I have often come across stories of building which have been moved from place to place in the Goldfields mailnly because of the cost of bringing building materials to the region. This is why most abandoned towns have no buildings left to see. It is quite understandable that the buildings themselves should be moved or dismantled and the materials used again.
However, I had never heard of a railway station being moved until I was sent this interesting story by Mike Duggan. It is a chapter from the book by Mike called ‘Koolyanobbing – Place of Large Rocks and Big Hearts – published 2010. Mike and his co-author Ian Wake, have kindly donated all the books to the Southern Cross Historical Museum and the Museum sells them and receives the proceeds.
‘Koolyanobbing – Place of Large Rocks and Big Hearts’
Mike himself was born in Kalgoorlie and two of his children and his brother were born in Southern Cross. This story concerns the Hillside Golf Club in Koolyanobbing, 54 kms North-East of Southern Cross.
Chapter 16 – The Hillside Golf Club
The Hillside Golf Club was another of the major sporting organizations in Koolyanobbing, and one which, importantly for community unity, involved men and women in a united way. Golfing enthusiasts in the early days had to live out their aspirations at the well-established Lake View Club at Southern Cross but the desire to have a course at Koolyanobbing was too strong among a small dedicated band.
Construction of the course didn’t happen over night and was several years in the making. Ray Harris and Ian Wake are credited with laying-out and clearing the first three holes in the early days. Ray had designed the location of those holes in what he considered would be an ideal location for an eventual eighteen-hole course. This was done taking into consideration the ideal location for a club house not too far away from a source of power. Ray had come from BHP’s operations at Yampi Sound where he would have experienced the tough bush course on Koolan Island. Ian reflects on the activities involved in the early setup of the golf course:
I helped Ray set out the first three holes and then thanks to DMC, I would borrow the Hough AH60 loader after work on as many days a week that I could spare. I would then clear the vegetation under Ray’s guidance while he stick-picked and burnt the heaps. This was a slow process on our own and after a considerable amount of time the fairways were almost finished. At this point enough interest was being generated to actually have a well attended working bee.
The Company again helped out by loaning us the two International tip trucks as well as the loader. At this working bee the three tees and greens were completed making it possible to play a round of holes. After Ray left Koolyanobbing and Steve Bastow took his place, Steve was keen enough to carry on Ray’s work and wanted to develop a complete eighteen-hole course. Ray’s original three holes became holes 7, 8 and 9 in the full eighteen. It was about at this time that we carted in a galvanized shed that had an open front and a good barbeque was fabricated from waste materials from the mine. We also obtained an old thunder box from somewhere and set it up over a suitable pit. We now had a shelter and a place to meet and have a feed after a hit and where the kids could go feral in the surrounding bush.
Koolyanobbing – Road Sign
Steve Bastow, who picked up a major role in the development of the course and Club after Ray Harris had left Koolyanobbing to work at the Kwinana steelworks tells how the next development steps were taken:
I had some aerial photos of the area, left to me by Ray Harris, and started by scaling the fifteen holes onto these photos. Then armed with the photos, a compass, a crude surveying tool made from a five-gallon grease drum lid on a rough tripod, and an armful of wooden stakes another start could be made. On the top of the lid was a pointer that was set with the compass. We staked out the centre lines of the extra fifteen holes. I would do the directing, while Ian Wake cut away just enough vegetation to see down the centre lines and drive in the pegs. Length was determined by pacing as near as possible, as the vegetation was very thick in places, especially around the salt pans.
George Hood was approached to drive the Cat 824 rubber-tyred dozer to strip the vegetation initially along the staked line, and we then stripped both sides of this line to the full width and length of the fairways, pushing the scrub into piles for burning. Ian Wake and I then spent every evening after work for many months burning of this scrub, cleaning up and carting sand for the greens in an effort to complete the first nine holes. Many interested parties were also recruited to drive machinery and assist in other ways to complete sand greens and tees.
