Because some records have either been lost or destroyed over the years due to various reasons, this is what we believe to be correct based on information received from various people.
Compiled by Graham Davis.
The club was first formed in 1952
Because the township didn’t have a lot happening in the way of sport, the railway station master ( Roy Murray ), who was a keen golfer, decided to get a few locals together to form a golf club. Many years later, Roy was honoured with Life Membership.
There were only a few willing to start playing, among these were Ian & Lorna Barwick, Joe & Hilda French,Ken & Edith Corrigan, Brian & Kath Beven, Claude & Sylvia Reynolds, Linsay & Rita Scott, Owen & Marie Moore, Marie Clark and Edna Munnings. Joe French had the honour of being the first club champion in 1952.
During the 1967 bushfires, the little shed they used for a clubhouse was burnt down along with the local hotel, school, shop, railway station and many homes.
After many meetings and discussions on whether to rebuild the hotel, it was decided to build a tavern in conjunction with the golf club, with ownership being held by the golf club. The block of land was donated to the club by Mr. Edgar Munnings. With a lot of community help, the project was achieved.
The course was owned by Mr. Owen Moore and leased to the club, although Mr. Moore still ran sheep on the course with fences around the greens. If a ball hit a fence it was optional to replay the shot without penalty.
Later Mr. Moore sold the land to Mr. Stan Munnings, who agreed to continue the lease, but the layout of the course had to be changed. Some years later Mr. Munnings was found dead on the course ( heart attack ) and the property was passed on to his son Denis. Denis continued with the lease but the layout had to be changed again. It went to down behind the clubhouse ( now the Colebrook Tavern ) across the creek and up towards the Tunnack turnoff. It went back and forth with a hazard or a creek to cross on every hole ( sometimes two on any one hole ). This made the course very challenging.
In 1981 some committee people had a disagreement with Mr.Munnings and he ended the lease. This was the end of the club on that location. This happened halfway through the Men’s championship which had to be cancelled.
It then became desperate to find new land, there were some offers to lease, but Harold Beven and Joe French, who were adamant that the club should purchase instead of leasing, became very persistent. Harold, who was not a committee member at the time, regularly phoned some committee members asking them to convince the committee to buy instead of leasing and to consider some land at Barton Vale Rd. Harold and Joe, along with help from Barry Headlam and others negotiated to purchase the land.
Some committee men didn’t want the club to go into debt and were opting to lease some land where the Craigbourne dam has since been built. At the committee meeting to make this decision, there were 11 members present. Four voted to lease the land at Craigbourne, four voted to buy the land at Barton Vale Rd. Two did not vote and the President would not give a casting vote on such an important decision. After much discussion, Mr. Peter Cashion asked for another vote to be taken. Mr. Cashion then voted with the members who wanted to buy at Barton Vale Rd. and so the club moved to it’s present location.
Mr. Gordon French agreed to manage the clubhouse at Colebrook as a tavern until it could be sold. In the meantime, money was borrowed and the land was purchased from Mr. John Hales, who was also a keen golfer.
So now the work must begin, credit must go to many people for this but the prominent ones were Harold Beven, Barry and June Headlam, Ralph and Joan Gregory, Mick and Lesley Foster, Joe French, Phillip Headlam, Patrick Morris, Horace (Kid) and Lesley French, Charles Hand, Sam Gregory and probably many others. Each Sunday these people would go and walk behind the tractor picking up bucket loads of stones, only to find just as many stones resurfacing through the following weeks. Eventually with help from others, the people beat the stones.
With the original mapping out of the fairways, Joe French brought along the then head greenkeeper of Tasmania Golf Club, Mr. Ted Gilligan. Walking along behind Ted with his measuring device were Harold, Joe, June and Joan with comments from June about how long the 5th was. It seemed further because parts of it were still scrub and fences.
Once the fairways were planned, a lot of chicken manure was spread on them. Only a couple of areas were missed and some feel that they can identify these areas today.
Now that the fairways were established, the greens had to be formed.
Various people were given a green to build, establish, sow and nurture and Terry Chilcott brought his bulldozer in and loads of soil were dumped in heaps.
1st green:- Ralph and Joan Gregory and Son
2nd. Green:- Harold Beven
3rd. green:- Patrick Morris
4th. Green:- Geoff Moore
5th. Green:- Barry and June Headlam
6th. Green :- Max and Leo Graham
7th. Green:- Mick Foster
8th. Green:- Joe French
9th. Green:- This was a community effort from anyone who wanted to help.
Ralph and Joan came down virtually every night to water the greens etc. Joe French spent most of his waking hours at the course, nurturing the greens and carrying out other tasks.
Geoff Moore organized and poured the concrete for the pump shed and Patrick Morris and Phillip Headlam built the shed which became a temporary clubhouse and is now the machinery shed. Many good times were had in this shed.
After the greens started to grow, twilight competitions were started. At that stage there was no clubhouse or shed, so headquarters were made to be in the boot of somebody’s car parked in the pine trees on the 4th. Ralph Gregory would regularly bring beer down from the tavern and sell what he could, then take the money and unsold beer back to Gordon who was looking after the tavern for the club. The ladies would cut sandwiches to eat after the game.
Eventually the tavern was sold to Mr. Kevin Kemp, an ex-policeman who was also the local cartage contractor in previous years.
After the shed had been used as a clubhouse for a few years, the decision was made by the government to build the Craigbourne Dam. This took in the area where the club had previously thought about leasing land. On this land, there was a house which was due to be flooded, it was the home of club members Max and Leo Graham and their family . The owner of the property, Mr. Michael Crisp, donated this house to the club if the club arranged the re-location of it. This is now our present clubhouse.
When the house was moved to it’s present location, there was an enormous amount of work to be done, but with the help of some very good members, this has happened.
The course layout originally had the 1st hole as the current 9th and finishing on the current 8th hole. After moving into the present clubhouse it was changed to the 1st being the current 1st and the 9th was the current 6th. The change to the present layout was made in the early 1990s so that the finishing hole was in front of the clubhouse.
This is only a brief record of our history, there are many, many other names who could be mentioned, but if we try to mention them all, we would certainly unintentionally miss somebody out.
There are many other current members who have carried out numerous duties in maintaining and improving the course and club to what it is today and they must all receive a vote of thanks along with all the people mentioned above.
What we must remember is that the club is now and has almost always been run by voluntary labour and we hope that this will continue. No committee-person receives any monetary gain nor special consideration or membership subscription paid.
If any member can add to this history or offer the club and committee any assistance, please contact Jeff Weedon or Graham Davis.
We would like to record as much history of the club as we can, but unfortunately most of the original people have now left us and we can only record what we are advised.