WITH an estimated $1.5 million needed over the next five years to fix “ageing infrastructure” Mornington Peninsula Shire Council is now looking for ways of making money from its golf course at Mount Martha.
The expressions of interest (EOI) campaign comes nearly four years after council hired consultants and sought ideas from the community for ways to “develop a vision and long term plan” for the 50 hectare, 18-hole course (Golf course future to the fore, The News 4/11/20).
The latest move to find ways of paying for the golf course off Forest Drive was agreed to at council’s 29 April public meeting. This time around the EOI process will “gather golfing market information and capability” that, as already suggested, may include mini golf, driving ranges and such “non-traditional” activities as food trucks, moonlight cinemas, a restaurant, functions and short term accommodation.
“Long term financial challenges for council indicates that it may no longer be viable to continue to operate the golf course at a deficit, which is likely to increase in the coming years due to the increased salaries, maintenance and capital works costs,” property and commercial services acting manager Gail Mifsud said in a report to council
About 45,000 rounds of golf are played at the public course each year but, according to Cr David Gill, the shire is effectively paying $9000 a year for each of Mount Martha Golf Club’s 250 members.
He said the peninsula was home to 17 golf courses, including the shire-controlled but privately managed one at Devilbend, Moorooduc. “I can’t get change rooms for women in Red Hill ward for sport. There’s an imbalance of funding towards one side of the peninsula,” Gill said. “I don’t see that we can afford to have our community believing that we can run a golf course at a loss. “I would like not seeing this become another Briars where we have a master plan that is going to cost $20 million, which we’re not doing because we can’t afford it. “We’re just getting into a worst position [financially], but we’re still holding out the pie in the sky that we’ll provide this golf course for the few hundred club members … as the officers say, [it’s] a deficit that we can’t afford.”
Cr Despi O’Connor said all of the shire’s sporting facilities ran at a loss. “They are run because our community wants to see those things in our community. That’s what we do, that’s what we provide as a council,” she said. “The call for expressions of interest at Mount Martha golf course “is not about council sinking money into this facility, it’s about going out to the market and finding out if there are people out there who want to partner with us to make this a grand facility.”
A club member had told her that the golf course was “about connection, and people who go and play golf to connect to each other”. “It is the most stunning place on the peninsula in terms of a public setting [with views to Melbourne]. And it’s a public golf course, so this is really important to all of us,” O’Connor said.
Cr Anthony Marsh said calling for expressions of interest with a view to making the golf course economically viable “should have been done three years ago, not six months before [the October council] election”.
“If the process yields no good opportunity or options to make the course viable, there will need to be a tough conversation about that at the appropriate time,” he said.
“In terms of elections … we’ve got 149 days to make a decision as of today. There’s plenty of time to do this and to make a decision off the back of it. “The club is operating at a loss but, as Cr O’Connor said, so does basically every sporting facility we have. This is trying to do the opposite, it’s saying, ‘what commercial opportunities are out there to make it more viable’ and, I guess, not such an impost on the budget.” Marsh hoped for “some really creative options” that would be “exciting to both the community and council from a financial perspective”.
First published in the Mornington News – 7th May 2024