The town newsletters of the day kept everyone in the community up to date of the progress and issues and records how there was a ‘call to arms’ at key times to get people involved in the development of the course, and how, with great jubilation (and relief) the first nine holes were completed:
December 1970 – The Koolyanobbing News – is anyone interested in playing golf? All we need is a few volunteers to operate plant. The biggest job is done. Surely if the course was finished you would have another sporting facility and some where else to pass a quiet hour in secluded surroundings. If you are interested in giving a small amount of time please contact Harry at the Office. We need a Golf Course if only for practice if Koolyanobbing are going to win the trophies at Southern Cross. Koolyanobbing golfers won a swag of prizes last year so what would a bit of practice do for the players.
January 1971 – The Dowd’s Hill Chronicle – the golf season is drawing closer and we still haven’t got the course any nearer completion. DMC have offered the use of machines but we must find the drivers in our own time. Is anyone interested in this venture to add another sporting facility to Koolyanobbing?
April 1971 – The Dowd’s Hill Chronicle –
At Last!!, At Last!!, At Last!! – we have a golf course.
Many thanks to the following – George Hood, Doug Davey, Ron Jackson, Bob Weinthal, Ernie Brown, Keith Donovan, Ian Wake, Harry Braddow, Jim and Shirley Whitehurst, Kinsley Burlinson, Steve Gartside and not forgetting DMC for the grateful loan of the equipment and Steve Bastow who has previously put a lot of time in but due to Annual Leave was unable to get to the busy bee over the past two weekends. The dreams of Koolyanobbing golfers have at last been fulfilled. Nine holes have been completed but still need slight alterations to be made which will be done over a period. All we need now is for people to keep vehicles off the course and greens, and members to play. It is intended that an inaugural meeting will be held at the course on Sunday 6th June 1971 at 10 am to discuss the formation of a Club Committee to organize the playing days and maintenance of the course. Everyone is invited, including the ladies, who will no doubt want to form their own Associates Committee. So if you are interested, please come along.
A meeting was held to establish a club and the Constitution and Rules of the Hillside Golf Club were developed in 1971. The first committee comprised President Ian Wake, Vice-President Rob Weinthal, Captain Steve Bastow, Vice-Captain Harry Braddow, Secretary Ernie Brown, Treasurer Ron Jackson and Handicapper Jack Hawkins. The golf club held a committee meeting each thirdMonday evening at 7:30 pm in the Company mess and they encouraged anybody to come along to the meetings and join in, the only stipulation being that only the committee members were eligible to vote on any matter. From this point on things really started to pick up pace on the completion of the eighteen holes. But without a super effort it would not be completed for the next playing season. This appeal was printed in TheDowd’s Hill Chronicle as follows:
March 1972, The Dowd’s Hill Chronicle – the 1972 golfing season is nearly upon us and we are still striving to get our eighteen-hole course into a playable condition for the opening of the season on 9th April. Anybody interested in helping with this task are tasked to attend the working bees at the course each Tuesday and Thursday evening after work – don’t forget to bring a rake if you have one.
The sand being loaded was situated on top of a wet clay base and at one point one of the back wheels of a fully loaded Wabco haul truck broke through the surface of the pit and become totally bogged, not a good situation when the gear was on loan! After a quick discussion someone set off back to the mine to get some heavy chains and slings that enabled the truck to be carefully pulled out using the front end loader to assist the truck.
Steve Bastow supervises the dumping of material for Number 15 green (Jack and Pat Hawkins)
After the very large ‘finishing-off’ working bee the greens still needed to be shaped by hand, cups fitted and the sand greens oiled to make them ‘ready for play’. The Committee organized a memorable ‘official’ opening day for the Club on Sunday 14th May 1972. The May 1972 edition of The Dowd’s Hill Chronicle records for us the results of that long-awaited opening day:
Aerial photo of the Hillside Golf course shows the layout of the holes and ‘greens’ alongside the salt pans. (Dave Eames)
The opening day was well attended by local and SX golf club members. Total starts for the 27-hole event was thirty four players. The Associates had their Opening Day on Tuesday 11th April 1972 with firm instructions ‘play is due to commence at 1:00 pm sharp on that day. All players and intending players are asked to be at the course by 12:45 pm at the latest’. The May 1972 edition of The Dowd’s Hill Chronicle also tells us about the starting sessions for the ladies:
The ladies golf year has got away to a good start with several members breaking their handicaps. All ladies are playing well and I’m sure we will see a few more handicaps broken before the end of the season.
