Clubhouse›The facts
The facts, plainly.
Why a nine-hole course on an island matters more than its size suggests, and what the research says about golf in Australia.
Why it matters
A course you can actually afford to play.
Rottnest Island has one public golf course. It is a relaxed, walkable nine-hole layout of about 22 hectares, wrapped around the salt lakes and shaded by Norfolk pines, with a clubhouse, a putting green and a bowling green close by. There is no members-only gate and no dress code to worry about.
It is where a Perth family teaches a kid the game on holiday, where a retired local plays most mornings, and where the island’s golf club runs competitions and charity days. Take away part of that and the effect is felt well beyond the fairway.
The remodel is being driven by genuinely important work: protecting the Wadjemup Aboriginal Burial Ground and building service infrastructure. Our case is simply that golf should not quietly pay a bigger price than it has to.
The course, in numbers
The Authority says the remodel is designed so Rottnest keeps a nine-hole course, holding a traditional mix of par 3, 4 and 5 holes.
Footprint of the existing public nine-hole course.
Holes 3, 6, 7 and 8 are reworked; hole 9 is removed.
New fence height, to keep quokkas off greens and fairways.
Extra walk from the Kingsway bike path to the clubhouse under the new pedestrian route.
Nobody has to choose between honouring Wadjemup and keeping a golf course. We should expect a plan that does both.Save Golf Rottnest Island
Golf in Australia
Good for people, good for places.
National research, summarised. Figures come from the 2023 Community Benefits of Golf in Australia report (SGS Economics & Planning for the Australian Golf Industry Council), the R&A Golf & Health report and a University of Melbourne study. Please check the originals before quoting.
Community value
- $3.3bnestimated yearly benefit of golf to Australians: about $1.4bn economic, $1.0bn social and $890m environmental.
- 37%of adult Australians (around 7.2 million people) have visited a golf facility as a non-player.
- 166,000more Australians would be physically inactive without golf, according to the same report.
Health & wellbeing
- $423ma year in physical-health benefits, plus an estimated $439m in mental-health benefits.
- 5 yrslonger life on average for golfers than non-golfers, according to evidence summarised by the R&A.
- 3-in-1exercise, company and time outdoors: the three ingredients of good mental wellbeing that a round of golf delivers together.
Nature
- #1In a Melbourne study, golf courses held more beetles, bees, birds and bats than nearby parks and residential areas.
- ~10×bat activity compared with nearby housing, in the same research.
- Old treescomplex, layered vegetation with large old trees is the reason cited. Rottnest’s Norfolk pines and coastal scrub fit that picture.
Who plays
Not who you think it is.
No membership needed
Rottnest’s course is a public course. Hire clubs, book a time and walk onto the first tee, whether it is your first round or your five-hundredth.
A holiday with a club in hand
Parents, grandparents and kids share a fairway on an island with no cars to dodge. Few places make a first round this easy.
More than a game
Competitions, charity days and a clubhouse where islanders and visitors swap stories. That is what we are trying to protect.
Take two minutes
One email can move a very long way.
Decisions about Rottnest are made by people who answer to voters. Tell your local Member of Parliament and the Minister responsible for the island that you want a full, public golf course kept in play.
