A HISTORY OF GOLF 1930 - 2003
Golf in Harvey has been a favourite to many local
golfers since 1930. The first Golf Course was built in Cookernup in
1929 on a farm owned by Norman Buchanan. This was situated on the
west of the South Western Highway north of Riverdale Road and the
Logue Brook Dam Road Harvey. This was a nine hole course and is
believed to have been 1800 yards long. The longest hole being 250
yards and was known to be reached in two shots with the old wooden
shafted clubs. The club champion on that course was a young golfer
by the name of Dick Trevenan who happens to be the brother-inlaw of
Harry Blackburn.
Harvey, not to be outdone, built their first
course in 1930. This course was known as Londons Paddock and was
situated on the east side of South Western Highway oposite the
Chinese Restaurant and service station.
This course had only seven holes and wound its way east up the
Harvey River valley then back along the south side of Weir Road.
Two holes were played twice to make up the nine. The course par was
32.
The unusual feature of this course was that the club house, (which
was a bough shed) and the first tee were not in Londons Paddock.
They were situated on vacant land on the western side of the South
Western Highway almost exactly where the Chinese Restaurant is
today. The first hole was played across the highway and over the
fence and into the paddock. The highway was a gravel road in those
days and traffic was not really a hazard. The fences surrounding
Londons Paddock were barbed wire and had to be negociated with a
style and a potato sack was hung over the top wire. There were
several of these styles around the course and quite a few stories
where male golfers by passed these and got hung up on the top wire.
One in particular was the first club Captain (the local postmaster)
who was a very important person in those days. His name was
Massingham and exceedingly large in statue. It took three strong
golfers to extricate him from a very embarrasing situation. The
greens on this course were built by the Gibbs brothers who farmed
at on Weir Road. A small area of grass was chipped away and
levelled it with a section of heavy railway line, then rolled it.
In effect they were dirt greens which worked very well in dry
weather but were a disaster when wet.
As an eight year old I trained my Mother around
this course on several occasions and on womens days it was always
of great interest to see who would clear the fence with the first
shot.
The first President of the new golf course was AD Hill who was the
headmaster of the School, a one time State cricket player. Percy
Dewe who was my Uncle described his golf as trying to hit every
ball for a six but never achieving one over the bowlers head,
usually ending up at square leg or mid on.
Harvey had six golfers with reasonable skills at
this stage and used to play in team events between Bunbury - Capel
- Donnybrook - and Balingup - which made up the composition of the
South West Golf Association. Percy Dewe recalls travelling down to
these events in Mitter Paul's Studibaker.
Mr Paul owned and ran the only garage in Harvey and had his large
Studibaker car with a luggage rack on the back as well as side
racks on the running boards. As a result this vehicle was able to
convey all six golfers and their clubs to these team events. Mr
Paul was called Mitter Paul because that is what he called himself.
If you rang him he would pick up the phone and say "Mitter Paul
speaking". Incidently he is the grandfather of one of our Clubs
previous Presidents Ron Newby.
Percy Dewe also recalls another event of a four
man team going to Bunbury on a challenge. Bunbury had never been
beaten by any other club and boasted the best course and the best
players. The Harvey team consisted of George Dempster - Percy Dewe
- Ted Massingham - and Dave Muir. Dave was the manager of the Sunny
West butter Factory in Harvey. He was also Judy Comb's Grandfather.
Percy records the team score as Dempster 99 Dewe 101 Massingham 130
Muir 130 and believe it or not they won the competition by two
strokes.
Incidently many of the players in these competitions wore
traditional plus fours in those days.
Harvey's first golf course has a very short life
span. The Harvey Weir wall was to be raised and a new supply
channel has to be built right through the middle of London's
Paddock and in 1931 the Club would have to find a new site. The new
location became known as Palmer's Paddock. Major Geoffrey Palmer
owned most of the land between the South West Highway and the
Railway Line on the South side of Uduc Road expect for a narrow
strip of land bounded by Buckby road. This road was not constructed
at that time and nor was Hacket Road which was just a muddy track
between trees.
The Club house for the new course stood at the
southern end of Hacket road and consisted of a small shed about
double the size of a backyard lavatory. In it was a small shelf for
writing cards and contained some afternoon tea facilities. The rest
of the space in the shed contained tools of trade - shovels - rakes
- green baggers etc.
