When bushfires ripped through it in February 2022, Jerramungup Golf Club’s future looked to be in serious jeopardy.
The Great Southern club, located around 450km south east of Perth, was hard hit by raging fires triggered by a lightning storm during a spell of extreme heat.
While the clubhouse survived intact, the blaze destroyed or damaged hundreds of trees; wooden bridges were reduced to ashes; pipes and tee signage melted; and an equipment shed housing a new mower was wrecked.
The burn continued to smoulder for weeks, causing further trees to topple. Safety concerns saw the Shire close the course completely to the public, hampering damage assessment efforts.
The loss of vegetation also had a knock-on effect on the club’s sand greens, which easily eroded in wet or windy conditions. In short, the club was in dire straits.
With only six members on the books at the time of the fires, it would have been an easy decision to call it quits and commit ‘Jerry GC’ to the ashes.
Fast-forward three years, though, and the club is not only alive, it’s thriving – and its story is one that other regional clubs can learn from.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
The two individuals that have done most to get Jerramungup GC back on its proverbial feet are Secretary Andrea Furniss and Treasurer Nicky Wisewould.
Between them, the duo largely look after the day-to-day maintenance of the course and rally the troops to action.
They’re quick to point out, though, that it was the will of the community that was most crucial in keeping the club alive.
“It was about a year after the fire when we staged a community meeting to discuss whether we should keep going as a club,” Andrea recalls.
“And even though we only had six members at the time, the community decided that the golf course was an important resource that was worth resurrecting.”
Nicky Wisewould (centre) and Andrea Furniss (right) with golf instructor Megan Henry
“Everyone recognised that golf is a sport for life, and that when they can’t play footy or hockey or netballanymore, they can still play golf,” added Nicky.
“And we all knew that if we let the club go, it would be very difficult to ever bring it back.”
The first step was to stage a clean-up day in July 2023, where dozens of community members contributed to slashing and mowing fairways, and gathering dead wood.
Locals turned up with bobcats, mowers, trailers, wheelbarrows and a can-do attitude. And after hours of hard toil, the day rounded out with a bonfire and celebratory sausage sizzle.
In the following weeks, bridges were rebuilt, tee areas tidied up and greens hand-weeded. Nine of the club’s 18 holes reopened. The revival was well underway.
Looking forward with optimism
Nearly two years on, the future of Jerramungup GC seems a lot rosier. There are still only nine holes in play, and the club still has to borrow the local footy club’s mower to keep the fairways in check, but golf is alive and well.
The third annual clean-up day is just around the corner and the club is hoping to land a free load of sand from a local farmer to beef up the greens. A group of members even clubbed together to source a second-hand Massey Ferguson tractor to help with course maintenance.
In return, the club is doing what it can to provide the wider community with more opportunities to give golf a go for themselves.
Twilight and night golf – complete with glowing golf balls – have proved to be a hit, while the club was also successful in obtaining funding from the WA Golf Foundation to stage a series of beginner’s golf clinics in March of this year.
Jerry GC members enjoying a beginners’ golf clinic in March
Membership levels have more than doubled since the fires, with eight men and seven women now on the books. Jerry GC may still be a very small club in the grand scheme of things, but it has taken giant strides.
The journey isn’t over yet, either. Andrea says they still have big ambitions as they seek to return the club to its former glory.
“Being an optimist, I’d like to think we will have the full 18 holes up and running again by next year,” she said. “That way, we can have more players on the course and can start to hold open days again to raise awareness of the club.”
Luckily, she and Nicky – along with with club President Ash Nelson – have motivation in spades and have never lost sight of the simple goal of keeping the club alive.
“I just love to be able to play golf in my home town,” Andrea said. “When I was working full-time, I always felt I was missing out when the golfing ladies had their club day because they had such a good time.
“When I stopped working I couldn’t wait to get into golf and enjoy the social side of things. That’s why I didn’t want to let the club die.”
Thankfully, the community shared the vision. Even if they’re not all avid golfers themselves, they understand the value golf brings.
“If we hadn’t had that community spirit and support it would have been a very hard slog. I doubt we’d have made it this far,” Nicky added.
“It could still take another five years to get the course back to what it was like before the fires but when you consider we had to start right back at square one, we’re in a really good place now.”
