Royal Sydney Golf Club pledges to cut down less trees in latest DA

One of Sydney’s oldest golf courses, which frequently hosts the Australian Open, has been forced to submit a new development application.

One of the city’s oldest championship golf courses has unveiled a revised development application pledging to cut down fewer trees after originally attracting significant criticism.

The 120-year-old Royal Sydney Golf Club has submitted an amended development application to Woollahra Council pledging to keep 188 of the 569 trees initially slated for the chop to make way for new green space.

The revised proposal promises to cut down the trees to make space for more than 2,000 native trees and 500,000 bushes to revitalise the 57-hectare course.

The Sydney Royal Golf Club has unveiled a revised DA after the first attracted criticism.

It comes after the first development application divided the community, attracting hundreds of submissions to council, including some which raised concerns about the volume of trees that would be removed.

But Club President Chris Chapman says the latest development application strikes the right balance between addressing the concerns of the community and the needs of the club.

“The feedback received from Council and the additional information it requested has been very helpful and caused the Club to undertake considerable introspection – the outcomes from which have resulted in a number of positive enhancements to the initial proposal, principally with respect to the landscape rehabilitation and tree retention aspects”, he said.

A biodiversity assessment report completed for the latest proposal claims the move will boost habitat for native fauna and result in a net increase of 1,293 trees on the site.

“A clear objective of the redesign is to make the Royal Sydney property one of the most important sanctuaries of native flora and fauna in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs,” the proposal says.

The latest plan pledges to keep more trees.

The latest proposal comes after members in 2019 voted to revitalise the golf course following concerns its “ad hoc” design and “outdated” irrigation system downgraded its status as one of Australia’s most-loved golf courses. m

“Much of the plantings on the course were done without a consistent philosophy or masterplan. The results of these changes is a disparate collection of styles inconsistent with the best golf course design principles,” professional golfer Ian Baker Finch said.

“The principles of the new design feature dramatically improved biodiversity, the control of aggressive and invasive plant species and the provision of wildlife corridors.

“The planned changes will also result in a 20 per cent reduction in water use, saving 73 million litres per year.”

The submission for the member-funded works are set to be reviewed by a Planning Panel later this year, with works scheduled to commence in April 2022.