Access to the club house was not possible down
Hacket Road in wet weather. Mostly players parked their vehicles in
Herbert Road, opposite where Path Road now stands and walked across
the Railway Line.
Palmers Paddock contained a few old citrus trees
and a few clumps of paperbark here and there and a few odd Redgums
and Bluegums which had been ringbarked and were dead. With fairly
minimal clearing a nice hole sand green course was laid out. From
the Club house it went South parallel with the railway line then
turned Northeast to where the Harvey swimming pool now stands then
turned West back to the Club house along the South side of Buckby
Road. The tee for the ninth hole (a four par) would have been where
Cec Holmans house now stands in Kidson Street.
In the area where the Harvey swimming pool now
stands there was a creek meandering through the portion of Palmers
Paddock. It was more like a series of ponds than a flowing water
course and much to the concern of the associates a creek hole was
established across one of these ponds. It was an attractive little
pool about 50 metres across fringed on two sides with paperbark
trees. It was not deep, probably half a metre in the deepest park.
A boardwalk was built across it and a very long handled net
installed on the boardwalk for ball retrieval. The water was
crystal clear and the balls easily seen. One of the Associates was
a Mrs Markham. Her nickname was Lady Lil. She was an English woman,
very cultured and married to a Captain Markham who was a permanent
soldier in the British Army and fought in the Boer War where he was
wounded in the knee and walked with a permanent limp. He and Mrs
Markham migrated to Australia in the 1920's and took up a ten acre
property in Third Street and planted an Apple orchard. Their house
still stands, altough not recognisable in its original form and is
situated about 300 metres south of the Harvey Fresh juicing
factory.
Lady Lil (I call her that fondly) was really a
lovely lady and spoke the Kings English with great precision. When
I was a kid she used to pay me three pence every couple of days to
take her down a small billy of milk. However she was defeated by
this cleverly constructed creek hole and could only rarely
negotiate the crossing. In the end she made her own rule for this
hole and used to carry her ball across the place it on the edge of
the green and count four. However many shots it took to hole out
was added to the score. She believed this was fair and just the
solution to the problem. The Club was quite tolerant to this
practiceand I suspect other players (including men) adopted this
practice from time to time.
The course par on Palmers Paddock was 32 (No five
par holes) and being largely cleared there was really no definition
of faiway except along the boundry fences.
A flock of sheep did the course mowing and the
sand greens were protected by a single wire fence which suprisingly
kept about 95% away. If you hit the wire fence with an approach
shot you were permitted to play it again.Occasionally cattle were
grazing midweek and repair work was nessessary on the greens.
Another hazard on the course was that Major Palmer had a very
aggressive jersey bull which sometimes strayed on to the course.
This caused considerable chaos which it occurred on Ladies day. I
had the job every Saturday morning of bagging the greens for which
I received the princely sum of six pence. This was often agumented
in the afternoon when I stayed on and caddied for Captain Markham.
The bags were not hard to carry. With the exception of two or three
good players golfers then used only five clubs. These consisted of
a driver - a midiron (viz.3 iron) - a mashie (viz. 5 iron) - a
mashie niblic (ziz. 7 iron) - and a putter. Some players had six
clubs and added a Niblic (9 iron) to their collection.
They all up weight of a canvas bag plus five
clubs was less than three kilos. These were all wooden shafted
clubs. From memory the first set of steel shafted clubs same to
Harvey in 1935. Percy Dewe had been back to England for a holiday
and brought them back with him. When golf resumed in Harvey in 1946
after the war 90% of players still had wooden shafted clubs but by
1948 90% had converted to steel. The last conversion to steel was
probably my father who reluctantly converted about three of his
clubs in 1965 but still had two wooden clubs in his bag in 1973
when he played his last game at age 86. The highlight of his career
in golf was in 1969 when a team from the Harvey Rotary Club played
a team from the Rotary Club of Satagayo in Japan. There were six
players in each team and the game was played on the same day on
each course and the lowest total nett score of each team would
decide the winner.
My Father came in with a gross score of 81 which
was one less than his age and with a handicap of 24 his nett was
57. Needless to say the Harvey team won and the Rotary club of
Harvey holds a very unique and ornate trophy curtesy of the Rotary
Club of Satagayo in Japan.
