Championship ACT Golf Club Redevelopment Moves Ahead

Sydney-based retirement community developer Mbark is nearing the conclusion of long-running plans to redevelop a championship 18-hole golf club in Canberra. 

Under the $100-million plans, the Federal Golf Club in the suburb of Red Hill will be turned into a retirement village “to support the long-term viability” of the club. 

In its collection of development applications submitted to the Territory Planning Authority to support the development, Mbark and the Federal Golf Club are asking to deliver a community of 125 independent living units. 

They are also applying for a change to the Crown lease to allow the development as well as major infrastructure works that include a new public road connecting the site to Kitchener Street.

The proposed village will contain 77 single-storey detached three-bedroom homes, 48 apartments across six three-storey buildings, and a residents’ health and wellbeing facility. 

The proposals, including plans designed by Saturday Studio, are on exhibition until June 4.

The plans were first launched in 2015, according to local media, and one of its development applications received a tick of approval in April. 

▲ The club spends $2 million annually in maintaining its green space but does “not have the financial reserves or resources to survive another hot and dry summer”.

According to the club, a “low-impact” retirement community at the southern end of the site will allow it to preserve its 18-hole golf course. 

The club said it would aid in its attempt to renew the club and grounds, which it estimated might cost up to $10 million. 

The process has been drawn out over environmental issues, namely potential impacts to threatened species and the clearance of native vegetation.

A key requirement of the plans as a result is the club and developer team have planned a gang-gang cockatoo habitat.

Retirement living, meanwhile, has faced a “monstrous undersupply” in recent years, which has led to expansion in the industry, with fund managers such as Greenfort adding to their portfolios, apartments turned into vertical retirement on the Gold Coast and housing focused on the needs of Aboriginal elders in the works.