Karana Downs golf club has a new owner...and a new name.

By: Darius Oliver

Brisbane’s Karana Downs Golf Club has a new owner (and a new name), with Kooralbyn Resort proprietor Peter Huang purchasing the golf course and surrounding property from Brett Lawton. Huang was handed the keys to the club on September 1, and immediately renamed Karana Downs the Brisbane River Golf Course. He apparently plans to allow the club’s 500 members to continue playing the course, and will be spending money on bunkers, greens and general landscaping to try to elevate it into Queensland’s Top 25.

According to the Queensland Times, Lawton was a reluctant seller having rescued the club from the brink of closure following the devastating 2011 Brisbane floods. For two years after the flood the course sat idle and unplayed, while attempts were made to rezone the area and convert the land into a 112-lot housing estate. After a legal challenge to the Brisbane City Council’s rejection of the plan was unsuccessful, Lawton purchased the property and worked with members to restore the golf holes.

His efforts to keep golf alive at Karana Downs appear to have been rewarded with the Huang deal, which also provides playing rights at Kooralbyn Valley for the existing membership. Interestingly, after buying Kooralbyn from receivers in 2014 for $6.5 million and investing an additional $10 million in a major renovation, Huang put the resort on the market earlier this year with a price tag reported to be $68 million. It appears Huang found no buyers, and for now is the owner of two Queensland golf courses.

It will be interesting to watch them develop in the years ahead, both Brisbane and the Gold Coast hinterland region could do with quality golf.

From the Queensland Times article: 

THE man who led the resurrection of Karana Downs Golf Club after the 2011 floods and a failed development bid has paid tribute to the 500 members that still call the club home.

The popular course - one of two owned by Brett Lawton - was sold to Kooralbyn resort owner Peter Huang, with the settlement coming yesterday afternoon.

Mr Huang has renamed the club the Brisbane River Golf Course and has plans to improve it into one of the state's top 25 courses.

Meanwhile, Mr Lawton said the time had come to take a bit of the pressure off his work life.

"I need to relax," he said.

"Running two businesses has been a bit too much."

 

Badly damaged and left in disrepair for two years after the catastrophic 2011 floods, the course was the subject of a controversial 112-lot housing development application.

Brisbane City Council rejected the application and a lengthy court challenge followed.

It wasn't until 2013 that Mr Lawton bought the club back and started a three-month renovation process.

"I was very fortunate that the members got back on board and that's what made it viable," he said.

"The club reopened three months later. It has been a really good community hub with very good facilities.

"I certainly have some regrets about selling because facilities like that just don't always come along, especially so close to Brisbane.

 

The new owner said work would get under way almost immediately to replace the bunker sand and improve the greens and landscaping.

A new practice bunker will also be created next to the existing practice green.

Off the course itself, Mr Huang said one of the top priorities was to relaunch the website.

"Our mission is to put Brisbane River Golf Course in the top 25 in Queensland and Kooralbyn in the top three," he said.

"I appreciate the support from he golfers there and I am looking forward to improving it so that they will have the opportunity to play on one of the best courses in Brisbane.

"I really want it to compete with the likes of Indooroopilly Golf Club."

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