Perth Voice Interactive

WITH a surfeit of inner suburban land devoted to golf, a shortage of public parks, and newly built houses being hit by errant golf balls, Bayswater council is considering “alternative uses” for its 10.1 hectares of land at Embleton Golf Course.

In the past decade cities across Australia have increasingly debated whether they need so many metropolitan golf courses, with public space at a premium following denser housing developments and many people not having a public park nearby.

Embleton’s nine hole public course runs at 50 per cent capacity with an average of 85 players teeing off per day, and Bayswater council’s other nearby course at Maylands attracts higher numbers with its 18 holes. 

With so many other golf courses nearby like Mt Lawley and Yokine clubs, councillor Michelle Sutherland penned a notice of motion to “investigate alternative use options” for Embleton land.

Aside from being underutilised, the surrounding suburbs have had denser and taller housing built in recent years, putting them in the line of fire for power drivers.

A council report says “as such the City has received increased complaints over the last 10 years from residents experiencing reported property damage from alleged errant balls being hit out of the course”, mitigated partly by a safety review in 2018 to put up more fences and realign tees away from windows.

Review

The review is still open ended but may involve some “golf related” options like a more compact driving range, or transforming the courses into public parks. The land is zoned as ‘local public open space’, reserved for parks or other recreation.

Two councillors voted against the motion, Cr Sally Palmer who’s firmly in favour of it staying a golf course, and Elli Petersen-Pik, on the grounds that they’d only recently appointed a new manager in mid-2022 and usage appeared to be rising.

The course is currently run under contract by TenGolf, which has a 10-year lease. They’ve done a better-than-expected job bringing in players since taking over management there in mid-2022, and Bayswater council is on track to make a slim profit this year after budgeting for a small loss.

Cr Sutherland said: “The whole point of this motion is just to have a look-see at what we can do and talk to people” and a majority endorsed the plan, and Bayswater staff will now come up with some alternative uses to present to council in December.

by DAVID BELL