The City of Sydney Is Considering Reclaiming 20 Hectares of Moore Park Golf Course for Public Use
It'd turn the site from a 18-hole course to a nine-hole course, and use the reclaimed land for public recreation.
A big patch of Sydney could be set to undergo a makeover, giving the city's residents more green space. While Moore Park is currently home to an 18-hole golf course, the City of Sydney is proposing to reduce the site down to nine holes — reclaiming the area occupied for the other nine holes for the general public.
That'd almost halve Moore Park Golf Course, which presently sprawls across 45 hectares. That's a hefty area in the middle of the city that's used for one type of recreation, has been earmarked for that purpose since 1913, and accommodates 80 golfers at any one time. So, the City of Sydney is pondering taking back either 18 or 20 hectares of the public land, with two designs floated.
Both options under consideration cut down the size of the golf course — but how the course looks afterwards changes in each reconfiguration. The first reclaims 18 hectares, adding new parkland to the western side of the golf course north of Dacey Avenue. In the second, 20 hectares of land would be taken back by the city, but along the western edge of the golf course, as well as south of Dacey Avenue.
In both designs, the driving range facility, club house and maintenance depot all stay put. New public paths would be added around the perimeter of the course, too, which would improve access to other parts of Moore Park and Centennial Park.
The idea: to "provide more equitable access to this significant open space," the City of Sydney notes. Obviously, Sydney looks rather different now than it did 107 years ago, as does Moore Park. It's also far more dense, population-wise. Accordingly, giving residents of the area access to green space is a continuing priority.
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The proposed move has received some backlash; however, the City of Sydney is currently asking for community feedback, so you can offer your thoughts online — but only until the end of Tuesday, December 22. After the consultation process, it'll provide details to the New South Wales Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, which'll help drive the decision about what to do with the public land that Moore Park Golf Course sits on.
The move isn't unprecedented; in Queensland, the Brisbane City Council is turning the Victoria Park Golf Course in Brissie's inner city into a huge new public park, for instance. It'll take over 64 hectares of land, and include a huge lake, a tree house lookout and rainforest mountain-bike trails.
To provide your feedback about the plan to reconfigure the Moore Park Golf Course before the end of Tuesday, December 22 — or for further details about the proposal — head to the City of Sydney website.
Top image: Google Maps.
