Newcastle Golf Club Tees Up Retirement Plans

Retirement community plans keep rolling in with a $97-million development at Newcastle Golf Club and changes to a $134-million Shelly Beach offering unveiled.

This follows two city applications this week in the highly sought-after and valued Sydney suburbs of Vaucluse and Narraweena. 

Principal Living lodged the sea-change application at Newcastle Golf Club with 172 homes, a community centre and recreational facilities onsite.

The course was ranked 30th in the country and 10th during the 1980s and is at 4A Vardon Road, Fern Bay.

“The club’s long trading history demonstrates it is not generating sufficient revenues to renew its infrastructure and be sustainable in the long term,” the application said.

The 6.7ha course has frontage on Nelson Bay Road and was identified in the Port Stephens Council as a site for residential development.

Newcastle Golf Club was founded in 1905 on the site of an old racecourse and, with the exception of time during WWII when it was covered in barbed wire and tank traps, it has remained one of the best courses in the country. 

Harrison Golf designed the masterplan for the course in 2020 to remodel the greens and it was approved for subdivision in 2023.

The seniors housing design by CKDS shows three buildings with 125 serviced self-care apartments, 47 villas, 337 carparks and a community centre with cinema and gym.

▲ These homes will flank a portion of the Newcastle Golf Club closest to the river. 

Meanwhile closer to Sydney, the Uniting Church of Australia Property Trust lodged plans to modify its 19 Bias Avenue, Bateau Bay plans near Shelly Beach.

The dual stage plans were approved in 2022 to create 180 retirement and independent living units, a 160-place residential aged-care home, clubroom, barbecue area and children’s playground.

The changes would increase the number of apartments and carparking spaces slightly and create one main central entry foyer instead of two, according to the report by Gyde.

▲ The site entry and village green within the Uniting Church’s Nareen Gardens development in the Central Coast Council region.

The boom in retirement living and aged care is expected to continue to shore up portfolios, including additional plans lodged in Coffs Harbour proving interest in the sector.