xiv) The 1974 Flood and Other Topics
The 1974 Flood
The Australia Day weekend of 1974 will never be forgotten in Ipswich. It was a weekend of steady rain which continued relentlessly hour after hour until creeks and rivers began to rise.
The One Mile Bridge soon went under water. This was a fairly usual occurrence, but what was not usual was that every other bridge and detour also closed. Leichhardt became an isolated community.
The golf course was flooded but the Clubhouse remained above water. Many local residents had to evacuate their homes and were without food, so the clubhouse was opened up as a refuge and canteen. Mr and Mrs Ron Combey, Thora and Alf Knauer, Val and Jack Luchich and other volunteers manned the kitchen, the corner shop sent food, the RAAF flew in a generator, more food and labour and the Clubhouse acted as an operations centre for relief until the water receded. The need for a canteen continued a little longer as displaced people still could not cook at home until they had cleaned out the mud and mess.
Our counterpart in Ipswich England
Ipswich Golf Club in England celebrated its centenary in 1995, the club having been formed only two years before our own.
While our Ipswich club obtained land within a few weeks and happily began to hit balls around, our English cousins engaged in protracted negotiations with the government before finally obtaining a lease over about 40 acres of Rushmere Heath. Before play started, the club employed local workmen for several months to level ground, put down turf and create bunkers. While work was in progress, they were forced to ask Captain Smythe of the local Artillery to order his men to refrain from riding over the putting greens - a problem we did not seem to have here although we also had an artillery battery as a close neighbour.
The English club’s ability to create a first-class course from the every beginning was probably related to the greater population - they received 120 early inquires about membership and within a few years, membership was more than 300. The founding president was James Edward Ransome, remembered in history for having produced the first petrol-driven lawn mower in 1902.
The early players were very enthusiastic and their early games included one in snow on Boxing Day (using red balls) and a night game by moonlight to christen their new 18-hole course.
Ipswich Golf Club moved to a new course in 1926 on Purdis Heath and a new club, Rushmere Golf Club, was formed to operate the old course.
A Hundred Years On
Go - fetch the flags and let them fly
Full stretch against the Queensland sky
To mark for all the world to see
The Ipswich Club’s Centenary.
Recall with pride those long-forgotten scenes
On Limestone Park’s forgotten greens
Played out by former players, those
Who used strange clubs and wore strange clothes.
Fashions may change but still the game
Remains essentially the same
With drive and putt and swing and grip
And never-failing sportsmanship.
Ipswich can now with justice claim
To be a club of ancient name
And all its members thus must be
A part of golf’s great company.
Greetings from Ipswich Suffolk England - Alan Seabrook
The Railway Golf Club
Golfers are familiar with the Sandy Gallop Golf Club but many will not realise that there was a third club in Ipswich - the Railway Golf Club. This seems to have begun in the 1930s and consisted of players who worked for the Railways, particularly the Ipswich Railway Workshops. It did not have its own course but played on the two existing links in Ipswich and at Gailes. In 1937, it had 36 members including Jim Lonie, Andy McKenna, Clarrie Turner and Jim Smyly. Many of these players were also members at Ipswich or other clubs. Clarrie Turner recalled that railway employees were working reduced hours during the Depression. With time on their hands, they decided to start their own golfing group, playing social games and at one stage, competing in the district pennant competition. The club was still functioning in 1947 when it held a carnival at Gailes.
Golf Notes
Local information about the game of golf originally appeared in the newspaper as small paragraphs among ordinary news - the sports articles of the 1890s and early 1900s were devoted to pursuits such as racing, cricket and cycling.
By the 1920s, a well-organised sports page had appeared in the paper and golf seems to have gained proper recognition as a sport rather than being regarded as a novel pastime for gentlemen. Detailed golf notes appeared every Thursday under the heading "On the Links" and provide colourful accounts of happenings and personalities. The notes were written by Club members who used pen-names such as "Glory Iron", "Air Shot", "Niblick" and "He".
"Glory Iron" was KS McGill and "Air Shot" appears to have been C. Elliott but it is not always clear who was the author - sometimes the secretary wrote the notes, sometimes a press correspondent was elected and there are a large number of columns by people signed "Understudy" who were just filling in. Associates also had regular contributors such as "Mrs Putt".
The pen names disappeared after the war but today, the tradition of the golf column is carried on by Robert Herbert whose column appears every Friday.
Notable Holes-in-one
The first hole-in-one on the new course was by a caddie in 1950. Col Ryan and another caddie Sid Smith were playing a few holes on a Saturday morning before the members’ competition and Col used a Five iron to hole in one on the 145-yard second hole. They both dashed up to the Clubhouse and celebrated with a McMahons sars.
The first hole-in-one in an open event by either a Member or an Associate was by Thora Knauer who also achieved it on the second hole in April 1961 in a nine-hole stroke event where she was runner-up to Muriel Jenkinson. This was the fourth hole-in-one on the course.
The record for a family - which was also an Australian record at the time - was held by the Knauers. Alf scored a hole-in-one when he was President - his second. His wife Thora by this time also had two, making a family total of four. The Ampol Book of records at that time said the previous record by a family was three by a Mr and Mrs Jeffries and son Meldrum.
A rather ungainly hole-in-one was recorded at Ipswich by Neville Mills. He hit off the second tee, the ball roared along the ground, through a bunker, onto the green and into the hole.
Social Events
Social events at Ipswich Golf Club seem to have had more ups and downs than the game itself. Looking through newspaper articles and annual reports, the same theme reappears: a particular type of social event is popular for a time, then there are mutterings about lack of support. Finally, the event is either quietly dropped or makes a miraculous recovery and becomes well-patronised again.
The main social event in the 1920s and 1930s was the Golf Club Ball. This was organised by the Associates and was usually held in the Town Hall..
Golf dinners were often held after events, particularly when a visiting team was to be entertained and these were held In 1934, a dinner was held at the Clubhouse for the first time. The following year, the Associates paid for a gas stove to be installed to provide cooking facilities. Before this, they seem to have used just a small spirit stove which would have made catering difficult.
The Members invited Associates to the annual dinner in 1937 but this experiment was not repeated; instead, Members entertained Associates at a special function earlier in the year.
In the late 1930s, a monthly dance was held at the Clubhouse and bridge parties were popular, both ladies daytime groups and mixed groups. In 1946, a piano was purchased.
After the move to the new course, social events continued. In 1955, on the evening of the Grundy Trophy, a "high tea" was provided consisting of curry and mashed potatoes, spaghetti and curried mince, bread and butter, followed by a one-act play presented by associates with Billie Bailey as producer.
In 1965, a President’s At Home was so successful that a marquee had to be hired to accommodate the gathering and in 1967, more than 200 people attended the annual dinner.
Balls became popular again in the 1960s and 1970s, some of them held in the Clubhouse. Regular "social and cabaret" nights were also popular for a time, but all seemed to wane in the mid-1970s. A combined Members/Associates annual dinner reappeared in 1989.
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