the club house were in short supply which created delays. Then in July 1947 all golfing on the Acton course was abandoned prematurely due to work being done on the development of a new racecourse. This was at a time when the Red Hill course was still being constructed, so the club’s Secretary, J Brinkmann, requested that his members be given permission to play at the Royal Canberra Golf Club on Sunday afternoons. This meant that many members were providing voluntary labour for the improvements on their new site on Saturdays, and then playing a round of golf on Sundays.

The opening of the new course had to be delayed due to the development of fairways and greens being disrupted when funds and labour became scarce. The number of members dwindled through 1947 and 1948 as players were expected to give up their time on the weekends to work on the course. To add insult to injury, just as the fairways were maturing, a wet season meant that the grass was growing so vigorously that the greenkeepers couldn't keep up with the mowing required to keep the grass at a height that was acceptable for golfing. The club’s president reported in November 1948 that;

The work on the fairways had been so effective that the Club is becoming embarrassed by its inability to provide satisfactory golfing facilities for the many visiting players and potential members. In fact, it is a practical impossibility with the grass as it is.[vi]

Parks and Gardens branch were again called on to assist with their gang-mowers which were more suitable for keeping the length of grass under control until conditions returned to normal.

Extract from a letter of appreciation - March 19504

Of course, all the hard work did pay off. In February 1949 The Canberra Times was able to advise its readers that the official opening of the ‘Federal Golf Club at Red Hill will take place on March 26’.[vii] Within twelve months the membership numbers had increased from 50 to 244, enough for the Committee to start planning for the addition of another 9 holes to the course.

Plan showing the layout of 18 holes - January 19505

The information for this month’s article has primarily been taken from part of one file relating to the Federal Golf Club. There other companion records on the subject for later years. If you would like to know more about how to access these records, please let us know by filling out our online form.

References

[i] Clues D S – The Federal Golf Club Story 1933-1983 – 1983 pp 1-3.

[ii] Ibid – pp 7-9.

[iii] ArchivesACT, 221/56/1#01 – Red Hill – 0221, Section – 0056, Block – 0001, Part – 1.

[iv] ibid.

[v] Canberra Times – Red Hill Golf Links This Year For Federal Club. 28 April 1947 p 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2713446

[vi] ArchivesACT, 221/56/1#01 – Red Hill – 0221, Section – 0056, Block – 0001, Part – 1.

[vii] Canberra Times – Federal Golf Club Opening. 4 February 1949 p 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2788470

File used

ArchivesACT, 221/56/1#01 – Red Hill – 0221, Section – 0056, Block – 0001, Part – 1.

Images

1 - ArchivesACT - ACT 3, 50 - Federal Golf Club - Aerial - Helicopter view

2 - ArchivesACT - 221/56/1#01 - Red Hill - 0221, Section - 0056, Block - 0001, Part - 1

3 - ibid

4 - ibid

5 - ibid

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