The golf course in Palmers paddock only lasted
five years. The great depression of the 1930's had arrived an with
in came a decision by the government of the day to build the Harvey
River Diversion Drain. This drain was designed to prevent the
Harvey River from flooding, which it did nearly every second year
when the weir overflowed. This project
provided employment for 2000 people. Unfortunately for the Golf
Course the Diversion drain had to be dug right through the middle
of Palmers Paddock. A new course then had to be found.
The site chosen was known as the little commonage
and stretched from the Harvey River to Summerbrook Road along the
Eastern side of the South West Highway.
This Commonage was dedicated as a settlers
reserve and vested in the Harvey Shire. (Then the Harvey Road
Board). In all it contained around 600 acres. My Father who was
Secretary of the Board at the time assisted the club to lease 150
acres adjoining the Harvey River at the southern end of the
Location for a peppercorn rental of one Pound a year.
And so began construction of Course number 3 in
Harvey.
The area near the River was fairly weel wooded
and some clearing was necessary. To achieve this twelve members of
the club donated ten pounds each. This money was used to pay Jim
Williams who with a horse a tree puller and a kangaroo jack did the
job. It is interesting to note that this money (120 pounds) would
have given 40 weeks work for someone on the then basic wage of 3
pounds.
The rest of the construction of the course was
done by volunteer labour. The club house, which again was a bough
shed was situated just inside the gate leading to the Tourist
Bureau and Stirling Cottage. The first hole went from there due
East parallel with the River. The second hole crossed a creek which
runs into the Harvy River and the green would have been around
where the dining room of the Harvey Agricultural College is
situated. From there was a dog leg going east and north east and
from there six holes running parallel east and west the ninth green
finishing about seventy metres south of where the monument stands
today.
In 1937 the Club sponsored two junior members:-
myslef and Laurie Muir the son of Dave Muir. This was a first for
the Harvey CLub and we were made eligable to play in the
competitions as there was little else they could do with us. I am
sure many of the members cursed us under their breath when drawn
together in the competitions. In those days most competitions were
played in pairs. On own choice days my hero was Captain Markham who
made a point of asking me on nearly every occasion.
There was no Clubhouse as such for socialising
after the game and Captain Markham who was a good friend of my
father would often stop off at our place after golf and enjoy a
whisky or two with my father. I can recall one evening when the
whisky has flowed for a much longer time than usual and our family
were patiently waiting for our tea, Dad said to him - by jove the
time is slipping away Cappy its gove half past seven.
Cappy looked quite shocked and said in his
clipped English voice - By Gad Eckersley this is serious and shot
out the door as fast as his gammy leg would carry him, muttering as
he went - Lil will kill me. Mrs Markham had a reputation in spite
of her gracious ways of being a very domineering wife.
One small highlight of my golfing career in 1937
occured on opening day. It was the custom of the Club in those days
to run a long driving competition. This was held before play
started when everyone took turns in making a wild hit off the first
tee.
When just about everybody had had a hit and Les
Grieves was leading the feild, Loyd Haywood, the Club Captain
called out to me to have a go. To everyones chargrin and to my own
great surprise I passed Les Grieves by about ten yards. The prise
for this event was two bottles of beer, which, being under age I
was not about to accept. I never really was able to find out what
happened to the two bottles of beer, but I suspect that les Grieves
may have been given them off the record to placate him.
The life of number three course in Harvey spanned
from 1936 to 1940 when World War 2 intervened. It is interesting to
reflect on pre War golf in Harvey. When I was admitted as a junior
member in 1937 their were 25 playing members and 30 ladies. I can
recall around three single women, one was Glad Mincham and another
was Alma Rigg an aunt of Richard Rigg; then there was Ivy Grieves
(who later became Jan Archibald wife of John Archibald one of our
revered Life members). Then there was Emily Rather (later to become
Emily Dewe wife of Percy Dewe). Of the 25 playing members all but
four had wives that played. The associates usually fielded more
than the men on their playing day. Mixed foursome were a popular
evern on Sundays when just about the entire club
participated.
In the old Clubhouse at Stanton Park there was a
list od playing members on 1937 and their handicaps. It is
reproduced here.
