AN INFANT KILLARA GOLF CLUB
1899
The second Captain, W.S.Cook, standing beside the original
clubhouse of the Lindfield
Golf & Recreation Club in 1901.
The second Captain, W.S.Cook, standing beside the original
clubhouse of the Lindfield
Golf & Recreation Club in 1901.
In 1899 a small group of people gathered under a canvas cover spread between some trees in an outlying suburb of Sydney to inaugurate a golf club. A year later they bought some land in Killara and with a mixture of friendship, enthusiasm and sound business sense that was to become the hallmark of the Club, started the Killara Golf Club.
The Club and course have seen many changes: dairy paddocks, orchards and sheds have become dams, tree-lined fairways and clubhouses. From a nine hole course on 14 dusty hectares the Club has grown to eighteen holes on 50.5 hectares of park land with substantial buildings and facilities. This was not simply natural progress but the result of careful planning and much dedication and hard work by members and staff.
When the Club began, golf was a relatively new game to Australia and, as a result, Killara has played its part in Australia's golf history. It was the first club to own its own land. The Killara Shield, donated for an interclub match in 1929, remains the oldest golfing event on the NSW Golf Association Calendar. The Ex-Service Members' Association, formed in 1920, was the first such association in Australia, and the Killara versus Newcastle golf match is the oldest continuously held interclub event in the world. When the NSW Ladies Golf Union began, Killara Associates were founding members.
The Club and the characters and personalities that make it up have met many challenges and achieved many things during their first 100 years.
The foregoing notes appear on the fly leaf of an excellent publication entitled "The Killara Golf Club 1899-1999" written by Dr. Earle Bastian (former Life Member and Club Archivist) for the occasion of the Club's centenary.
He makes constant reference in his book to people who worked "tirelessly to assist the Club's development", but probably no one out of the 1,700 odd members did more than him in this respect. It is therefore most sad that he died shortly before the centenary.
This hardcover, which covers all club activities, is available from the Golf Club itself and the full history of the Bowling Section may be read on this site.