Golf Historians Report by John Trevorrow and Doug Turek
The third Historians Forum for 2025 was held on October 20th at Flinders Golf Club,
and featured a presentation from the club President, Fiona Reed. Fiona gave a potted
history of the historic club from its founding in 1903, and focused on the unique role of
women in the club’s story.
The golf course has a fascinating history. In the 1890s, the area was the site of a cable
station for a submarine telegraph cable to Tasmania. The workers laid out four
rudimentary golf holes along the cliff top, with jam tins for cups, to while away their
leisure time.
David Maxwell, a farmer and champion golfer, also came to Flinders in the
mid-1890s to manage an onion-growing project for the Victorian Government. Maxwell
was the Royal Melbourne Golf Club champion, and the four holes caught his eye. He
enlisted the help of wealthy friends from Melbourne, and over the next seven years an
18-hole golf course was created along the cliff tops and the Flinders Golf Club was born
in 1903.
Its most famous golfing visitors include world-renowned designer Dr Alister MacKenzie
in 1926, who drew up a re-modelling plan that was only partially built due to tight
finances, and Walter Hagen and Joe Kirkwood who played an exhibition match in 1935.
There is a hotly disputed story that Dr MacKenzie first visited Flinders in 1902 as a
ship’s doctor but there is no doubt about his 1926 visit, where he recommended
removing the ‘Niagara’ 150-yard par-3 hole down the cliff to a green beside the beach
(where the yacht club now sits) and the 120-yard par-4 ‘Spion Kop’ hole back up the
vertiginous cliff to a green where the Naval gunnery gate is now. MacKenzie’s better
legacy is his remodeling of the famed ‘Coffin’ 4th hole from a par-3 to today’s unique
par-4 with carries across two ravines.
Fiona’s presentation focused on the role of women members and their unique history
at Flinders GC and emphasized these intrestions points
● Women have always paid full fees and had equal rights. They were never called
‘Associates’
● The club’s general committee and sub-committees have always included women.
This is now stipulated in its Constitution.
● Not one of the honour boards in the club is for women or men. They are all-in.
● Flinders was the first golf club in Australia to have a woman as president. (Fiona
Reed, elected in 2022, is the club’s second).
The club’s first woman leader was Helen Bowie, installed as president in 1934. Miss
Bowie’s remarkable life in golf, medicine, philanthropy and leadership, was told in detail
in The Long Game Edition 82, Nov 2024.
Fiona also paid tribute to two other women with a special role in the life of the club.
Ruby Nase, one of three golfing sisters from a local family, was a champion player and
served for more than 30 years on various committees and as secretary and treasurer of
the lady members’ section. She is one of three women made a Life Member. Club
members play for an annual competition in her name.
Another noted woman in the club’s history is Alice Creswick, OBE. Mrs Creswick was a
noted golfer, multiple chair of the lady members, and contributed much to Flinders and
well as the state of Victoria with her work for the Red Cross, pre-school children and the
Royal Children’s Hospital.
After a splendid lunch, 20 participants at the forum headed out to play golf on the
delightful course with its memorable views from the clifftops high above Bass Strait and
The Committee thank the Flinders Golf Club for their hospitality
Regards Doug Turek
Forums Convenor
E: forums@golfsocietyaust.com
President Kim Hastie with Flinders GC President Fiona Reed and Royal Melbourne GC Life member Moira Drew