About this time the subject of a clubhouse was raised as up to that time any social gatherings after a round of golf had to be held in the town at other venues and this wasn’t proving to be conducive in creating a club atmosphere. A suggestion was floated to use the railway station buildings at Yellowdine. The station was ‘available’ as the recently constructed standard gauge railway line had looped up from Southern Cross to service Koolyanobbing for the iron ore trains and consequently bypassed the old narrow-gauge stations eastwards of Southern Cross.
Steve Bastow recalls the way in which it all happened in April 1972-
Keith Donovan mentioned that he would be going to Kalgoorlie and would contact the local Railway Superintendent about purchasing the building. When informed of the purpose for which we required the building we were advised that we could take what we wanted for the sum of $25, with a bond of $25 to leave the site tidy. Ian Wake went to Yellowdine to measure up the stump spacing of the station building. After work for the next few weeks I made up new stumps from salvaged pipe and Ian and I marked out the grid for the stumps and concreted them into place. A busy bee weekend was organized to Yellowdine to pick up the buildings (We had decided that we could use more of the redundant buildings/sheds available). A contingent of about twelve families, wives and children camped Friday night and Saturday night and by approximately 5 pm Sunday the main building was landed on its stumps with about four other sheds. Subsequently we received a check for $25 from the Railway Superintendent returning our deposit.
Ian Wake recalls that after measuring up the station master’s office, he and at least one other person cut down four high, very straight trees (about nine inches in diameter) from a location up near the airstrip. The trees were cut into logs about two feet longer than the width of the office and were trimmed into about six-inch flat slabs. At Yellowdine, these slabs were lashed across the tray of the Bedford truck for the station master’s office to sit on and the building was transported as a complete unit. During the weekend all of the men were hard at work dismantling the structures but the women also did their share as well- perhaps even more than their share as they set to work and dug out the station septic tank that was later used for the golf club toilets.
The activities involved in shifting the building even made it into the mine’s six-monthly report to Melbourne! :“The Golf Club in particular bears mention for increased activity. The buildings of Yellowdine Railway Station were purchased by this Club from the WAGR. In April a working party borrowed cranes and trucks from DMC and the BHP Exploration Party, and removed all buildings plus fittings to the Hillside Golf Course from Yellowdine some forty miles south-east of Koolyanobbing’. George Hood remembers this event as one of the big occasions in the life of Koolyanobbing, in which ‘the whole town was involved in a fantastic weekend’.
Relocation of the Yellowdine Railway Station to Koolyanobbing 1972 (Pat and Jack Hawkins)
The photo of the Yellowdine station buildings shows how the covering structure over the station masters office and platform area was completely unsheeted and the A-frames removed from the posts and transported complete. After the station master’s office had been set on stumps at the golf course, the covering structure was re-erected (at 90 degrees to the way it had been installed at Yellowdine) covering the office so that the back wall of the office formed part of the end wall of the proposed club house.
Ian Wake recalls that one downside to the transporting of the old buildings along the very corrugated dirt road between the gypsum deposits at Lake Seabrook and the Koolyanobbing bitumen road (about sixty kilometres) was that ‘unbeknown to us, dozens of roofing nails popped out and fell onto the road, and Alf Turner was not very pleased about this as over the next few weeks he picked up many of those nails in the tyres of his trucks and trailers whilst hauling gypsum’.
Power was put onto the building and a redundant glass-fronted refrigerated shop counter was obtained to keep all the drinks cold. As time passed work slowly continued on the building, setting up poles for the outside walls and making up and fitting stumps for the floor. Much needed cash to complete the clubhouse was boosted by the Company allowing us to sell numerous semi-trailer loads of worn-out crusher wear plates and other scrap steel to a foundry in Perth.
