Key points
- Darebin Council will vote on Monday night on whether to accept state money to professionally redesign the Northcote Golf Course.
- The future of the golf course has been debated for three years since locals used the fairways for leisure during COVID lockdowns.
- The council’s attempt at redesigning the golf course has led to criticisms of safety and quality of the greens.
- At least one councillor maintains the golf course should be closed to make way for parkland.
- The golf course debate is likely to become a major issue at local council elections in October 2024.
Dogs and walkers are at risk of being hit by balls and golfers complain they are playing on a sub-par course after a Melbourne council redesigned a course that became wildly popular with strollers and picnickers during COVID-19 lockdowns.
Three years on from the first lockdowns, when fences at Northcote Golf Course were cut for public access, Darebin Council will vote on Monday night on whether to commission another professional redesign for the site after its own attempt at shared use caused safety and quality concerns.
Sammy the Jack Russell near a tape marking the boundary between the golf course and space for walkers at Northcote Golf Course.Credit:Chris Hopkins
A campaign to close the 24-hectare, nine-hole course along Merri Creek and turn the area over for wider community use gained traction during the first year of the pandemic, when golf was banned and residents began using the tree-lined fairways for walks, picnics and passive recreation.
After two years of fierce community debate between golf and parkland advocates, Labor’s Northcote MP Kat Theophanous last April offered $200,000 of state money to accommodate a “circuit-breaker” deal in which the whole site would be redesigned, with the caveat that golf remained.
In May, Darebin Council voted in favour of a “win-win” scenario by carving 5.72 hectares out of the southern end of the golf course to become a park and configuring the holes of the course on a smaller footprint. The changes, overseen by the council’s in-house parks and open spaces team, came into effect in January.
But now there is no fencing – just temporary hazard tape – indicating where the golf course currently ends and where a new on-leash dog park begins, and there is barely any fencing on a new public pathway through the course.
Northcote residents using a fairway as open space during a 2020 lockdown, when golf was banned.Credit:Wayne Taylor
The lack of proper fencing, and dog owners ignoring on-leash rules, has led to pets running onto greens and confused walkers ending up within hitting distance of golfers, Northcote Golf Club secretary Phil Goad said.
“A lot of our blokes have said to [dog walkers], ‘Hey, your dog’s meant to be on a leash’, and we’re told where to go,” he said.
The Age saw a number of off-leash dogs and walkers entering the designated golfing area during a visit on Sunday.
Golfers are also unhappy with the replacement greens after losing one in the redrawn site map. Goad said the first versions of the replacement greens were dirt patches instead of manicured turf, and were unusable.
Plastic taping on Sunday signifying the end of the golf course and the start of the park area.Credit:Chris Hopkins
“They put a flag in a bit of ground and said, ‘Play on that and we’ll charge you the same amount of money’,” he said. “There’s no [permanent] rubbish bins, there’s nowhere to put dog poo.”
The council has since improved the replacement holes, but Goad said the course was no longer as challenging for golfers due to the shortened fairways.
There are also safety concerns around other holes where players now need to sound a horn to warn others they are teeing off, as they are hidden from sight under the new design.
The council has until now declined the offer of state government money, and independent councillor Susan Rennie labelled it a “bribe” to keep golf going at the site, during a council meeting last month.
One small section of fencing between golfers and walkers.Credit:Chris Hopkins
Greens councillor Trent McCarthy, a long-time advocate of turning the course into parkland, said he still believed the course should be closed.
“Golf is not the ideal long-term activity on this site,” he said. “It’s heavily subsidised by council and it’s not delivering on what open space should do.”
He said the council had also still not completed consulting with traditional owners from the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation over their preferred use for the land.
McCarthy, who will retire from council after four terms next year, believed the golf course’s future was unsettled and would be a major campaign issue at council elections next October.
Council officers have recommended councillors on Monday accept the $200,000, with $30,000 to go towards plans to build a new fairway, $70,000 allocated for designs for a proper pedestrian and cycling pathway, $90,000 set for designs for a new northern park adjacent to Mayer Park, and $10,000 intended for plans to improve the golf clubrooms “to support community use”.
A map showing the changes to the Northcote Golf Course which took effect this year. Golfers are unhappy with the shortened holes.Credit:Chris Hopkins
The $200,000 would be for design work only. The council would need to fund any capital works in any forthcoming masterplan.
Labor councillor Emily Dimitriadis, who pushed for the council to accept the $200,000 for professional help after receiving residential complaints, was unhappy about the proposed carve-up of the money.
“It’s hurtful that only a tiny bit of money is going in to the golf club, compared to the park areas,” she told The Age. “If it’s shared-use, the money should be evenly spread.”
Northcote is one of two public courses in the Darebin Council area, with Bundoora Park Public Golf Course 10 kilometres north-east.
The state government installed a municipal monitor at Darebin last year until the start of this year.
The council was contacted for comment.
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