The following includes excerpts from The History of the Upper Blackwood Golf Club written by the late Janet E. Purse in 1972. To download a full copy of the book CLICK HERE
Brancaster
The early history of golf in the Boyup Brook district is closely associated with the Whistler family. Early in this century they left England and went to South Australia. In about 1905 the two sons Robert and John came to Western Australia and took up land In the Boyup Brook district. They named the property “Brancaster”, after the village in Norfolk from which they came. Robert married Fanny Smith of Boyanup and they had a son, Harold.
In 1912 Robert took his wife and son for a trip home to England and one of the highlights of their holiday was a game of golf at St. Andrew’s, the ‘I home of Golf” in Scotland. They grew so interested in the game that when they returned to their farm in W.A. they brought with them sets of clubs, golf bags and balls. They then decided to lay out a nine-hole course of their own.
The course was constructed on the paddocks adjacent to the homestead and had some interesting features such as a creek to cross and a dog-leg around a dam, One short hole had thick bracken fern from tee to green and another hole, near the sheep yards, had a solid jarrah slab fence across the fairway. The greens were small by present standards and made of sand, naturally. Wherever a fence had to be crossed, a stile was built for climbing over. Of course, in those days golf buggies were unheard of and the writer well remembers, when the first buggies appeared at Brancaster after the second World War, wondering whether they were worth the business of lifting them over the fences!
When the course was established the Whistlers invited some of their friends and neighbours to come and join them for a game of golf at weekends. Mainly the Lovells from “Condinup” who also had a nine-hole practice course laid out on their property and the Swinneys from “Dinninup Vale”. Gradually, other neighbours joined in and golf at Brancaster developed into a regular and very pleasant family outing. The visitors brought their own lunch and ate it on the verandah of the homestead and Mrs Whistler presided as hostess and made cups of tea for everyone.
Others who joined in included Mr M.S. Hack and his sons Bill, Doug and Ron. Doug’s wife Fan, Jim Lee Steere, Bob and Mrs Johnson, Percy and Lou Chidgzey, Frank Money and the Blechynden family including Myra, Ellen, Charles, Hubert and his wife Trixie.
Patrick Glynn came to the district and then his brother Gerard and the Purse brothers Jack and Bill, John Broadhurstl Scot McKie and his wife Olga, Alan McKie and they all played golf at Brancaster.
Eventually it was decided to form a committee and register “Brancaster” as an official golf club. Thus grew the first Golf Club in the Boyup Brook district and Mrs. Robert Whistler became known as the “Mother of Golf” in this area. In 1954 she was made a Life Member of the new Upper Blackwood Golf Club in recognition of the keen interest and untiring efforts towards golf which resulted in the spread of the game throughout the district. She was asked to drive the first ball at the official opening of the new club and at the age of 88 was still playing golf. Even into her 90’s Mrs Whistler still drove the ball for the official opening of each season cleanly and truly, straight down the middle.