Business
13 November, 2023
Phoenix rises from ashes
THEY turned out in their droves at Cairns Golf Club on Boxing Day 1970 but not to play.
THEY turned out in their droves at Cairns Golf Club on Boxing Day 1970 but not to play.
Traditionally it’s a special day for families to spend together filling tummies with Christmas Day leftovers, enjoying new gifts or even playing a game of backyard cricket.
But this particular year members congregated around the ruins of their clubhouse, a two-storey timber structure full of golfing history and memories gathered since 1926, now reduced to ash and rubble.
At 7pm on Christmas Day 1970, a fire had ripped through the building, insured for about $36,000, just as stage one of a single-storey replacement was being completed at its White Rock location.
Members answered the call to attend a working bee to clear the blackened mess.
Those who weren’t out of town on a festive holiday came from everywhere to join as one golfing family to help, and through a Herculean effort, cleared the remains of the clubhouse by late afternoon – an incredible feat considering what lay in front of them that surreal Boxing Day morning.
It would later be identified as a defining moment in the club’s 100-year history.
Gone was John Hadley’s golf professional’s shop, members and associates’ locker rooms, all downstairs, as well as the bar, lounge, kitchen and stewards’ living quarters upstairs.
A temporary bar was set up in a lockable shed beside a large tree near the 18th green until the new clubhouse opened several months later. While the new clubhouse was officially opened in 1971, a new pro shop, locker rooms and a stewards’ quarters would not be opened until 1973.
There have been several reincarnations of the clubhouse and course throughout its history, which began after a meeting of golf fanatics at the Strand Hotel, along the Esplanade, on December 6, 1923. The club’s first nine-hole course was located where the Edge Hill State School is now before moving south two years later.
Women’s captain and centenary celebrations co-ordinator Jane Johannsen said the club would cap off its centenary year with a cocktail party on Friday, November 17.
“There have been many milestones throughout the club’s history, good times and challenging, but the club in 2023 is thriving,” she said.
Construction of the driving range and a new irrigation system, installed in 2022, had been two of the biggest strategic investments in the modern era, Ms Johannsen said.
The range, opened by 2009, is breaking records in the club’s centenary year, with a whopping 1.4 million range balls hit in a 12-month period to June 2023, while timesheets are consistently booked out well in advance for competitions.
Tickets for the 1920s themed cocktail party are on sale for $45 per person, which includes a drinks package, and can be purchased through the office.
“The committee has been busy preparing and we’re looking forward to seeing the clubhouse decorated, music playing and everyone celebrating,” Ms Johannsen said.
