Popular golf club on course for busy Dry after $9m renovation
A popular Top End golf club has relaunched after spending millions on family friendly refurbs. Read what’s been done.
Northern Territory
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Palmerston Golf and Country Club’s $9m upgrade and overhaul has delivered a top shelf community venue that’s breathed new life into the 40-year old facility.
Fully funded by the club with zero contribution from taxpayers, general manager Matthew Hewer said the venue will be the new standard for hospitality in Palmerston.
Completed over two stages, work began in 2022 installing an 18-hole minigolf course, a 100-person function room and The 19th Hole, which is a large outdoor function space.
The second stage was where the rubber hit the road, with a full redevelopment of the clubhouse including an indoor 230-person restaurant with capacity for 100 inside and 130 outside, extensions to the gaming room, redeveloped children’s play area, a brand new sports bar, which includes a 5m LED big screen and a schmick commercial kitchen to replace the donga out the back.
“We knew we needed to make it bigger because we’d outgrown our old venue, basically,” Mr Hewer said.
“The club’s always been very popular but it reached a point we didn’t have enough space for customers.
“We didn’t have another sports bar area, so the patrons mingled with the families and children that were coming in for dinner.
“Now, when you come here we’ve got a proper reception and a beautiful big restaurant with a separate sports bar area.”
The upgrades are a triumph for the club’s management, which has turned around the venue’s fortunes since the dark days of 2011 when it entered voluntary receivership.
David Page from Holtze-based Tailor Made Building Services project managed the refurbishment, using an almost exclusively Territory workforce.
Up to 20 companies including landscapers, fencers, concreters, plasterers, painters, carpenters, TV installers and audio technicians, worked on the site.
Mr Page said over the two-year life of the build, more than 150 workers entered the job site.
While trade and material shortages are regular post Covid-19 challenges, he said the golf club’s original builders had included a 100mm fall through the entire structure which presented a totally unique set of obstacles.
“We were trying to turn something that’s not level and not square into something that was tight,” he said. “I don’t know how you build something so far out. The floors were all different heights.”
With contractors putting the finishing touches to the job, Palmerston Golf and Country Club opened late last month, with preparations underway for the Dry.
The club will also spend $3m upgrading the golf course irrigation network in 2024.
The bullet point summary was created with the assistance of AI technology (PaLM2) then edited and approved for publication by an editor.
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Originally published as Popular golf club on course for busy Dry after $9m renovation
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