A digger overturned on Auckland's Gulf Harbour Country Club this afternoon as the dispute over the golf course rages on.
The Whangaparāoa Peninsula course, which hosted the New Zealand Golf Open in 2005 and 2006, was closed in July with residents vowing to fight the decision.
A group called Keep Whangaparāoa Green Space society amassed 4200 signatures calling on the Auckland Council to uphold an encumbrance on the land that requires it to remain a green space - among fears developer Greg Olliver wants to use the land for housing.
Olliver bought the course back in 2021.
A community meeting over the issue was held earlier this month that saw around 300 people cram into the Gulf Harbour yacht club to voice their concerns.
This afternoon a digger was seen on the golf course carrying out work on its driving range section. 1News spoke to two local residents with knowledge of the course who said the digger has been used in the past to drain a small pond which formed from recent downpours in the same section.
One of those residents took pictures of the digger after it got into trouble and overturned around 4pm, where it was left lying on its side. Another image supplied to 1News shows a man standing on its tracks shortly after.
The image was shared to a local community group with a caption that stated "karma" had been at work.
Footage was also supplied of the digger carrying out work around 2pm before it tipped over.
Auckland councillor John Watson told 1News as the land is still privately owned the owner has a right to carry out work on it that doesn't need a council permit.
However, he said that since Olliver purchased the property in 2021 he "has not done much to maintain it during his two years in charge".
He added there was definitely "community disquiet" with how the course had been run and the recent closure.
Not long after Olliver bought Gulf Harbour Country Club an unpaid $836,000 earthworks bill led to the Registrar of Companies banning him from being a company director for four years.
It comes as in July a letter was sent to members by the golf course director Wayne Bailey informing them of the closure.
"After two years of unsuccessfully looking for ways to make the running of the club financially viable the Gulf Harbour Country Club will close with immediate effect," it said.
It goes on to to say the club continues to lose money and while it’s appreciated many of the members have absorbed the higher fees in recent times, "costs continue to outrun revenue".
Bailey’s letter points out the "failing" clubhouse would most likely need a complete rebuild, the cost of which would be "prohibitive".
The club sits on a significant amount of land and directors had looked at ways to utilise selling some of the "surplus" in order to reinvest in the course.
"The nature of the course layout meant that this was only possible with the acquisition of other neighbouring land as well. Negotiations to date have meant that this is not only unviable but ultimately a worse outcome than the status quo. Thus we have no option but to cease operations."
Gulf Harbour opened in 1997 and, for a while, was one of the country’s leading courses. It hosted back-to-back New Zealand Opens in 2005 and 2006, won by Sweden’s Niclas Fasth and Nathan Green of Australia respectively.
It also hosted the World Cup of Golf in 1998.
1News has attempted to contact Olliver for comment on the overturned digger spotted on the course.
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