Calling Time on Moore Park Golf Course

It was never okay for the NSW people to subsidise the obsessions of Sydney’s elite.

A few weeks ago, when the Minns government announced that Moore Park golf course would be cut in half and converted to public parkland, I was elated. Could the days of the stranglehold that that golf has on Sydney east suburbs be numbered? 

I’ve long been of the opinion that golf is just pokies for rich white guys. Think about it, golfers spend inordinate amounts of time and money chasing the dopamine hit of a one-in-twenty half-decent shot that convinces them to come back the next week. 

While the societal ills of pokies are visible enough to make even the most hardened Labor supporter blush, golf’s ills are a little harder to see. 

In 2012, the NSW Land and Environment Court made the astounding ruling that the value of the land that NSW Golf Club was sitting was valued at 0 dollars. According to the judge, because of a clause in the lease for the land that allowed the NSW government to evict the club with 3 months' notice rendered the land worthless. Meaning that the paltry rates the club was paying at the time of $36,000 a year were dropped to below $1000. 

The La Perouse golf course, with its iconic views of Botany Bay and the ocean, is rated the second-best golf course in Australia. Interestingly, it’s not too easy to find the latest membership fees for the club, the most recent stats this writer could find were from 2015. The joining fee was $17,440, and annual fees were $4360. That is along with a +10-year waiting list. 

Recently, houses in La Perouse have sold for over $5 million. One can only imagine the rates the council would be raking in if the land the golf course is on were valued at anything bordering on rational. 

Its generally accepted that a good golf course can handle no more than 72 people at any given time and a maximum of around 350 in a single day. NSW Gold Club sits on around 590000 square metres of land. On a busy Sunday, there is one person to every 8194 square meters of incredibly valuable land.

NSW Golf Club, like dozens across Sydney and 50 around the state, sits on crown land. The NSW Government leases the land for a marginal rate to private clubs. Meaning, the NSW public directly subsidises hundreds of hectares of some of the most prestigious golf courses in Australia. The inspiring largesse of the NSW tax payer. 

The biggest loss for the NSW public by far is the opportunity cost. These golf courses exist on enough land to house tens of thousands of people. Not only that, but they are greenfield sites that can be developed with the best urbanist principles that the good folks at Sydney YIMBY espouse. Surely the ongoing stamp duty/land tax advantages alone would be enough the get the treasury department on board. 

Golf, like any addiction, is rabidly defended by its junkies. Unfortunately, these junkies are some of the most powerful people in the state. The previously mentioned Moore Park proposal was floated by the previous Liberal government. That was until the NSW golfing illuminati raised an eyebrow, and the minister for planning at the time, Rob Stokes, shrank back into his shell.

When asked about the possibility of further crown land being returned for general public use, Chris Minns was at pains to say there were no other plans for golf courses in Sydney’s east. 

I say it’s time the NSW people start thinking about that 3-month clause on the lease. 

Andy Leach, Sydney Yimby Member.