The course layout was established in
1969 and features a pine plantation planted in the early
sixties on land previously used for dairy farming.
The
course was designed by Bob Blackwood and Les Skelton
who together climbed a hill over-looking the young pine plantation and
envisaged the layout.
Bob was the policeman in the local
township of Swifts Creek, while Les Skelton, with wife Joan,
ran the local Swifts Creek General store at a time when the
area was prospering from wool and timber production.
Much of the labour and machinery for creating the course was borrowed from
the local sawmill, which at that time employed over one hundred workers.
When required policeman Bob Blackwood would also commandeer labour
from the bar of the local Albion Hotel - now burnt down and replaced.
The previous golf course used by the locals was a sand-scrape course
at Negoura Station, north of Swifts Creek. Life Member 'Mouldy' Mick Elliott
remembers his job removing animal droppings from the scrapes
prior to the Sunday Competetion. Competition day was always Sunday
since Saturday's footy was sacred. Mouldy won three Swifts Creek B & F's
and his son, Tim Elliott, played 47 games for St Kilda (1998-2001).
From 2017 to 2021 Tim was a member of Tambo Valley's A pennant side who have made
it to the final four years in a row - winning two flags for Tambo
against the elite of East Gippsland's golfers.
In 2003 the Great Alpine fires scorched the eucalypts surrounding
the course but had a minor effect on the pine trees in their location
on flats close to Junction creek. A number of pines along the 8th fairway
were destroyed and have been recently replanted with eucalypts.
As the young pine trees have grown into towering maturity
the character and approaches to each of the holes has subtly changed.
Major floods in 1994 and 1998, and numerous smaller floods in
2008. 2012 & finally in 2016 have left their legacy on the landscape.
In 2018, construction of a low-level crossing further downstream
was established on the original farm access road alignment.
