Mount Lawley Golf Club - The first fifty years (1928 - 1978)

The following chapters are excerpts from Mount Lawleys Book 'Mount Lawley Golf Club - The first fifty years (1928 - 1978)'. Click on the chapter title to view the text.

Chapter One : The Foundation Years

Mt Lawley Golf Club owes its origin entirely to the enthusiasm and determination of a small handful of local residents in the then outer suburb of Mount Lawley, especially to two enterprising young neighbours of the suburb, namely, Harry Glick (pictured right) and Carl Klem (pictured left). Early in 1927 they initiated a series of meetings among their fellow residents, with the object of forming a golf club. The site which they had chosen was an A class reserve, at that time vested in the Perth Road Board.

Several informal meetings were held in the homes of various prospective members and enthusiasts, and to the delights of the sponsors, the response was very good indeed. It was soon decided that the time had come to try to enlist a broader public response.

On 11 August, 1927, a public meeting was called in the local cinema, later known as the Astor Theatre. To the delight, and surprise of the sponsors, approximately 200 people attended. The idea of launching a golf club was warmly received and endorsed. The majority of the people attending submitted their names as prospective members, and actually paid one half-year's subscription of the determined annual fee of five guineas.

This substantial contribution gave the club a magnificent start with the needed finance. Actually, it was instrumental in the survival of the club in the most difficult days to come.

The question of naming the club was raised at the first meeting and after considerable and heated discussion the present title of Mount Lawley Golf Club was agreed upon. At this meeting the first working Committee of the club was officially elected, with Mr A M P Montgomery and Mr H Glick being appointed as joint honorary secretaries. However, Mr Montgomery held this position for only one year. His departure to live in South Africa necessitated his resignation at this time.

The other foundation committee members, recorded in the first official minutes of the Club, dated 10 October 1927 were as follows: The Hon J J Scaddan (then Minister for Railways pictured left) as Chairman, P H Chapple and J C Harris, who, together with the secretaries formed the finance sub-committee, Carl Klem and J R Arundale (the latter being the Chief Engineer of the Perth Road Board) who, again, with the secretaries comprised the Grounds sub-committee, R T Everett, R Goyne-Miller and W M Nairn (later to become Speaker in the House of Representatives).

What a task these stalwarts faced! In August 1927 Mount Lawley existed in name only, and vast efforts was needed to give the dream of our club fathers a reality.
The Hon J J Scaddan, Chairman of the first Mount Lawley Golf Club Committee.

Nevertheless, the committee soon set to work, and just a month after the initial public meeting, a second meeting was held to give a progress report to the proposed members. Committee meetings were held very frequently, usually in the homes of members. The original committee held office until March 1928 when it was decided that the Annual General Meeting of the Club be held every year in that month.

Apart from the physical development of the course itself, to which we shall return later, several matters were revealed in the minutes as being of great importance to the functioning of the club in these early days. The first was the incorporation of the Club, something which the committee pursued closely, in order give Mount Lawley "a proper legal basis" as soon as possible. The usual corresponded with the Crown Law Department pursued and incorporation was achieved on 9 February 1928 then the title "Mount Lawley Golf Club (Inc.)" proudly headed the following recorded minutes:

"The negotiation of a lease with the Perth Road Board for the proposed site of the course was naturally a matter given top priority, and a deputation to the Board quickly negotiated a lease for fifty years at a peppercorn rental."

It is interesting to note that an ornamental box was once made for the purpose of storing the annual rent, and for handing it over to the Road Board.

The question of membership was always to the fore from the very beginning of the Club and applications to join the Club, as well as resignations, were and still are carefully recorded.

The popularity of the golf as a recreation and the enthusiasm for the new Club of Mount Lawley are amply demonstrated by the records which show that on 11 March 1929 only eighteen months after the first public gathering, membership stood at 329 comprising 167 gentlemen, 152 ladies, four juniors, two non-playing members and four country members.

Another contentious issue, which bulked large from the Club's beginning, was the question of finance - naturally! Noted earlier, members at previous meetings had willingly paid subscription fees to give the club support. These funds were clearly insufficient to meet the considerable cost of developing a golf course, and in 1927 the committee was empowered to raise the sum of 5000 pounds by debentures. However, despite continuing efforts to promote this debenture scheme only 1250 pounds was obtained. Nevertheless, the sum was far from inconsiderable in those days, and it only allowed work on the development of the course to progress very gradually.

A Mr David Anderson, the then professional at Royal Perth Golf Club, undertook the laying out of the course. The original plan was for an 18-hole course, with an additional nine holes for the ladies. The problems of clearing, planting and watering the area soon became apparent, and this rather ambitious target was replaced by the more realistic goal of a 10-hole course. As soon as financial resources allowed, tenders were invited for the talk of clearing the ground, planting and putting in a reticulation system. It was obvious that fencing would also be needed, as straying cattle threatened the newly planted fairways. Two miles of post-and-wire fence were soon constructed at a cost of 59 pounds per mile.

Panorama of the course under construction in 1927.

The enthusiasm and determination of the Mount Lawley's early members stood the Club in a good stead, as many of these stalwarts volunteered hours of their own time to help clear the bush, prepare the ground, plant out trees, greens and fairways. Once the grass was established, groups could frequently be seen at weekends down on their hands and knees, laboriously weeding the developing fairways. By March 1928 ten tees and six greens had been planted and were progressing gradually. One of the chief problems to be faced and which continued to plague the Club for many years was that of watering the course. Although the water was found quite close to the surface of the ground, the sinking of spears and pumping water was established quite economically. The water itself, tended to produce a water scum, which blocked up the sprinklers and gave off an unpleasant odour.

During this period financial limitations prevented watering from being carried out on a 24 hours a day basis. Growth of new grass on the course was patchy and very slow. As a result almost two years passed before any member was allowed to hit a ball on the new course. Mr Harry Glick, in his memoirs of his early Mount Lawley Club days, described the ten holes as they appeared in 1928. The first was in much the same position as now the existing first hole, except that it was about fifty yards shorter because there was a slight depression behind the green, which was permanently under water.

The second hole went as far as the top of the rise of the present "over the hill" hole, then tended to bend back towards the Clubhouse. The third was the existing tenth, but was much shorter. Then came the long "straight", the "Paper Bark", the "Pumphouse", the "Roadway" and "Half-Way", all as they are today, except that the "Pumphouse" has been considerably lengthened. The ninth hole was the current practice fairway, which in those days had a miniature swamp across the fairway that was to have been a water hazard. However, the hazard disappeared when the Water Board drained the area. The tenth hole was actually played across Eighth Avenue, the tee being approximately where the lounge room of the Home of Peace now stands.

Play on the new course finally got under way in 1929, and produced some problems fascinating to the golfer of the 70s. As the fairways were still in the very early stages of their development, many had large sandy patches, and soon golf balls became the same colour as the ground and very hard to spot. The solution was to paint them red, in order that they could be easily distinguished. However the brightly coloured balls soon attracted the attention of the resident crows, and many a well-driven ball disappeared mysteriously from the middle of the fairway.

The "foundation period" of Mount Lawley could have been said to come to a close with the official opening of the course. This event took place on May 31 1930. The Governor, Sir William Champion, who also enjoyed the occasional round of golf at Mount Lawley when time permitted, performed the ceremony.

The first official opening of the club on Saturday 31 May 1930

From left: Handcock (Greenkeeper), M E L Cantor, A M P Montgomery, C H Klem, R Goyne-Miller, H W Glock, a visitor and O E W Bruns; name of the boy is unknown.