When we think of environmental sanctuaries, the local golf club might not spring to mind. Some consider the manicured lawns to be sub-par because they guzzle so much water, and require heavy pesticide use. And let’s not get started on the crimes against fashion that occur on the course. Some councils have considered proposals to repurpose the greens for other sports, or redevelopment. But, according to experts, suburban golf courses may play a major role in protecting biodiversity in urban areas.

Golf is one of the largest sports in Australia by participation rate, with more than 2.2 million Aussies having a swing each year, according to the Australian Golf Industry Council.

Western Australia has 211 golf courses with nine or more holes, and more than 1090 hectares of land is devoted to the sport in the Perth Metropolitan Area.

RMIT urban ecologist Dr Jacinta Humphrey said these large areas of land provided a “massive opportunity” to protect native habitats and promote biodiversity.

Dr Humphrey said one of the biggest threats to biodiversity was habitat destruction.

In the Perth metropolitan area, more than 60 per cent of the native banksia woodland has been destroyed by development, and is listed as “endangered”.

One golf club in Perth is attempting to preserve the native woodland surrounding its course. Mount Lawley Golf Club course superintendent Rod Tatt said the club was revegetating the area around the course with the endemic plant species that were growing on the land before the course was built, nearly a century ago.

Mr Tatt said the golf club’s 79 hectares of land, leased from the City of Stirling, was home to banksia and melaleuca woodland. The bush has a thriving population of reptiles and birds, including the endangered Carnaby’s cockatoo and threatened forest red-tail cockatoo. He said marsupials, such as the quenda, also called the bush surrounding the course home.

According to Mr Tatt, who won the Australian Sports Turf Managers Association Sustainability and Environment award in 2023, some of the native plants and animals living on the Mount Lawley golf course have come under threat from introduced species like foxes and rabbits.

Even kookaburras have upset the delicate ecosystem. The bird responsible for the quintessential sound of Australia was introduced to Western Australia in 1897 to help control snakes, and has been dining on our fauna ever since.

Mr Tatt said the club had made mistakes in the past, such as planting pine trees and River Red Gums imported from the east coast which needed massive amounts of water to survive.

Dr Humphrey said Western Australia was a global biodiversity hotspot: “A lot of the species that you have there will only occur in that area, and nowhere else in the world. So it’s super important that we’re looking after that biodiversity, because if it’s gone, it’s completely gone. It doesn’t occur anywhere else.”