Rose Bay golf course $17 million redevelopment to go ahead after years of environmental opposition
Image: The Royal Sydney Golf Club has had its $17 million redevelopment application approved. Photo: Royal Sydney Golf Club.
By ERIN MODARO
A controversial revamp of one of Sydney’s most affluent golf courses has been allowed to go ahead, after the case was upheld in the NSW Land and Environment Court (LEC) last week. The Royal Sydney Golf Course in Rose Bay, which has hosted the Australian Open several times, will see its entire 18-hole Championship course be transformed into a new done-up green.
The $17 million redevelopment has faced backlash from residents and council after the original plans, which were put together over three years ago, included the removal of 595 trees.
Environmental groups including local community group Save The Trees, established by Woollahra Councillor Nicola Grieve, put up a fight against the removal of so many trees.
Cr Grieve expressed her disappointment that the plans had been approved.
“Tree massacre brought to you by an elite private Golf Club out of touch with the world and a broken planning system” she said via social media.
Community members and supporters of Save The Tress gathered outside the course last week, awaiting the decision from the LEC.
History of opposition
Due to pushback in 2020, the Royal Sydney Gold Cub was pressured to change its application to retain 100 of the trees planned to be felled, including Moreton Bay Fig trees for canopy cover. Of the 298 submissions given to Woollahra council about the redevelopment, just 58 were in support.
In 2021, revised plans were submitted by the developers, which included 3 times as many trees and a promise that the development will restore the area to its “original coastal heathland character”.
Instead of retaining tree canopy, the club promised to plant more than 500,000 native shrubs and grasses resulting in a 20% reduction of water usage. A December 2022 ‘fact sheet’ released by the golf club says that the 595 trees being removed will be replaced by “2,187 new trees of very diverse native species”.
According to the sheet, these new native trees are already being grown in nurseries ready to be planted when the redevelopment begins in early 2024.
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