East Framlingham Golf Club opens new watering system

Councillor Daniel Meade cut the ribbon with sprinklers cascading behind him on Sunday afternoon.

"One thing we do well at Moyne is supporting our community groups, and council was proud to contribute around $140,000 to this project," he said.

Cr Meade said the club earned generous grants thanks to the heavy community involvement in the project.

Club president Ross McLeod said everyone had pitched in, volunteering time, sweat and even trench-digging equipment and electrical expertise.

"We held a series of working bees. In one day with 25 people we laid 3.5km of main line pipe," he said.

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The project took 750 "man hours", installing 179 sprinklers and digging 9km of trenches for the pipe.

Mr Meade said the club wasn't just a sporting hub for the area, it provided a vital social role, too.

"East Framlingham doesn't have a lot else other than the golf club, so to have something that is a beacon for the community is a great thing," he said.

Mr McLeod said the previous club secretary, Judy Rafferty, had been instrumental in securing the council grants that made the project possible.

Ms Rafferty said getting funding was a matter of experience.

"You have to know how to ask," she said.

The project took seven years from planning to ribbon-cutting. The club had to install its own desalination plant to process the poor quality water it had access to.

Then it had to install a pump for the system, which meant the facility's electrical switchboard needed updating.

Mr McLeod said it had all been worth it.

"The system has future-proofed the golf course.

"Previously you would have (13-time club champion) Morrie Morgan out there at four in the morning in his mid-80s shifting the sprinkler around by hand," he said.

Head green keeper Ross Corbett said he could program the whole system from his phone.

"If anything goes wrong I get an immediate alert," he said.

The club hired an irrigation architect to get the most out of the system.

"We don't have much water to work with, so we had to maximise efficiency," Mr Corbett said.

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