Principal Petitioner: Mr Ian McAuley of South Guildford WA

Petition to the Hon. John Day, Minister for Planning

Recreational sports including golf, contributes to the health and wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of people in Australia. In particular, 2,000-3,000 people a week play golf at the historical Rosehill Golf Course which has been operating for over 50 years and regarded as "The Working Mans Golf Course". These people are also members of various clubs and social groups at the golf course.

People also believe as this golf course is in the Eastern Suburbs, they have been easy prey for developers.

With the recent closure of Burswood Golf Course for development displacing 80,000 users per year, pressure is already reported on other metropolitan golf courses; and enquiries have shown nearby courses cannot absorb these further displaced golfers.

There are many expensive government campaigns encouraging people to lead an active life and join clubs for better physical and mental health. Government needs to protect existing recreational facilities which facilitate this, and not destroy them! The proposal of 800+ houses for urban infill on the golf course will only benefit the developers and Shire quota for urban infill.

No study was made on the impact of the loss of the Golf Course to the suburb of South Guildford. In addition to the displaced golfers, Rosehill Estate is the identity of the suburb, more history would be lost in razing buildings dating from 1923, and the community would be fractured as many people who have purchased specifically for "golf lifestyle" would leave. This suburb also already has absorbed approx. 400 new homes recently.

Should this development go ahead, new residents will be subjected to low flying aircraft and noise associated with the airport as the golf course is on the fringe of the airport, and is the reason it was rural zoned; to facilitate flight paths for landing planes away from dense residential areas.

Currently the goal of the Western Australian Planning Commission is to have one of the best planning systems in the world, but their disregard of the impact on people, suburbs and future generations with this proposal is definitely not in keeping with this goal.

With more thought, planners can accommodate housing infill without erasing sporting amenities such as golf courses, as these amenities will have an even higher demand and impact on our health as the population increases.

WE NEED AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO SPREAD THE WORD AND SIGN THIS PETITION TO STOP THE PATTERN WHICH IS EMERGING FROM THIS GOVERNMENT IN THE LOSS OF RECREATIONAL AREAS FOR DEVELOPMENT BEFORE YOUR LOCAL GOLF COURSE OR OVAL IS TARGETED FOR URBAN INFILL.