QLD mining town club upgrade clubhouse in community spirit
Middlemount Golf Club in Central Queensland was recently able to invite the local community to the grand opening of their new container clubhouse, a project that has been in the works for over two years.
The small mining town, located 242 kilometres from Mackay and Rockhampton, inhabits just under 2,000 people but has a sense of community and union like no other, much thanks to the local golf club.
The membership club at Centenary Drive was built shortly after the mine itself in 1980, and has been operating from the same clubhouse the local community built over 30 years ago.
In 2016 current Club President James-Dina Wiremu Sullivan started a conversation with Container Build Group to get the plans for a new, more contemporary, clubhouse off the ground.
“It’s been a long process building and getting grants,” said Jamie Van Tongeran from Container Build Group. “We finally got the green light late last year.”
John Creeden, Middlemount local and Builder and Project Manager, said the project would be a welcomed addition to the town.
“This has been an ongoing thing for probably 12 months, Creeden said during the build in November last year. “It’s good to finally get going.”
“In the local community the golf club plays a major part because unlike a lot of the mining towns out here it’s the entrance to the town, he added. “It’s very important it’s a nice entrance, and it will be good to have a flash new clubhouse here that’s got a restaurant and a nice eating area.”
The new building consists of 16 large containers, which were subsequently lifted on top of large piers and then welded on and fixed. The main features of the rebuild includes a “massive’ kid’s room, restaurant, 60 person function room, increased elevated U-shape deck area, and a new 14-machine gaming room.
The grand opening was held to much fanfare in April this year after a great part of the local community had offered up their time to get the new venue and furniture ready.
General Manager Alice said it was nice to see the community come together for the project, much like it did 30 years ago. “I felt like that community ethos that was there in the first golf club build is very much still present in the current build today,” she said.
“I think it’s particularly nice that over the 30 years the club hasn’t lost that sort of dedication from its committee.”
President Sullivan said the community is taking to the new clubhouse well and that it was vital for the success of the project to have the community’s support behind it.
“The clubs finished now and it’s a feeling of utter jubilation that it has finally been done after so many years of hard work,”
“The future plans for the club is to merge all the clubs eventually and have them all come under the one banner and support each other so that these little mining towns can keep the clubs alive,”
“A lot of these smaller clubs and towns can’t survive and we want to keep as many clubs and towns alive as we can. That’s the vision of the project and hopefully the building here will last more than 30 years like the old one did and serve its purpose.”
