DAVID WRIGHT says the ACT government has stood idly by as the city’s recreation resources have fallen victim to artificially constructed market pressures. 

THE closure of the Capital Golf Club is devastating news to the members and the wider south Canberra community. 

The closure of the clubhouse and restaurant some two years ago may have been part of an incremental process to downgrade the attraction and viability of the Narrabundah course. 

Is the closure of the whole golf course simply the first step towards an application to rezone the land and vary the lease to allow for it to be used for residential and/or commercial purposes?

That proposition presents a challenge to the real values of the ACT government: how does it strike a balance between the recreation and housing needs of the community? How does it strike an appropriate balance between competing land uses? And how does it protect the city’s green spaces and urban recreation facilities from predatory actions?

The government’s record to date does not augur well. It has stood idly by while bowling clubs have been bought up and fully or partly closed in an endeavour to force a change in permitted uses.

Perhaps a more pertinent example is the closure of the pitch-and-putt course at Woden where half of reputedly one of the best courses in the world can still be seen by drones, but in an idle and vacant state. The ACT government took no action to protect this popular and well used recreation facility.

Canberra has been left with only one pitch and putt golf course – there had been three, including Queanbeyan and Woden, but they were all within a 10-minute drive of each other and fought to serve the same small fraction of the Canberra metropolitan population. 

Canberra should be able to support at least three and possibly more pitch and putt courses appropriately distributed throughout the Canberra metropolitan area and protected by proper planning and lease administration.

Part of the original Narrabundah Pitch and Putt Course has already been alienated from public use in order to allow the development of a motel, and rumours abound that further incursions into the course are imminent to allow further motel development.

The concern of the pitch and putt community is that the only course remaining to serve a population of half a million people – a population that has a growing aged population often attracted to shorter forms of golf – is contiguous with Capital Golf Club and owned by the same lessee! 

Pitch and putt golf is an internationally recognised sport. Australia, indeed Canberra, has boasted a runner up in the individual world championships and Canberra has been at the forefront of the sport in Australia. 

However, it will not grow in Canberra unless there are more – not fewer – courses. It’s worth noting, that should the pitch and putt course in Narrabundah close, the nearest alternatives are in Sydney and Wagga Wagga.

It’s time for the ACT government to stop the land speculation in the city’s recreation facilities. It has purposely diluted the leasehold system – a system that was adopted deliberately for the national capital to avoid such destructive activity. 

It has also stood idly by while the city’s recreation resources have fallen victim to artificially constructed market pressures. The problem will not go away. In fact, it is endemic. 

We hear of proposals by the Ainslie Club, Murrumbidgee, Federal and Yowani golf clubs and, most spectacularly, the case of the Canberra Racing Club all of whom are seeking to reap windfall gains from developing their sites for purposes that have nothing to do with their role as sporting clubs and have nothing to do with the purposes for which their leases were granted, often on a concessional basis.

It’s time for the ACT government to look to the broader interests of the community, rather than sharing the spoils of a change in lease-purpose clauses with lessees who have entered into a treaty (with the community) to use the land for a specified purpose. 

It is time to re-assert the benefits of the leasehold system. It is time for the ACT government to abandon its laissez-faire approach to both planning and lease administration and, in this case, recreation planning. Since October 1, the Capital golf course lessee is arguably in breach of the lease in that the land is no longer being used for the purpose for which the lease was granted. 

There should be no expectation that the lease could be developed for a housing estate. Even if that were the case, that is a decision for the territory government and should be pursued in the best interests of the Canberra community rather than the incumbent lessee.

Why can’t we turn this “problem” into an opportunity?

One course of action open to the government would be to resume the lease and pay the lessee appropriate compensation for the improvements. It could then put the lease for a golf course and associated facilities on the market. 

If the government failed to attract any interest in the lease for its current purpose, the opportunity would be there to retain the golf course in association with a range of compatible uses. 

There is no Par 3 course in Canberra so that, together with Pitch and Putt courses, represents a market opportunity. An opportunity to turn a loss into a win. 

The closure of Capital Golf Course should be seen for what it is – simple land speculation. But whatever the outcome, the ACT government must convince the community that what it has done has resulted in Canberra being a better place in which to live, work and play.

David Wright is secretary of Pitch and Putt ACT and secretary of Australian Pitch and Putt and the Par 3 Golf Association.