With funding support from Macedon Ranges Council’s Woodend Region Climate Action Plan, Woodend Golf Club is exploring the concept of rewilding parts of its course.
The club has engaged Annabel Sides from Green Planet Sport, Australia’s first environmental consultancy firm for sporting clubs, to help them exploit opportunities to improve the sustainability of its grounds.
Sides told the Sunbury-Macedon Weekly Star: “There’s a huge scope for biodiversity and water saving at golf clubs, and so we’ve been looking for ways to improve these things through activities such as planting and having ongoing seed banks in certain areas.”
The works include adding nesting boxes for birds and planting up sections of the course with native species.
Sides said: “It’s a win-win, because the club can focus on creating a playing surface that is second to none, while at the same time creating surroundings that are contributing back to the environment.
“The club is really into its golf, but they’re also really happy for people to use the course to walk the dog, it’s such a community feel.”
The club is also exploring the possibility of having QR Codes set up around the course so that visitors can learn about the biodiversity works that have been carried out.