Yarrawonga Mulwala (Murray)

With 45 holes in play, it’s reckoned that Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort is Australia’s biggest public access golf facility. Located 285 kilometres north of Melbourne on the banks of the mighty Murray River, the club offers two 18-hole layouts, the Murray and Lake, along with a 9-hole executive course.

The game of golf in the twin towns of Yarrawonga in Victoria and Mulwala in New South Wales dates as far back as 1886 to a 3-hole course in the centre of Yarrawonga. Formed in 1897, Yarrawonga Golf Club was situated at the local racetrack before crossing the state border to a new site on a dairy farm outside Mulwala in 1923.

An initial 9-hole layout was extended to eighteen holes in 1940 then another 100 acres became available in 1953, allowing the club to plan for a new 27-hole complex. Vern Morcom was called in to plan a revised layout but the commission eventually went to Sam Berriman, the curator at Huntingdale.

The new course opened for play on 26 June 1959. Twenty years later, plans for a third nine, designed by Peter Thomson and Mike Wolveridge, were accepted and the new Gold nine opened on 12 July 1981, with the Berriman course becoming the Blue and Red nines.

More land was acquired to the west of the property, allowing the construction of the Murray course, which Thomson and Wolveridge produced, with the first tee shots struck on 29 November 1986. The Blue nine lost three of its holes to the Murray and the remaining six holes were modified to become the short executive nine, with the Red and Gold nines forming the Lake course.

Yarrawonga & Border Golf Club – as the club had been renamed – was retitled again as Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort in 2011.

Routed in an out-and-back style, the Murray course reaches the river at the kidney-shaped 4th green, before the par five 5th then runs alongside its flowing waters. Interestingly, the par threes at the 8th and 10th both feature two teeing options that alter the holes significantly.

The back nine is much the same as the front, with winding fairways and gum trees a constant presence and the par fives and par threes among the standout holes.