To The POINT
With
GIL WAHLQUIST

A time when golfers were forced to dodge the cows

THE HUNTERS Hill Golf Club formed in 1901 had an exclusive membership but they had to share a nine-hole course with cows on the dairy of the Gladesville Asylum.

The greens had to be fenced with a narrow gap to keep the cows out but this was an added handicap for larger members. A caddy of the day, L. A. Cook, recalled members had to be accurate with their shots. The cowpats seemed to be a magnet for golf balls. Every caddy carried a can of Brasso, which was used to shine the clubs and keep them in tiptop condition.

The games are no more. They ended in 1932 when the clubhouse site was required for new nurses quarters.

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THE GOLF Club is remembered in this year’s History Week, starting Saturday September 6. The theme of the week is “The Water’s Edge”, and the golf club had Tarban Creek on one side and the Parramatta River on the other, for they had greens on both sides of Victoria Road, driving from the hospital, avoiding the trams to their fifth hole which was where Riverside Girls High School now stands.

On Sunday September 7 memories of the club will be recounted from 10 am on the verandah of The Priory at the Salter Street end of the old asylum campus, now Huntleys Cove. Graham Percival will lead a walk over the course from 11 am and all surviving caddies and descendants of members are invited.

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INFORMATION IN the Hunters Hill Historical Society archives shows that Dr Wiliamson, at that time superintendent of the hospital, was the first president and the club had the energetic support of its founders E. F. Broad, J. W. Hope and W.A. Windeyer. “Billy” Windeyer was the first secretary and a champion golfer. Right from the start the club took a leading part in competitions against other clubs and in its first year beat teams of eight from each of Sydney’s other suburban clubs.

In 1907 the Golf, Motoring, Tennis in Australasia Journal reported that the club A team had played 25 inter-suburban matches, winning 21, whilst the B team had played 20, winning 16.

The course was one of the shortest in Sydney. The members played nine holes, stopped for drinks (they had a liquor licence), then played another nine

A picture was published in 1901 which showed club members in that year. Their names were: N. F. Christoe, D. Fell, F. H. Blaxland, G. W. Phillips, V. Le Gay Brereton, J. W. S. Lucas, F. H. Tronson, R. C. Lethbridge, W. Davey, C. T. Metcalfe, J. W. Hope, H. F. Barton, R. Smith, H. R. Lysaght, F. A. A. Russell, Sir Thomas Buckland, H. D. Walsh, Walter Leigh, H. M. Suttor, C. F. Broad, G. H. Partridge, B. Allen, A.W.I. Macansh, W. A. Windeyer, H. Buchanan and A. J. Stopps.

Ted Livingstone, who wrote a memoir of the club on May 9, 2001 had lived with his parents at Henley from 1914. Hospital patients maintained the greens and the 30 to 40 club members played on Saturday afternoons but never on public holidays. Ted was permanent caddie in 1926/27 to the Hunters Hill stockbroker Harold Lloyd.

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PEG GRAVE wrote to the Hunters Hill Trust in 1987 with the information that her mother was hon secretary of the Associates in the 1920s. This is verified by a photo spread headed ‘The Pill Hunters of Hunters Hill’ which appeared in the Evening News on August 16, 1926.

Miss Grave’s mother, a commanding figure, is shown with Miss F. Rodd. Other associates pictured are Miss D. Britten, Miss L. Turner, Miss N. Lloyd and Miss M. Dixon in one group and Mrs J. T. Wall, Mrs F. A. Eastaugh and Miss H. King.

When the club was told to go they had a precious asset - the liquor licence - sought by other clubs and on December 31 this was transferred to Pymble Golf Club with members and associates transferring to Pymble.

* GIL WAHLQUIST is president of the Hunters Hill Historical Society.

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