World Class Golf in World Heritage Kingston
No. 1 Quality Row is the enviable address of the Norfolk Island Golf Club. Today, Quality Row is an elegant and peaceful street – a far cry from the colonial officer’s suburb that the street started out as. Built upon years of convict labour and hardship during the island’s notorious second settlement period from 1825 to 1855, Quality Row’s grand Georgian buildings stand as a monument to the island’s grim past, and all that has followed.
Looking out from any building along Quality row today, the sea still glistens in the distance, and the rhythm of the nearby waves at Cemetery Bay still crash on its reef and pulse like nature’s metronome nearly 200 years later. In contrast, there is no active prison by the foreshore, and a heavy air, thick with fear and desperation no longer lingers. Quality Row is now a place of peace, reflection, sharing and enjoyment.
No. 1 was first used as a residence by the Stipendiary Magistrate of the island’s penal settlement. The building was completed in 1847, but it wasn’t occupied for long before the closure of the colony. The Pitcairners arrived in 1856 and Quality Row’s buildings were utilised by the incumbent islanders for several decades following their arrival, before they dispersed to build homes on land grants they were given across the island.
The Quintal family resided at No.1 Quality Row in what is now the Norfolk Island Golf Club Clubhouse and Pro Shop for over 50 years – far longer than any colonial tenant. The main building was burned in 1908 and lay in ruins until the early 1970s when it was eventually reconstructed and became the Clubhouse. The area became a golf course some time before that with Lottie Stephenson first teeing off down its fairways in 1927, nearly 100 years ago. The area was officially leased to the club in the 1930s and has operated since.
In June 2010 Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area (KAVHA) was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as one of the 11 sites that make up the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property. As an area of ‘outstanding significance to the nation as a convict settlement spanning the era of transportation to eastern Australia between 1788–1855’. Together the sites represent forced convict migration and European expansion into the Southern Hemisphere in the 18th and 19th centuries. The 11 sites encompassed by the listing include Hyde Park Barracks, Cockatoo Island Convict Site, Port Arthur Historic Site, Freemantle Prison and more.
Today that means the Norfolk Island Golf Course is in an elite group of only a few courses in the world to be located within a World Heritage site. Its seemingly postcard location is perhaps deceptive on the surface, but all of the site’s scenic features, and the club area’s heritage, is backed up by a comprehensive little links course. It’s a fun, yet challenging 9 hole, 18 tee course that takes any golfer on an adventurous journey from the Clubhouse all the way around the site’s rugged coastline and back.
Today a skilled team of greenkeepers ensure the course is well manicured, refined, and kept to a competition specification, although it’s not such a distant memory for some islanders to remember the fairways being a thoroughfare for roaming cattle. Until the 1980s the course’s greens were encircled by fences to protect them from cows and prevent their hooves from making putting more challenging that it needed to be.
The club’s Golf Pro, Andrew Umlauft, has been linked to the club for nearly 20 years. His base of operations and Pro Shop is located in the property’s original kitchen annex. Its stripped walls reveal the buildings original state, and are complemented by modern and slick displays that highlight the sites features rather than hiding them. In fact the entire club is a balanced celebration of Kingston’s beauty and its heritage.
As well as running the shop, lessons and coaching, Andrew arranges a host of Tournament events throughout the year with August’s annual Pro-Am Golf Classic being the club’s major event. Golfers visit Norfolk from all over Australia, New Zealand and further afield for the Classic – a fun, yet competitive week of golf, with a collective prize pool totalling over $30,000
Throughout the year, the course is open to all visitors, as is the Clubhouse, bar and kitchen. 9 hole, 18 hole and weekly green fee options are available. Above all, the club welcomes all players and visitors of any level to come and enjoy the club and its fascinating history and heritage.
Over time, the area has more than earned its World Heritage status, and the club has certainly earned it’s ‘World Class’ label. Sitting on the Clubhouse’s verandah, overlooking the course and ocean, perhaps enjoying a post-round sunset libation, or simply enjoying the magnificent view, it’s hard to imagine what the building’s first inhabitants must have felt as evening fell over the settlement.
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Image Credit: Robin Nisbet
www.robinnisbet.com
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Article content disclaimer: Article first published in Discover Norfolk, Volume 07 Issue 02, 2024. Please note that details of specific travel, accommodation and touring options may be outdated. References to people, places and businesses, including operating days and times may be have changed. References to Government structure and Government businesses/entities may no longer be applicable. Please check directly with businesses and/or Government websites directly rather than relying on any information contained in this article before you make travel arrangements.
