Community & Business
11 September, 2025
Centenary a tribute to community spirit
THE Atherton Golf Club is gearing up for a big celebration this weekend with about 100 locals expected to celebrate the club’s centenary.
Celebrations for the 100th anniversary will kick off Friday afternoon with the raising of an official Atherton Golf Club flag.
Other commemorations will include the storing of a time capsule, speeches and special guests, and a cutting of the cake ceremony in the evening.
The Atherton Golf Club (AGC) has come a long way since its early days, with the first club house being a lean-to at the side of a farmhouse. It wasn’t until the late 1920s that a club house was constructed.
Now, the club stands as a well-established course on the Tablelands and attracts players both locally and from all over the region to enjoy its natural beauty.
In the early days
December 1924
At the official opening of the Yungaburra Golf Club, members from the Ravenshoe club travelled to Yungaburra and the two clubs played. The following day the Ravenshoe team stopped in Atherton before returning home.
“We returned home via Atherton. A golf club is being formed there, and with Dr Nye and Messrs McMullan and Eaton as the moving spirits, the success of the new club can be assured,” a Ravenshoe member said in a newspaper article.
“We were taken out to view the proposed site of the links. It is situated about a mile from the railway station, and the new main road runs right to the spot.
“It is a splendid piece of rolling country, and a delightful nine holes can be set out on it with hardly any work except to prepare greens and tees.
“It is full of suitable natural hazards. There is an idea of forming, ‘browns’ instead of greens, but if I may venture to offer an opinion, I think it would be a pity not to take advantage of the existing turf, which can be soon worked up into real good stuff. Browns are all right in the Sahara, but they do not seem fitting in the Atherton climate.”
Charles Eaton, a founding member of the AGC who was later elected secretary of the club, said in a letter in late 1924 that Atherton was a very cheery place but had little sporting facilities.
“A few of us got together and decided to make a golf course. Once started it went like a house on fire,” the letter continued.
“I selected the site, the course was laid out, all work done by volunteer working bees, and in a month we were playing golf. I remember well our greens - they were browns, a chipped surface with rolled sawdust and sand.
“At one hole, the green was well placed near a creek, bunkered by natural hillocks, and alongside the creek lived an old aborigine grandmother in her Mia Mia, or grass hut.
“Golfing was a most startling occurrence for her at the beginning but before many days had elapsed, she had learnt the value of golf balls and for her, the most lucrative business of her life.
“A club house was soon built and a club formed, and I have learnt it is still going strong.”
February 1925
On 16 February 1925, the first meeting was held of the members of the golf club now being formed.
Although only a short notice was given, 21 people turned up and the meeting was said to be a very enthusiastic one.
A committee was elected, and Dr Nye was elected patron; Mr R Stevens was elected president and captain; Mr P Williams, treasurer; and Mr Eton, secretary.
The meeting was introduced to Mr T Southcombe of Cairns who would lay out the course. He remarked that the club was very fortunate in having one of the finest grounds for golf he had ever seen.
“Mr Southcombe has laid out the course, and the committee find that they will have very little work to do on it to have it in tip top order,” a club correspondent said.
“All the work that is necessary to be done at present is the chipping of the greens, mowing the fairways, putting in several gates and making a foot bridge across Prior’s Creek from the town.
“The course, which is a nine-hole one, is very handy to the town, being little more than a stone’s throw from Main Street itself, and yet it was found that there was no place with better possibilities for golf in the neighbourhood.
“The course abounds in fine natural hazards and bunkers, doing away with the necessity for much preliminary work, and expense, and is covered with a good sort of grass which, however, is unsuitable for greens, so that brown greens will be made.
“It is, moreover, very well drained, in addition to being one of the prettiest spots about. The course is bounded on the side by Prior’s Creek and Lake Lee, which, when the concrete bar which several enthusiastic citizens are going to put in is completed, will make a very fine swimming pool indeed.”
The club found success early on and expected an initial membership of 50-odd members. By August 1925, that membership had increased to about 65, which the club committee did not expect to happen at the time.
The course eventually evolved over the years and was expanded into an 18-hole course in 2001, with water storage dams being constructed and irrigation installed to utilise recycled water obtained from the council, resulting in a fully irrigated course.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Fun Facts
1949 – An honesty box was introduced in February.
1953 – The club found it necessary to increase their monthly quota of cigarettes to four cartons, with at least one Craven A and one Ardath, and 3lbs of fine cut tobacco.
The “Guzzlers Cup” was also introduced for the Monthly Medal in October, with the winner being able to call on any member during the month to fill the cup with beer.
1993 – Poker machines were introduced into the club, and in 1995 consideration was given to reduce the number of machines due to lack of interest.
2001 – The expansion of 18 holes was a major project involving construction of water storage and irrigation to utilise recycled water. It was completed with a grant from the Queensland Government.
2003 – Halfway house was built.
2005 – The last of the 18 holes officially opened in May 2005.
2007 – Steve Toyne set the men’s course record with a 62, which still stands today.
2019 – Sarah Kirsch scored a 69 to set the women’s record.
