Earlier this month about 300 people attended a meeting to discuss their concerns that redevelopment of the golf course was proceeding and that holes 3-11 of the Ellenbrook golf course could be closed in April.

Before the meeting on March 11 The Vines Residents Association said it appeared that as well as closing holes 3 to 11 The Vines (WA) was preparing to make further applications soon including for infilling the grass driving range.
Echo News contacted The Vines Resort last week and again on Wednesday asking if The Vines (WA) intended closing holes at the golf course and if so when and how many holes would be closed, was the driving range being closed for infill and if so when and would any proposal lead to the lake used by the water bomber being filled in and used for housing.

But by deadline there had been no response.

Swan Hills MLA Jessica Shaw said she had been working with the the Vines Residents Association and a number of other groups who were all opposed to the proposed redevelopment of The Vines Country and Golf Club into housing.

Ms Shaw said the proposal had a complex history.

“There are two golf courses in The Vines – the Heinekin course, which is the private (and) what used to be the championship level course and then the Ellenbrook golf course which is a public golf course,’’ she said.

“The proposal that was originally put to the community was to take half of the public golf course and put housing on it, to put retirement living on the site of the current driving range and then to do some upgrades to the club facilities themselves.”
People were against the proposal and in particular the back nine holes being redeveloped into housing.

“There are a lot of people in that part of the world that bought their blocks with the promise of golf course views that would never be interrupted and they also had to pay a premium to make the front of the house and the back of the house as equally visually appealing for golf course users and so there were a lot of people there that expressed their concerns to me about that.’’

A suggestion that there was someone interested in buying the golf course and retaining it as a golf course did not come to fruitition.
The Vines Golf Club then submitted an application to redevelop just the existing driving range into a double storey driving range and wanted the JDAP to just consider that proposal.

The community and Ms Shaw made submissions saying the JDAP would be remiss in its duty if it didn’t consider the big picture.

She said if they had gotten the appovals for the double storey driving range that could well have precipitated the big picture redevelopment.

But the JDAP took that into account and denied the application.

She said the lack of clarity about any proposal makes it difficult for her and the City of Swan.

“They haven’t initiated any subsequent planning process but I do understand that there may have been correspondence between golf club members and the golf club about what their plans are in the future.

“There have been some changes in the way the land has been managed so people have noticed that too,” she said.