news
Mildura redevelopment slow,
but steady
Henry Peters
[email protected]
@hsspeters
M
ildura Golf Resort’s multi-million
dollar redevelopment remains up
to five years away from completion.
Changes to its 18-hole golf course got
underway in November 2011 and were
expected to take up to five years from that
point but progress has been slow. Eleven of
the course’s 18 holes will have been majorly
changed by the time the redevelopment of
the course is finished but only four have been
re-done to date.
Mildura’s new second and third holes were
opened to members in May 2012 but since
then only the new 16th and 17th holes have
been completed.
“The first stage was probably the hardest
in the sense of finding out how to do
things. The second stage is going a lot more
smoothly,” says Mildura Golf Resort President
Greg Buchanan.
The Resort has backed its decision to always
have 18 holes available to members while it
carries out the course’s redevelopment. “We
committed to maintaining an 18-hole par71 golf course, so we’ve got to get the new
holes done before we can redevelop any of
the existing fairways,” Buchanan says.
12
August 2014 | www.insidegolf.com.au
The Resort’s facelift will also see its on-site
accommodation double from 40 rooms to
80 while the sale of 100 parcels of on-course
land is in the second of four phases. “Over
the next three, four, five years, however long
it takes to develop, you’re going to have
100 houses on site,” says Mildura’s Executive
Director Nick Cavallo. “Stage one was 30 sites,
which have all been sold and owners are now
in the process of building houses on them.
Stage two, the earthworks are now being
done. There are 26 sites and there are five
remaining to be sold. We hope to have stage
two done including roads by Christmas time.”
The course’s new 16th and 17th holes have
replaced the 10th and 11th holes, which
will become housing. In 2011, the Resort
expressed hopes of surpassing Murray
Downs as the premier golf destination in
the Sunraysia district. Cavallo says Mildura
is well on the way to becoming a prominent
tourist hotspot for the region. “The course
and the golf are there, the houses and the
development is pretty special and together
it’s going to be quite a spectacular place in
a couple of years time,” Cavallo predicts. “On
course living, five minutes from town, ten
minutes from the airport, the whole package
will be pretty special.”
Mildura has also purchased new
maintenance machinery over the past two
months, which it says has been financed
by strong memberships renewals, gaming
and clubhouse spending. “Membership
and numbers of people playing golf are
increasing; it’s the total combination of
clubhouse, golf, redevelopment, which
allows things to stay pretty sustainable,”
Cavallo admits.
Buchanan says most of the new holes,
which have been redesigned by Davey
Shearer Golf Design, are more difficult than
the originals. “The old course was based on
flood irrigations with big, flat greens and
the new greens are much more challenging.
The bunkers have vastly improved, different
shapes, beautiful sand in them; deeper. I
guess there’s a bit more of a championship
feel about it but we’re still aiming to have a
golf course that everyone enjoys.”
Buchanan has revealed the overall consensus
from members regarding the course redesign
has been positive. “Everyone is really pleased
with the new 16th and 17th holes. They
recognise they’re getting a new course, that’s
pretty universally acknowledged.” •