During the COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne, the Golf Course paused their activities. This allowed the site to open to the wider public and it became a popular recreational destination for community members to walk and picnic. This, combined with the Golf Course’s looming lease expiration, prompted Council to commence community engagement to explore shared use of the site.
Council conducted community consultation to develop a vision and plan for the site, which resulted in more than 7000 community views being submitted via a survey. Council’s challenge was to balance the diversity of views around the future of the golf course and ensure all stakeholders could participate in creating a vision for shared use of the golf course.
Capire provided advice and a strategic review of the survey, collated and coded data, and analysed the results. Capire was able to capture a diverse range of potential outcomes. We considered the sensitive nature of the topic due to emotional attachment to the space. Participants generally discussed two ways of sharing: spatially and temporally.
In May 2022, Council approved a plan that Northcote Public Golf Course will be retained as a nine-hole course, but a portion will be converted to parkland. Darebin Council is also investigating whether to open the course to become parkland after 3pm daily.
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Principal Parks Strategic Planner, Darebin City Council