A. Ball 26 L.R.
Grieves 24 J.Pritchard 32
E. Buckenara 32 Les Grieves 24 G.
Rigg 19
R. Castenelle 12 L. Hayward 22 H.
Rigg 20
P. Dewe 8 E. Holthouse 32 C.
Robinson 9
D. Eckersley* 23 AJ Markham 29 P.
Sandland 22
WR. Eckersley 16 C. McCann 26 R.
Stanton 25
J. Fimmel 32 D. Muir 14 G.
Stimson 28
G. Gauntlet 32 L. Muir* 19 G.
Stimson 28
L. Windus 12
* Junior member
As can be seen apart from four or five players we
were a pretty mediocre lot. From 1930 to 1938 the Club Championship
rotated between Percy Dewe, Dick Trevenan and George Dempster who
won it in 1932 and 34 but then left to play in Bunbury. Percy Dewe
and Dick Trevenan battled it out until 1938. In 1939 a newcomer
named Fred Yule came to town to work in the bank and he won it in
1939. He also won it the first year after the War. (Cookernup
Course closed in 1932 and their players came to Harvey).
The life of Harvey's 3rd Course spanned from 1936
- 1940 when World War 2 intervened. The Golf course was taken over
- first as a military training camp - then an internment camp for
unnaturalised Italian immigrants - and was also used for a period
as a POW camp for German sailors from the Merchant Cruiser
"Cormoron" which sank the Sydney. For a brief period after the War
the camp was used for rehabilition training for ex servicemen who
qualified for the Soldier Settlement scheme. Finally the area was
taken over by the Agricultural High School in 1948.
The Commandant of the Military Camp was a Major
Owen who was a keen golfer and a friend of my father. He was also
very sympathetic to the fact that our hard won golf course has been
destroyed. So in 1945, in collusion with my father he used his
manpower and military equipment to construct 6 golf holes north of
where the monument stands.
This gave the post war golf club a very good start and in 1946 six
more holes were constructed to make a 12 hole course. This was to
become Harvey's fourth golf course. Its fourth club house was yet
again a traditional bough shed and was situated adjacent to the
highway just inside the gate at the top of what was then known as
Johnson's hill.
The first ran south parallel with the Highway to where the Monument
now stands. It later became hole No3 when the Course was rearranged
but was always referred to as the Monument Hole. It was also scene
of my first ever eagle. The hole was a four par of 326 yards. I had
hooked my drive and had to play my second shot over the top of a
large Redgum tree. I cleared the tree with my shot by was twently
metres left of the green. The ball landed on top of the concrete
monument, bounced high in the air to the right and into the
hole.
The course rearrangement was made to
accommodation a vision of the then Club President Laurie Grieves
for a Licenced Club House on top of this hill. Laurie drove this
project with great enthusiasm and enterprise and although the club
was not overimbued with money he assused us that we could build
this Clubhouse for next to nothing and the bar would soon pay for
it. He was right.
The Anglican Church rectory was to be removed to
make way for the new Harvey Primary School. Laurie arranged for the
Golf Club to do the demolition in exchange for all the salvage. All
the timber flooring and fittings were in good condition as well as
most of the roof and as it was a fairly large building so in fact
almost 90% of the rectory finished up at the new Clubhouse building
site. Club members went up into the bush and cut all the stumps for
the foundations and installed them digging all the holes in the
hard gravel clay soil. Much of the erection of the building was
done by members with minimal professional help. Extra materials
were brought by the club through a variety of cheap sources or
highly discounted. In some cases professional help was given
gratis: for instance the historic fireplace in the Clubhouse was
voluntarily built by Pop Newby the Principle of J. Newby and Sons.
Two years later a wing for the new bar was built on to the north of
the building. Again the building materials were brought on the
cheap and most of the work was done by the then Club Captain Jim
Regan while on long service leave from the High School at which he
was the Woodwork Instructor.
As soon as the Club house was finished the Club
applied for a licence and to Laurie Grieve's horror we were refused
on the grounds we needed a minimum of 100 full members to justify a
licence. Associates did not count in the view of the licencing
Court. After canvassing for members for around a month we had
reached a total of 96 still four short.
Laurie Grieves said to me one Saturday afternoon after golf lets go
down and canvass the Bowling club they have their licence and it is
currently their happy hour. So down we went. We got a good
reception and Laurie put them our plight as only Laurie Grieves
could. The tragedy of having to go home from golf without a beer or
the horror of having to drink a cup of tea as
unthinkable.
They were very sympathetic to our case and after
much discussion and as many beers made the proposition - we will
rouse up four members for you if you are prepared to do the same
for us. After some hard bargaining we got them to agree on a basis
of four for two so Laurie and I joined the Bowling Club there and
then. The bowling clubwere true to their word and found us four
members. On our second applciation we got our licence.
By 1952 the Club was in a position to build six
more holes to achieve a full eighteen hole course. This was
achieved by dovetailing two new holes within the existing 12 holes
and constructing four new holes along Summerbrook Road at the North
end of the course. At the base of the hill where these new holes
were to be constructed were six giant trees which had to be
removed. The bulldozer which we had hired to clear the fairways had
been made available at a very concessional rate by Hugh Harding and
was bring driven by Mick Ballinghall husband of Rose.
Mick had cleared all the Fairways except this
patch of giant trees. The dozer just bounced off them. He decided
that the only way to get them down was to pull them with a cable
after cutting roots with the blade of the dozer. We had to get the
cable around the tree very high to get enough purchase and this
proved to be difficult to do so with a stone on the end of a
string. We could throw it over the lower branches but to throw it
over braches 50 feet up threading though the lower branches on the
way up proved impossible.
We finally found the solution with a speargun. The Spear carrying a
length of fishing line could be aimed pretty well over the selected
branch, the fishing line would then be used to carry over a light
rope - the light rope would haul a heavier rope and then the rope
would be attached to my tractor to pull a heavy cable over. After
many tedious hours we had the trees down on the ground and then ran
into the next problem. The trees were too big to be moved for
stacking and had to be cut in half. No chainsaws available at that
time and we had to resort to the old crosscut saw - some
job.
After the fairways were finished we arranged a
busy bee for a stone and stick pick. This was
held on a hot Sunday - there were 120 members, associates and their
families; four tractors and trailers. A wonderful day, at the end
of which Laurie Grieves licenced premises were severely
taxed.
It was at this time that the Club decided to make
Dick Stanton a life member and name the new 18 hole course 'Stanton
Park'. Dick who had a small orchard in 5th Street and was a keen
golfer and President of the Club from 1937 to 1939 and was
Secretary of the club in 1946 when it reformed after the war and
also the honoury greenkeeper. He did all the fairway mowing with
his own tractor as well as the construction and maintainence of the
greens. I assisted him with the mowing on occasions and Frank Gough
who was the Handicapper assisted with the greens.
In 1948 when the Club got their licence Dick
Stanton became the Licencee and also the bar manager as well as
barman. He still continued with the work on the course as well and
for his own convennience moved his caravan up to the clubhouse and
virtually took up permanent residence. By 1952 the club had
constructed four grass greens and Dick did all the pumping of water
from the channel and the watering of the greens. By 1953 it had
become too much for him and for the first time the club had a paid
greenkeeper: Ralph Italiano.
Dick Stanton continued to run the bar for a few more years until
age and ill health caught up with him. It is interesting to comment
that one of our present members Frank Italiano who is Ralphs' son
who did a great job as Course Chairman on our present course. He
did an apprenticeship with his father at an early age.I used to
watch him spend many hours on the tractor with his father at the
old Stanton Park course when he was a boy.
Stanton Park, which I call course number 5 was to
serve Harvey for the nect 19 years.
By 1968 it had become apparent to members that
this course could never achieve the standards required in the
present era. Although it had some outstanding features that facts
were that only 8 of the 18 holes were on flat or gently undulating
country. The remaining 10 were all on steep gravelly slopes and
although spectacular in the deep of winter were very hard going at
the beginning and the end of the season. Reticulation and grass
could note be achieved without huge expense and summer golf would
be next to impossible.
In the event a new Course Committee was appointed
with wide ranging terms of reference to investigate and construct a
new course providing a suitable site could be found. The Committee
appointed were:- Myself as Chairman John Archibald (Incumbant
President) Bevan Campbell (Past President) Brian Denney.
And so the search began.
The land in the irrigated area of Harvey could no
be considered and we were forced to look at all the fringe areas.
Nothing was suitable in the hills so we looked to the
west.
Bevan Campbell who was District Forestry Officer
in charge came up with idea No. 5067 which at that time was under
the control of the Forest Department. The
Committee agreed after inspection that this Reserve was by far the
most suitable site that could be found on which to develop a golf
course.
So negotiations began which lasted nearly two
years before work began. To have the forestry land excised for a
golf course was almost impossible without a special act of
Parliament. But we dicovered another way was possible if the
Forestry Department was to received a similar area of land in
exchange. The Golf Club could not provide that land but it may be
possible to persuade the Harvey Shire to provide a section of the
Harvey Commonage which was not being used to achieve an
exchange.
So negotiations began; first to get the Harvey
Shire approval and secondly for the Shire in turn to get the
approval of the Minister for Lands and Forests (Dave Evans) and the
Deputy Premier and Minister for Planning (Ron Davies).
The two Ministers were invited to Harvey to meet
with the Shire, hosted to a luncheon, briefed thoroughly on the
proposal and the desperate need of the Golf Club to find a new
venue then taken on a tour of the old Club to understand its
problems and then out to the new site to see what a great course it
would make. Finally back to the park of the Commonage that was to
be exchanged to convince the Minister for Forests that the land he
would get in exchange was approximately six times more valuable
that the reserve.
Following the tour and over afternoon tea the
Minister both gave their whole hearted approval for which I have
been eternally grateful.
It is often the case that Ministers leave you hanging by saying
they will give the matter serious consideration and go back and
consult their departments.
I should also register here my sincere thanks to
the Shire for the whole hearted support given to the Golf Club on
this issue. It was a big ask for them to give away 200 acres of the
Commonage for the forest reserve and on top of this a bit later
provide a self supporting loan for the new Club house. It was
co-incidental that I was Shire President at the time and had to
make the request on behalf of the Gold club for their approval to
the scheme. It did not participate in the debate except to answer
questions and did not vote on the matter as I could be accused of
having a vested interest. After the Shire had given their unanimus
approval however I was able to lead the discussion with the
Ministers.
The final result of all negotiations were that
the Golf Course Reserve is vested in the Shire and the Shire in
turn lease the land to the Club on a 21 year renewable term.
After the successful conlusion to the negotiations
and the Golf Course being the lessee of the land then the real work
had to begin. The number 6 Golf Course had to be designed and then
built on what was virgin and unclear land. Most of the area was gently undulating - a few areas and a
couple of swamps.
John Archibald camae up with the idea of doing a
contour survey so that we could see what it looked like on paper.
This idea was adopted and John, being the engineer came out with
his theodolite - I carried the staff - and a member of John's PWD
gang becane the axeman to give line of sight. This survey took
about one and a half days then John converted all the readings on
to paper and drew a full scale contour map of the area.
The next step I believe to be unique in history
of golf course design. The contour map was used to build a scale
model of the whole area using plaster of paris to construct the
land form showing the hills, the slopes, the swamps etc. In fact we
were able to look at a three dimensional picture of the land form
without the trees on it.
Our small committee spent many hours poring over
the model. One early decision the committee made was the siting of
the Clubhouse on the top of the first and highest hill.
Then a decision was made to copy in part the design of the Bunbury
Golf Course and make the first and the tenth holes three par. The
committee believed that this facilitated a good gateway for large
fields and avoided congestion that occurs on three pars when all
four are distributed around the rest of the course.
Using pink ribbons and drawing pins we then set
out various configerations on the model and after dozens of
different arrangments we finally came up with the present
design.
At this point I have claim credit or demerit, whichever, for hole
number fourteen, a double dogleg which I implanted on the design at
an early state and had to argue very vigorously for on numerous
occasions. From the time the model was made to the final decision
took about two months.
The whole area of the course was still bush so as
a first step we cleared a line down the centre of each fairway with
a bulldozer so we could get a good visual perspective of each hole.
An on the ground inspection by the Committee resulted in a few
minor changes and adjustments to make better use of the contours.
Following this the bulldozer cleared the fairways to their full
width under supervision mainly by John Archibald who made dicisions
on various trees along the sides and in strategic place.
For example the goalposts on number eight. The
bulldozer material was heaped into a giant windrow down the centre
of each fairway about eight to ten metres wide. Burning it in this
position improved the fertility of the area on which it stood and
at the same time left the bush on either side
undisturbed.
Following the burn then began the job of cleaning
the fairways of residual roots and debri - the construction of the
sand greens and the seeding and grassing operation. This was
achieved by a series of busy bees many of which were attended by
more than 50 members and accociates and in a number of cases, their
families aswell.
Concurrently with this the original fairway
reticulation system was installed together with a pump which was
places on the river. The pump was a donation from Millars Timber
and Trading Company of Yarloop. It was a large 100hp diesel engine
mounted on iron wheels and connected to a six inch high capacity
pump. It had not been used for years and the wheels were rusted to
the axles and the motor reluctant to turn over.
However a couple of enterprising farm mechanics
and three weeks work had it working perfectly.
The piping for the reticulation main lines was 6
inch concrete and was in the ground at Pinjarra alown the South
West Highway between the Town and the Satelite Town of what was
called Tarcoola (Now North Pinjarra). This piping - about 4 miles
of it was made available to the Club by Alcoa, providing we
retrieved it ourselves.
Thus began another epic. With the help of one of
our new members backhoe and a fleet of our farmers and builder
members trucks and quite a few aching backs these pipes were
transported back to Harvey - nearly 3000 of them. The laying of
these pipes was again mainly carried out by volunteers and
supervised by Len Taylor who had recently installed the pipes for
the reticulation of the Town water supply. Len remained on for a
while assisting with the establishment and maintenance of the
course until George Tornton became our first official greenkeeper,
Bar Manager and general provider of most of the services around the
course.
A few years later, when the grass greens were
established there was again a huge voluntary effort by members and
this is a story in itself.
Firstly, the reticulation system we had only
served the fairways and required extension and upgrading. The water
supply in the Harvey River Diversion Drain was becoming
unsatisfactory and at times could not meet the demand. Bores had to
be established and new electric pumps installed. This required a
sustantial outlay in capital equipment which was expensive. The
voluntary labour component was substantial but could only be
applied to the installation of the pipe extensions and sprinkler
systems. But with money raising efforts in the Club House and a
very hansome contribution from the Associates it was
achieved.
The grass greens themselves were constructed
shaped an planted by a huge voluntary effort over two
weekends.
The first weekend there were six trucks, four
tractors with front end loaders, two tractors with blades and at
least 4o members and associates. A snad pit was made on the left of
the access road and on the left of No 3 fairway. About 60 to 80
cubic metres of sand was delivered to each green site and roughly
spead. The second weekend required more manual labour and the
greens were shaped and raked over, smoothed and all sticks and
rubbish removed. Watering points were installed at each
green.
Finally, once the water system was ready another
big volunteer effort was mounted to collect trailer loads of
wintergreen couch runners, spread them over the greens, roll them
in and water them. All this work was
supervised by Bill Watchman who at that time was greenkeeper at the
new Binningup Course. He had considerable experience in grass green
establishment. Much of this time was given voluntarily.
A conservative estimate of the value of voluntary
work, the value of tractor work and equipment used, donations of
waterials etc during the construction of the grass greens is well
in excess of $100,000.00. This does not include the many busy bees
that take place regularly on various aspects of course maintence,
clearing fallen trees, removing trees and rubbish, fertiliser
spreading and many other jobs about the place that are done by
individual members from time to time.
It is interesting to record here that the No 5
Golf Club on the commonage had on several occasions looked
seriously at establishing grass greens and did in fact establish
four as previously noted, but found the establishment for eighteen
grass on the old Course impossibly expensive. One of the terms of
reference of the New Course Committee included the possible
establishment of grass greens on the new course at the
outset.
The Committee during their deliberations made
extensive enquiries at a number of Clubs in the State that had
grass greens on their costs of establishment and maintenance. The
best advise we could get at that time was, that to have and
maintain 18 grass greens the Club needed in excess of 300 members
and associates to be viable. ie, being able to afford the capital
equipment and use paid labour for all the necessary work around the
course and the club house.
On the strength of this information the Committee
elected to start the new course on Myalup Road with sand greens. We
had the expectation of increasing the membership over the next five
years at which time grass greens would be viable.
In the event, membership did not increase to the
extent necessary. However the Club went ahead with the construction
in the knowledge that it would depend on the good will and
voluntary efforts of members and associates in bringing this
about.
Our course has attracted wide acclaim by visiting
golfers and many groups from various parts of the State and who now
visit here on a regular basis.
I could not conclude this story of Golf in Harvey
without paying tribute to all the Presidents, Captains and
Committees, too many to mention individually who have guided this
Club to where it is today. I have to also include the Associates,
Presidents, Captains and Committees. Their contributions to the
Club have been substantial and without which we would never have
survived.
