About eight hours from Sydney, in the North West of New South Wales is the rural town of Wee Waa, home to a nine hole golf course and some passionate local volunteers.
Wee Waa Golf Club has one paid staff member – the cleaner. The rest of the club is run wholly by hard working volunteers. Everything else from club administration to the watering of the greens is done by the locals and dedicated Wee Waa Members. With only 57 paying members and around 45 social members, finding over $30,000 to pay for a new bore was no easy feat.
The Clubs’ bore was beyond repair and it was feared that without a new one, the greens would die due to lack of water and would result in the small club having to close its doors.
Thanks to the support and generosity of the local businesses and residents, the members were able to do quite a bit of fundraising within the Wee Waa community. Nearly one third of the costs were raised in a Golf Day held by the club that Manly NRL star Jamie Lyon played in. To help raise funds Jamie volunteered to be auctioned off to the highest bidder to play in their Ambrose Team on the day and was able to raise $2500 for the club.
The pump used in the new bore is nearly 50 meters long and needed a 95 tonne crane to remove it from the old bore and install it in the new one (see photo).
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Wee Waa Golf Club Director, Greg Avery advised “since we installed the pump the water flow from the pump has returned to normal which has made the members happy and we are able to water the grass greens, which we changed from the bent grass to couch 328 grass, some three years ago as the couch grass only needs to be watered in the middle of the summer (around the 40 degree mark during the day) three times a week which saved us water and power”.
The NSW Golf Foundation proudly donated $5000 to the Wee Waa Golf Club towards the new bore and commends all its members for their hard work and outstanding achievements in such a small golfing community.
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