Royal Canberra Golf Course, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Abstract

Scene with men playing golf while spectators and caddies look on. The setting is a smooth rolled rectangular lawn with a sandpit on the right, amid low grassy hills and trees. The trees include pines and Lombardy poplars with in the background a growth of eucalypts. As early as 1913, Director General of Works, Colonel Percy Owen suggested the establishment of a golf course near what is now the city centre. When that land was taken over by a new workmen's camp in 1922, the golfers moved to Acton where they shared the site with the racecourse. In 1926 the Federal Capital Commission constructed a new golf course at Acton on the banks of the Molonglo River and in 1933 the Club was granted royal status by King George V. With the imminent formation of Lake Burley Griffin by damming the Molonglo, the Royal Canberra Golf Club moved to its present site at Westbourne Woods in Yarralumla.This photograph is from an album that was held at the London office of the Australian National University over the period 1949 to 1952. The album was used to inform prospective staff about Canberra. These images are part of the series produced by the Department of Information and kept at the National Archives of Australia in Canberra. National Archives holdings in this series have gaps and some images may be held only at the ANU Archives.