The Royal Sydney Golf Club confirms that the New South Wales Land and Environment Court (the Court) has upheld the Club’s appeal concerning its Championship Course Development Application (DA), following the completion of the conciliation processes with Woollahra Council established by s34 of the Land and Environment Court Act. Development consent has been granted by the Court.
The Club has worked very closely with Council over the last six months or so and has made a number of changes to its Championship Course DA to incorporate Council and Woollahra Community feedback on the landscape and ecological aspects of its golf course restoration project. With the benefit of these changes, the DA clearly identifies how biodiversity across the course will be vastly improved by the enhanced course restoration plans and provides further details on important water management and drainage solution improvements (which are not possible under the current course set-up).
The DA offers the opportunity to implement, complementing its new Championship Course design, a native landscape restoration program that will transform Royal Sydney into one of the most important sanctuaries of native flora and fauna in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs – a previously unimaginable outcome.
The new landscape plans will more than triple the Club’s current floral diversity to over 100 different native species, as well as increase the total number of trees onsite by nearly 1,600. Some 14 hectares of fertilised mown turf will be restored as areas of natural coastal heath, endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub and naturalised native grasslands, allowing the Club to reduce annual water usage by 20 percent.
Royal Sydney plans to commence the renovation of the Championship Course in early 2024, which will be overseen by its designer, the world-renowned Golf Course Architect, Gil Hanse, assisted by our Landscape Architect, Harley Kruse.