What has been achieved is remarkable and is due
to so many individual efforts by our office bearers many of whom
will always leave their stamp on a particular aspect of our Clubs
progress. They could not have done what they did without the supprt
of the members and associates.
To the furture and one has to day that if the
past is any guide this Club will have to continue to rely on their
leadership and the support of the members and associates to
maintain the high standrard it has achieved and strive to improve
the membership to the point of easing the financial strain of
operating the club.
I would like to reflect on some of the issues
that have affected Golf in Harvey over the years and which could
relevant in future planning. So what started as a history of Golf
in Harvey: in turn it could be possible to use this history to look
at our future.
I will start with membership. When Golf started
post World War 2 our Membership rose steadily and by 1952 when the
Club achieved an 18 hole course the membership has grown steadily
from around 45 Associates and 50 members in 1947 to 64 Associates
and 120 Members. About 30 of our members were Social Members and
did not play golf but made a significant contribution to the Bar
takings anf again at Socail fixtures which were quite frequent in
those days. The Club also owned a poker machine between 1948 to
1952 when they were declared illegal. I recall one particular year
when the profit from this one machine was 10,000 Pounds (At least
$150,000 in todays value). Following the demise of the poker
machine and a severe loss of revenue the Club, bearing in mind the
desire even then to work towards getting 18 grass greens launched a
drive for more membership and this included a program of coaching
Juniors. There were about a dozen enthusiastic boyss (no girls).
The result of that exercise was disappointing. I cannot recall any
of those boys taking up golf in Harvey.
I do know that several of them went on to play
golf but not in Harvey. The problem turned out to be that the
majority of these boys after finishing school left to work
elsewhere. It will be interesting to see if the same trend occurs
with the boys and girls that Russel Upton trained and spent so much
time with a couple of years ago.
Up until 1960 membership remained fairly constant
at around the 1952 levels. From that point on there was a gradual
decline in both Members and Associates. With the Members during
this period we had about 11 school teachers playing golf and one by
one they received transfers and their replacements did not play
golf: also most of the Socail members left us. We also suspected
that the course itself had a lot to do with it. Our dream of grass
greens was not being realised and the steep terrain was also taking
its toll. With the Associates, their decline in numbers was due in
the main to women moving in to the work force in large numbers.
During the 60s the number of women in the work force moved from
about 5% to 25% by 1970. These factors had a lot to do with the
decision to move to a new course.
Having built the new course and susequently the
grass greens the Club was fairly sure that membership would grow
but it has not happened to the extent we would have expected. The
Club has done a great job in holding membership fees down to a
respectable level and I feel sure that our present membership fees
are a selling point rathehr than a disadvantage. So the question
remains. How can we build up membership? In today's environment
there are a lot of competitive form of recreation, far more than
during the 50s and 60s. It means therefore that we have to compete
more vigorously for our share of the sporting cake. The Club needs
more Members and we need more Associates.
The course we havae is as good as it can get with
the current membership. In fact it is a remarkable achievement to
think that viability has been maintained without reaching that
magic figure of 300 Members and Associates. In earlier days the
licenced bar was a good money spinner bu the advent of the drink dr
iving laws has put paid to that and profits very modest. So in fact
viability has only been maintained through the efforts of
successive Club office bearers and committees - the Associates -
and the many contributions and voluntary efforts of the
members.
While we remained with the current membership
these voluntary efforts will have to continue. This is not
necessarily a bad thing but it does mean that the Club will need to
maintain a high level of management - a high level of support from
the members - and above all - a spirit of good will and
understanding by our Members and Associates - and above all a love
of this game of golf which has been given to Harvey for the last 73
years.
In looking to the future, then it might be a good
idea to see what can be done about boosting membership. It would
make life so much easier.
Don Eckersley caddied for his mother on the first
Harvey Golf Course in 1930. He joined the Club in 1937. He served
the Club for several years as President during its reconstruction
in the 1950's and played a major role in the construction of our
present course in 1970 to 1973.
He is a life member of the Club and was still
playing golf today.
I suggested to his that members would be very
interested in his account of the History of Golf in Harvey. This
history was put into a booklet as the result.
Charlie Baggetta
Club President of 2003
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