URBAN SANCTUARIES
THE golf course is not just a sanctuary for golfers, it seems. For many species of Australia’s native flora and fauna, the open green spaces of the game’s playing fields form a crucial island for survival in a rapidly diminishing urban landscape.
Consider this; in Sydney’s metropolitan area, for example, more than 4,000 hectares of land is covered by golf courses, with much of it home to locally endangered native animals and plants.
Which is why in 2012 the then-Greater Sydney Catchment Management Authority invited several Sydney courses to be part of a now-defunct environmental scheme linked to the carbon tax.
At the time, landholders with significant holdings were required to be eligible to be part of the carbon credit market and in metropolitan Sydney that meant, among other things, golf courses.
The Teeing off Carbon Connections project was born and while the carbon tax has since been repealed the money invested in the project was not. So 16 Sydney clubs, and the associated plants and animals who reside on their courses, have been the beneficiaries.
With the three-year project now coming to an end the Greater Sydney Catchment Authority has morphed into Greater Sydney Local Land Services but the work undertaken is being hailed a success.
Nicola Dixon, senior land services officer with the newly named body, says the results have been well worth the effort.
“Golf courses can be the difference between local extinction and survival for some species,” Dixon says.“They are islands for those flora and fauna. A lot of people think golf is only the mown grass and tall trees, but there is a lot more going on within the boundaries of golf courses than that. “We have courses which are home to swamp wallaby and eastern water dragon habitats and a lot of native birds take refuge on golf courses.
“Their role is far greater than probably many golfers even realise.”
While the playing corridors of courses are the focus of grounds staff, many of the areas that are out of play can be prone to weed and pest invasion. It was these areas targeted by the project.
“The reality is that 40 percent of courses in the Sydney metropolitan region have endangered ecological communities or threatened species,” says Dixon.
“Many of the clubs we selected couldn’t have started this regeneration work without initial funding of this program, for most between $50,000 and $80,000. “Many were happy to pay for ongoing maintenance but couldn’t find the initial large outlay to get going.”
While grounds staff have been part of the program, one of the main hopes of the Local Land Services department is that a growing number of volunteers will become involved.
“One of the messages we’re selling is what other courses do to replicate what’s been
Golf courses can be the difference between local extinction and survival
for some species.
achieved at the 16 clubs involved so far,” says Dixon. “And that is to approach members about forming volunteer task forces to do weeding and planting and some of the other regeneration work required.
“Some of the courses we’ve been involved with the past three years have had amazing outcomes in this department.
“Volunteers have put in 13,000 plants on the course at Cromer just by meeting once a week on Mondays. Muirfield have 30 to 40 volunteers meeting once a month and Bonnie Doon has a strong volunteer group, who meet every Thursday and are working on restoring Eastern Banksias.”
Dixon said the cost of maintaining areas once the worst weeds and pests had been eradicated was not a financially draining prospect.
“It depends on the willingness of the club’s members to volunteer their time and effort obviously, but once an area is restored it’s not overly difficult to maintain,” she says, adding that it’s not only club members and staff who have an interest in restoring and maintaining grounds within the course.