Carbrook's History

The members of Carbrook are justifiably proud of their club, which was voted the 2006 Queensland Metropolitan Golf Club of the Year at the annual Qld Golf Industry Awards Night.

The journey transcends over 3 decades and makes an interesting story.

OVERVIEW

The golf club is one of the very few members' owned golf clubs established in Queensland in the last 50 years. As such, the members have control over their own destiny, without interference from landlords or other external parties, and enjoy knowing that any contribution they make to the club stays with the club.

The club property consists of 3 blocks of riverfront land on Beenleigh-Redland Bay Road, Carbrook at the confluence of the Logan and Albert Rivers. It is on the Eastern boundary of the Logan City Council area and closely adjoins Redland Shire. It is a 5 minutes drive from the Loganholme Hyperdome, 8 minutes from Redland Bay, and 15 minutes from Capalaba.

The property totals 92.83 hectares, of which the golf course, including the clubhouse, buggy shed, workshop, and carpark are built on approximately 40 hectares. The balance is a combination Practice Range, Lakes, and unused land.

The golf course is of genuine championship standard: being 18 holes, Par 71, ACR 72 and 6127 metres in length.

The club has a resident Professional, Teaching Professional, and Trainee operating from a well stocked shop. There is a fleet of near new electric Golf Carts for hire at reasonable rates and there is a Driving Range which is free to members, and a warm-up practice nets facility.

The modest but modern clubhouse overlooks the course and adjacent lakes and members and social players can enjoy a drink before or after their round on the outdoor deck overlooking the lake, or test their luck on the gaming machines if they wish. The Bistro is open 7 days with meals 4 days and snacks the other 3. Espresso coffee is available at the bar.

The club hosted its first State Championship, the Queensland Senior Amateur Championship in 2006. In January 2007 the Qld Golf Union announced it had sanctioned the club's premier golf event, The Carbrook Golf Classic (in October), as an Angus Buchanan/Bill Kennedy Event. We are the first club in almost a decade to achieve this recognition.

Being awarded the Metropolitan Golf Club of the Year Award on February 28th 2007 was further evidence of the club's growing reputation within the Golfing Industry.

This is how we got there…

THE BEGINNING: 1978-1986

It all started when Tom Smith bought the old dairy farm on the Logan River back in 1972. Tom had just retired from his wool buying business and decided to sell his home in Sydney and buy a larger property on the outskirts of Brisbane to escape the Sydney "rat race". As fate would have it he chose the Carbrook property on which the Golf Club largely now stands.

Being a keen golfer, (Tom played Pennant Grade golf in Sydney off a low single figure handicap), he decided he would build a golf course on the land, so he and his sons could pursue their passion for golf, as you do. The first golf course was completed and opened to the public in 1976.

THE CARBROOK GOLF CLUB IS FORMED IN 1978

In fairness, with the resources Tom was willing to invest in the development of the course at that time, the course was, well, a beautifully mowed cow paddock! Never-the-less everyone then associated with Carbrook enjoyed their golf and friendship enormously. Many lifelong friendships were forged in the early years of the golf club, through experiencing a game of golf, a few beers, the occasional sing-a-long, and a lot of working bees!

A few years after Tom purchased the property, River Sands set up their Sand Mining plant on the adjoining block, and in the late 1970's came to an arrangement with Tom to selectively sandmine parts of the course. Thus the members of the club became used to playing on a different golf course every year or so, as the sand mining progressively required more land.

At that time, between 1980 and 1984, the constant changes to the course, and the intrusive nature of the machinery and trucks on the course made it very difficult for the club to survive, as many members became dissatisfied and left the club.

THE CONSOLIDATION: 1987-1992

Because of this, the committee at the time approached Tom to survey an area, complete a golf course on it, build a clubhouse and lease this area to the club for 20 years. With credit to Tom, he generously did so and a lease was signed on the 1/9/1987, thus guaranteeing a future for the club.

Enormous challenges occurred during this period of the club's history.

For the first time the club had substantial rent to pay. $100,000/annum in 1987 was a lot of money. Machinery had to be purchased and staff employed, as until then Tom was responsible for the maintainance of the golf course.

And then came the floods! In 1988 the course was inundated THREE times causing several heartbreaking closures of the course and extreme financial pressures.

Somehow the club survived and 5 years later, on the 3/7/1992 the club was able to purchase the property from the Smith family in a three way arrangement with River Sands whereby progressively a new, flood-resistant championship golf course would be built in exchange for mining rights.

Critically, the building of the new course would impact very little on the existing course during its construction, as the purchase arrangements included the club receiving 30.5 hectares of extra land adjoining Beenleigh-Redland Bay Road, which had been owned by River Sands. This land would be used to develop 10 of the new golf holes.

