$20m top up

By Kath Gannaway
THE RACV has added $20 million to its initial $60 million budget for upgrading the RACV Healesville Country Club.
When the massive redevelopment of the buildings, golf course and grounds was announced last year, it was to be done in two stages.
Rob McQuillan, RACV’s general manger, said the RACV board made the decision earlier this year to invest the additional funds and the project will now be completed by December 2008.
“One of the things which has come through in all the tourism reports we have looked at is the lack of good quality accommodation in the Yarra Valley.
“This is a really exciting development which will help fill that need,” he said.
Under the new plans the existing 48 room accommodation wing will be demolished and replaced with 80 new rooms.
Mr McQuillan said the existing rooms will remain until new rooms are completed.
Included in the building redevelopment is undercover parking for more than 170 cars, new conference and meeting rooms, an auditorium, formal dining and cafe facilities, a library, gymnasium, heated indoor pool and day spa facilities. Lifts will take people between the levels.
Looking out from the dining room, Mr McQuillan said the Mt Riddell views had been a ‘sacred site’ throughout the planning process.
“Everything sits in the hill minimising the amount of intrusion. We have used a lot of glass to create a feeling of bringing the outside into the building.”
The golf course and grounds will also undergo major changes.
Two wetland areas, one at the new entrance and another along the Watts River and a network of walking tracks through bushland will open up almost the entire 62 hectare property for passive recreation.
Mr McQuillan said more emphasis would be placed on recreating a natural bushland environment.
“We are very keen to get an environment rating on the property and have had a lot of discussion with the Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria and Yarra Ranges Shire about how we can do that.”
Those discussions have included establishing bushland protection zones on the site which will be protected by a Section 173 planning agreement.
Mr McQuillan said more than 40,000 new native plants, including about 1200 trees, will replace the 420 trees which have been removed.
New club manager Brett May will have the job of seeing the redevelopment through over the next two years and says while it will be challenging working on a construction site, the end result will be sensational. “It’s an exciting project but for me it is not just the redevelopment, it is the level at which it is being done which makes it a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he said.
Construction of the main building is expected to start towards the end of this year.