THE final golf ball has been struck at Victoria Park.
After more than 90 years of golf on one of Brisbane’s most historic sporting sites, the gates have closed, the thwack of golf balls being struck have fallen silent and the bulldozers have moved in.
For many Brisbane residents, the redevelopment of Victoria Park for the 2032 Olympic Games is being presented as progress.
But for thousands of golfers, former club members, staff and patrons, it feels more like the end of a treasured chapter in the city’s history.
The closure is not simply the loss of a golf facility. It is the disappearance of a community institution that served generations of Brisbane families.
Before Victoria Park became known for its popular driving range and entertainment precinct, it was home to Victoria Park Golf Club, which operated from 1931 until Brisbane City Council shut it down in 2001.
The club fought to survive, taking the council to court in a desperate attempt to preserve its future. When it lost, so too did 600 members who had built their sporting lives around the club.
That decision broke the heart of a golfing community that had thrived on the site for seven decades.
Yet golf endured.
The driving range, golf learning centre, putt-putt course, restaurant and event facilities transformed Victoria Park into one of Brisbane’s most successful recreational destinations.
It became a place where serious golfers mixed with beginners, where families gathered, where children hit their first golf balls and where countless social and corporate events were held against Brisbane’s skyline.
It was accessible, welcoming and uniquely Brisbane.
I took my children there to play putt-putt when they were very young and as they matured, we relocated to the driving range to hone our skills. One of my son’s even worked in the restaurant as a teenager.
Now it is all gone.
The irony is that while protesters recently descended on the site claiming cultural and spiritual connections to the land, long-time members such as the late Geoff Bennion spent decades defending Victoria Park’s place in Brisbane’s sporting and community life.
Bennion once remarked that he had never encountered protests about golf being played on the site during his years at the club.
His widow, Jane, recently reflected on what her husband would think of the latest chapter in Victoria Park’s history.
“He’s probably turning in his grave,” she told Inside Golf.
Whether one agrees with the Olympic redevelopment or not, there is no denying that something significant has been lost.
Too often, cities celebrate what is being built without properly acknowledging what is being destroyed.
Sporting clubs and community institutions accumulate value over decades.
Their worth cannot be measured solely in land values, development plans or economic forecasts. Their real value lies in the friendships formed, the traditions maintained and the memories created.
Victoria Park was one of those places.
The official farewell statement from the golf complex recognised as much, describing Victoria Park as a destination shaped by community support, loyalty and love. It spoke of generations of people coming together to connect, celebrate and create lasting memories.
That passion rings true.
For nearly a century, Victoria Park was part of Brisbane’s story.
It survived wars, recessions, changing governments and repeated battles over its future. In the end, it could not survive the march of Olympic development.
Perhaps the new stadium will become a landmark that future generations embrace.
Perhaps Brisbane will look back on this moment as a necessary sacrifice on the road to hosting the world’s biggest sporting event.
But today, as excavators replace golfers and construction fences replace the golfing complex, many Brisbane residents are entitled to feel a sense of sadness.
Because when the final ball was struck on May 31, it marked more than the end of a golf facility.
It marked the passing of a Brisbane institution.
Vale, Victoria Park Golf Complex.
David Newbery is a former Editor, the current Editor at Large and a long-time contributor to Inside Golf
ED NOTE: The Victoria Park Golf Complex obviously had special meaning to David Newbery and his family, and no doubt to many others in Brisbane, some who had initially enjoyed the course, then those to frequent the golfing facilities which remained after the 18-hole layout was shut down in 2001.
For all the emotion, which was obvious in David’s words, one statement rang true. ‘Too often, cities celebrate what is being built without properly acknowledging what is being destroyed’.
We can look forward to the Olympics and to the new infrastructure necessary to host it, but at the same time be a little sad at what will be no more.
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Article Link: https://www.insidegolf.com.au/opinion/victoria-park-gc-the-end-of-a-brisbane-institution/