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW GOLF COURSE: 1992-2006

The club decided to appoint as small a committee as feasible to design the new course to facilitate a speedy outcome, with the committee consisting of just 3 people. A concept of design for the first 8 holes was, in fact, completed by the end of 1992.

Next an Environmental Impact Assessment was completed to ensure the Carbrook Wetlands which environmentally are a world renowned area, were not only preserved but enhanced. This required the relocation of part of Native Dog Creek to adjoin the eastern end of the course.

By November 1993 a full set of "Working Design Drawings" were approved by Council for the first 10 holes, which were to be built on the 30.5 hectares of land adjoining Redland Bay Road. Actual construction of these holes, unfortunately, was held up when the State Government was hesitating over the building of a bridge over the Logan River which would have impacted somewhat on our design.

During this time the club was able to secure a contract to receive treated effluent of a very high standard from the Mount Cotton village housing development, which enabled the design committee to install fairway watering on most of the course fairways as they were built. This was, and will continue to be a huge benefit to the club, with water becoming such a valuable resource.

While this was going on the club built the new 10th and 11th greens. These 2 holes share the honour of being the first holes of the new course to come into play.

When the State Government made the decision not to continue with plans for the new bridge, construction commenced on the 10 holes already approved. Even though building these new holes caused many logistical problems given the huge amount of fill required to lift the level of the land to the present fairway height, the construction caused very little disruption to members' play.

In 1998 careful rearranging of the course saw the opening of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 8th holes.

This allowed construction to commence on the 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th holes and they were brought into play in 2001. The 18th hole was opened in 2002 and the rebuilding of the 12th was completed in 2004 and opened on Australia Day 2005.

Finally, the golf course was completed with the opening of the new 9th hole and new practice putting greens on 31/5/2006 by current President of Carbrook Golf Club Trevor White, and with the Official Opening Ceremony including a long list of distinguished guests including:

Local Member for State Parliament for Redlands - John English.
Logan City Councillor - Russell Lutton
Qld Government Sports and Recreation - Allison O'Malley
President of Qld Golf - Barry Shepherd
CEO of Qld Golf-Stephen Pitt
Assistant Manager Qld Golf - Scott Wagstaff
CEO Qld PGA - Gavin Kirkman
Carbrook Golf Club Course Design Committee - Rowan Shipley, Ken Dyer and Tony Di Tommaso.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP GOLF COURSE NOW ENJOYED BY MEMBERS IS THE RESULT.

Postscript 1.

In hindsight, the sandmining of the 1980's was a marvellous benefit to the club, creating as it has the lakes which surround the course. No-one thought so at the time though, when we were putting up with the dust and noise!

Postscript 2.

During the mid to late 1980's Brisbane endured an unusually large number of floods, especially in the S.E. Suburbs. During this period the old golf course was inundated on a number of occasions, depositing mud and debris on the course and causing the course to be closed for weeks at a time.

Two positives came from this.

The first was that the Course Design Committee went to great pains to ensure all new fairways were raised to prevent flooding. The new fairways have been raised from as little as 1 metre to as much as 3.5 metres! Consequently, there has hardly been a day's play lost by rain since the new holes have been opened, virtually guaranteeing members that play is possible 365 days per year. In 2005 and 2006 a total of one day was lost to rain.

The second was that during the flooding in the early days, large numbers of fish including sharks were trapped in the lakes when the waters subsided. The marketing opportunities afforded with the "Shark Lake" reference have been invaluable. We are also able to have regular club fishing weekends as a light relief option to golf for members and their families.

THE FUTURE

The Carbrook Golf Club was purchased to be owned and operated by its members as a "Golfers' Golf Club" and will continue to plan and grow with PLAYING GOLF, THE QUALITY OF THE GOLF COURSE, AND MAINTAINING A CONGENIAL CLUB ATMOSPHERE, AS ITS PRIORITIES.

While the recognition the club has recently achieved is a testament to the excellent course layout and condition, the Green's Committee have planned the following improvements which will be implemented over 2007 - 2010.
A new, expanded irrigation system
A Bunker Rebuilding Program
A Course-Machinery Management Plan (continuous upgrading)
A Course-Staff Education Program

ENJOYMENT OF THE COURSE

While it is expected the club will continue to attract an increasing number of new members as the course matures (in 2005/2006 there was an increase of 14.7% in active golfing members bringing the total to 828) the Board have a stated policy of "not overcrowding the golf course". It intends to limit playing members to 1000, at which time the books will be closed to anyone outside members and their immediate families. Social players will, however, still be catered for.

PRO SHOP

In 2008 the Professional's shop was expanded to allow a larger range of products and additional golf club storage to cater for growth of membership.

AMENITIES BLOCK

An Amenities Block was constructed on the course in 2008.