In about 1974 or 75, when a batch of houses were being built in town, a great opportunity arose to get the proposed clubhouse completed. Some of the golfers had become very friendly with the builders and they agreed to finish the clubhouse ‘at cost’, using left-over materials from the town project and the materials on hand at the club house where possible. The Club house, with its polished wooden floor, proved to be a boon for the Club and provided a focal point for the many wonderful social occasions after the ‘hard work’ on the course and special occasions like New Year. The Club continued to grow over the years and provided many fond memories for past players and non-players alike. Ian Wake, the first President of the Club in 1971 and Steve Bastow, the first Captain, were made life members in 1977 for ‘special meritorious services rendered to the Club’ as was also Gordon Dobson.
The golf clubhouse after relocation from Yellowdine (Rolf Monschau)
‘Art sculpture’ from the Hillside Golf Club now on display at the Southern Cross Golf Club in 2009 (Ian Wake)
Of course, not everyone who played was fully in control of their game but they had fun regardless. Brian Shepherd, who was a stand-in manager for about a six month period, liked the experience of playing at a course carved out of the salt pans by volunteers and remembers this experience:
One day I was about to tee off at the first. A large Red Kangaroo was not far away and when he saw me he looked up, obviously expecting to see a magnificent drive. I hit a beauty, but the ball when straight into a large gum that had been left centre fairway as a hazard. The ball was coming straight back towards me when an Emu darted out from behind a bush beside the fairway, raced over to my ball and ate it. By this time the Red Kangaroo had a grin from ear to ear, and he hopped away in disgust at my poor play. I said to my partner that when the Kangaroos laugh at you and the Emu’s eat your balls that has to be a sign from Heaven, something like, ’this is not your game’.
Depiction in the May 1972 Dowd’s Hill Chronicle of a golfer heading off to the Hillside Golf Club with his clubs and boxing gloves for a tough game of golf
Another player, who shall remain nameless (he was a mining engineer) started off his round of eighteen holes by shanking the first few shots, threw his clubs away and stormed off the course, disgusted at his form! Pat Giles provides a novice ladies insight into the ‘bush game’ which both she, and her husband Gerry, enjoyed while at Koolyanobbing, and needless to say many others followed the same pattern:
Mike Duggan playing a shot somewhere off the edge of the fairway (Mike Duggan)
The golf course at Koolyanobbing was like no other I had ever seen! It was for the very keen and brave golfer. There was not a blade of grass in sight – just long fairways of red dirt. The positive side was that if you had a good shot off the tee it was likely to go a long way. However, there were many hazards between the tee and the ‘ green’, including lumpy plants or bits of rock that could easily send a ball at right angles straight into the bush if hit at the wrong angle. The odd kangaroo or emu could also hinder progress. As you would expect the course was dusty. To this end, there was a ‘ritual’ that you buy a bottle of beer and put it in the freezer before you went out to play. I was not a ‘beer’ person but coming back to the club house after an afternoon of fighting it out on this extraordinary course, the best thing in the world was pouring the coldest glass of beer down a dry and dusty throat as soon as you got back to the club house. I have never enjoyed drinking beer like I did then. These were not stubbies, they were bottles and I would drink and enjoy the whole lot.
Cartoon comment in the Oct 1972 Dowd’s Hill Chronicle commenting on the closeness of the mine and golf course – or just a bad shot
Life Membership Awards being made in 1977 to Ian Wake, Steve Bastow and Gordon Dobson by Dave Eames in the Golf Club (Dave Eames)
The Hillside golf clubhouse being dismantled after the close of the town 1983 (Rolf Monschau)
One current worker at the mine states that when Koolyanobbing reopened in the early 1990s some people tried to ‘revitalize’ the Golf Club but that the FIFO nature of the community did not provide a sufficient ‘critical mass’ to get it up and going again. The traces of some greens and tees can still be sadly seen among the encroaching trees and shrubs.
Moya Sharp
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