Oatlands Golf Club at centre of Abdallah tragedy raking in profits
A Sydney golf club which knocked back plans for a garden memorial to remember four children killed in a crash, made huge profits in the past year.
NSW
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The under-fire Oatlands Golf Club has made huge profits in the past financial year, driven by surging membership numbers, government Covid payments and land sales.
The financial revelations come as the tier one golf club’s surprise plans to build 193 new apartments within five new buildings — some of which will be six storeys high — alongside a swanky new clubhouse has sparked a community backlash in light of its refusal to allow a memorial for the tragic Abdallah family.
The lavish plans include a “wellness centre” and private landscaped gardens, courtyards and up-market apartments for seniors.
In the past financial year the club raked in a record amount of $2.243 million in revenue from golfer subscription fees, and overall reported an operating profit of $1.2 million for the past financial year.
As a result of its robust finances, the club was able to cancel its overdraft and discharge its mortgage, boasting “we now have unencumbered title to all our land assets”.
“The Club is in a very strong financial position and is arguably better placed than many other golf clubs,” a club spokesperson reported.
Following shutdowns caused by the pandemic, it received Covid-19 government grants of $317,500.
“Despite the effect of the temporary suspension of golf on that forecast (as a result of the pandemic) … the strength of the club’s financial position will ensure continuing operation as a golf course,” the financial report stated.
The club also made a profit of $882,248 after selling a block of land on Niblick Crescent.
And it expects to reap up to $7 million from selling more residential land along that same street.
Even its golf shop posted record revenue, the most in any year since the club began operating the store with overall sales across the club rising by $260,000 on the previous year, despite lockdowns.
Money also flowed from its golf coaching fees, “setting a record by being above $100,000 for the first time, but also smashing past $150,000 to just over $160,000, well over double FY20”, a club spokesperson reported.
The club brought in a joining fee and limits on its membership, which is now full, and collected $38,000 in entrance, or joining fees.
The same golf club was handed two design drawings by the City of Parramatta Council for the memorial for the four Abdallah and Sakr children killed by a drunk driver. They were both dismissed out of hand at a special meeting in February.
SAKR MUM’S PAIN OVER GOLF CLUB PLANS
The mother of one of four children killed by a drunk driver near the Oatlands Golf Club has called on the board to reconsider proposed plans for a residential development on the course.
Bridget Sakr’s 11-year-old daughter Veronique died alongside her cousins, the Abdallah siblings Sienna, 8, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13, when a drunk and drugged driver ploughed into them in February last year.
Oatlands Golf Club is now planning to put apartment blocks on the site, which Ms Sakr claims is a move driven purely by profit.
“My daughter landed on that golf course, it is a community club and they should be looking at what the community wants,” Ms Sakr told The Daily Telegraph. “This pains me every night.”
Oatlands Golf Club members will vote on the proposed development on December 8.
“I urge that they vote against the proposal and that they vote against that board,” Ms Sakr said. “This is tormenting for us, the way they have gone about it.”
Leila Abdallah, mother of Sienna, Angelina and Antony, is equally dismayed.
“They wouldn’t give us a memorial and yet they want to build apartments? I feel very upset, especially as when you lose your kids … you’re grieving, you have a scar in your heart,” she said.
The families have proposed a memorial by way of a commemorative garden named Hope Park where people can pay their respects.
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