Golf Australia says boards must reflect their memberships. A bitter gender dispute in Camberwell isn’t helping

A local golf club that recently merged separate women’s and men’s clubs is embroiled in a gender dispute after every woman on its committee was dumped from their positions at a meeting on Tuesday night.

The dispute has erupted only months after Camberwell’s historically separate men’s and women’s golf clubs came together, and centres on an increasingly acrimonious battle over how the new club should be governed and whether its female members have an equal voice.

Four women walked out of the fiery committee meeting on Tuesday after the male president of the amalgamated Camberwell Golf Club, based at a council-owned course in Boroondara, informed them their appointments to the club’s general committee were invalid.

Club president Craig Atkins confirmed the women had been removed but dismissed the events as a “storm in a teacup”, saying their appointments had been made incorrectly because of an error in the club’s constitution. There are 13 male members on the committee.

“They were appointed inappropriately through an error in the constitution and we had to correct the error,” Atkins told this masthead.

But Julia Trafford, secretary of the Camberwell Ladies Golf Club and one of the women involved, was angered by the president’s actions.

“It was a stitch-up and [we were] ambushed by the president,” Trafford said.

“We left and some of the women were quite distressed.”

Minutes before the women were removed from the committee, David Greenhill – Golf Australia’s head of governance and risk – had completed an hour-long presentation to the club about modern governance, including the importance of gender equality.

Soon after Greenhill finished speaking, the women were told they no longer held their committee positions.

Golf Australia has increasingly encouraged clubs to modernise their governance and improve female participation in leadership.

Its general manager of “Places to Play”, Damien de Bohun, said boards should reflect the communities they serve.

“That is not negotiable,” he said.

“You cannot build a welcoming, inclusive game if the people making decisions at club level don’t reflect the membership they serve.

“At the invitation of women committee members, Golf Australia provided governance advice to Camberwell Golf Club as it reunified its men’s and women’s playing groups. Our advice was clear: review and modernise the constitution, adopt skills-based board composition, and ensure meaningful representation of women, consistent with the Australian Sports Commission’s governance principles and the Victorian government’s Balance the Board policy.

“Removing women from a governance structure at the very moment a club is being asked to strengthen female representation is indefensible.

“This is exactly why Golf Australia partnered with the Australian Institute of Company Directors to launch a national governance education program for the 11,000 volunteer directors who lead golf clubs across Australia.

“Golf will not advance while those in positions of leadership exert that influence to exclude the very people whose views and expertise the game’s continued growth depends upon.”

Atkins insisted there was “nothing untoward” about the decision and conceded the process of modernising the club’s constitution had become “a little messy”.

He said the women had subsequently been offered a pathway back onto the committee “in a legal manner”, but claimed they had left the meeting before hearing the proposal.

“They were disgruntled and stormed out of the meeting and didn’t even stay to hear the rest of the outcomes,” Atkins said.

Trafford strongly disputed Atkins’ version of events and said tensions had been building throughout the process of bringing the two clubs together.

“We have felt all the way through this time that the president has been railroading us, trying to jam things through and acting as a gatekeeper,” she said.

“It comes down to this line of thinking: ‘Yes, we will allow the ladies to do this, but only if we agree’.

“We have never asked the men to do anything different. We are members of this club and we should have a voice on the committee.”

Camberwell Golf Club and Camberwell Ladies Golf Club were previously separate, with 70 women and 230 men respectively. Both clubs played on Freeway Golf Course, which is run by GreenSpace (a golf course management company) on land owned by the City of Boroondara.

At the heart of the dispute is a disagreement over whether the union of the two clubs represented an amalgamation of equals or, as the women contend, their absorption into a club controlled by its male members.

Trafford said the women believed the prevailing attitude at the golf club had been: “It’s really the men’s club and we are letting you join us, but you have to join us on our terms”.

Atkins maintained the removal of the women was a constitutional correction rather than an attempt to exclude them from the administration of the club.

But Trafford said the women intended to fight on, with an annual general meeting looming.

“We’re not disheartened. We do have an AGM coming up,” she said.

“I think we need a changing of the guard, but it is difficult when the club is captured with an autocrat at the helm.”

Boroondara CEO Daniel Freer was at the meeting.

Boroondara Mayor Wes Gault said the council expected that community sport be “welcoming, inclusive and accessible to everyone.

“That’s the standard we expect of all organisations operating on council-owned land,” he said.

“We strongly oppose any move that would deny women the opportunity to serve on a club board or hold membership on equal terms.”

Boroondara Council has also been asked to investigate a separate recent local sporting incident involving a club from its area.

The Boroondara Eagles Football Club claimed their under-12 girls match at Caloola Reserve – in a separate council area – was halted so an under-11 boys’ team could use the field instead. Football Victoria is also investigating.

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Sam McClure is an award-winning AFL journalist and broadcaster.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement