July 2026 www.insidegolf.com.au CLUB NEWS 32 By Peter Owen North Queensland club bringing ex-servicemen together A CHANCE meeting at a friend’s 50th birthday party on the Gold Coast early last year has led to the establishment of a unique golf club in North Queensland that has changed the life of many of its members. Townsville’s Joe Jackson had not long retired from the Royal Australian Air Force when he attended the party and met Matt Paas, a fellow veteran who was also from Townsville. As they chatted they found they shared an interest in golf. Both had played the game in service competition. At 50, Jackson was too young to join a veterans’ golf club, but he told Paas that he was interested in starting a dedicated golf club for defence veterans in Townsville. Jackson’s vision was for more than just a golf club. Rather, he saw it as a vehicle to promote connection, wellbeing and camaraderie. He saw it as a way to foster mental health, reduce social isolation and provide a sense of belonging. A record for loyalty unlikely to be broken WHEN John Mitchell played in the Master Builders National Golf Tournament for the first time Elvis Presley had just married Priscilla, the Beatles album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was top of the charts, and McDonalds’ new Big Mac burger was selling for 45 cents. In October, Mitchell, now 84 and preparing to call time on his long golf career, will line up in the event for the 55th time, setting a record for loyalty and longevity that is unlikely to ever be challenged, let alone broken. As he prepares for this year’s event – the 66th iteration of a contest for golfers involved in the building industry that began in Melbourne in 1959 – Mitchell recalls how he first became aware of a tournament that was to shape his life. It was 1967 and Mitchell, a quantity surveyor, had been invited by a builder friend to play in that year’s tournament at Newcastle. “You can lose your identity when you lose the uniform,” Jackson said. “We’ve all been through it and we know how challenging it can be to find a sense of purpose after military life.” Paas was quickly convinced. The two men exchanged numbers and on their return to North Queensland, Paas began ‘putting things together.’ He rang some mates, started up a Facebook page, gained sponsors and won the support of the local golf clubs, particularly Tropics Golf Club. That was a year ago. What began as a group of four ex-servicemen enjoying a friendly midweek round, has become a broad, welcoming community, boasting nearly 100 members – some of them women - with newcomers signing up every week. The North Queensland Defence Veterans Golf Club plays every Wednesday at Tropics, where upwards of 45 players test their game, then gather in the clubhouse for a social catch-up. “It’s an informal, but powerful, way to build connection and, when needed, to share referrals to support services that have helped them,” said Paas, now the club secretary. They even have their own motto: ‘Improving veterans’ mental health - one round at a time.’ Members range in age from 28 to 82-year-old Ted Chatfield, a former naval serviceman who says the club has given him a new lease on life. Jackson, the club president, is thrilled at the level of support the club enjoys, particularly from Tropics Golf Club. “Our members pay $35 for their Wednesday round of golf,” he said. “$15 of that is for the golf cart and the other $20 goes to the club for green fees. Then they give us $10 back. “We support Tropics by providing their vouchers for our prizes,” he said. “Anything left over is banked with them. We had a Christmas party at the end of last year and it cost us nothing.” In March, the Townsville defence vets entered a team in the Inter-Service Championships which were held at Atherton. “I put out a call, asking if anybody wanted to play,” Jackson said. “I had 15 guys putting up their hand for the six-man team. “We competed with teams from the Army, Navy and Air Force. We couldn’t win any trophies because we weren’t servicemen,” Jackson said. “So I came up with the Defence Challenge Cup as a prize for our team members.” Jackson said he’d been contacted by defence veterans from Perth, Newcastle and Brisbane who were interested in starting their own clubs. “Who knows?” he said. “We might be part of a national network one day, with teams competing all around the country.” Joe Jackson (left) and Matt Paas at Tropics Golf Club, where they play every Wednesday. Members of the North Queensland Defence Veterans Golf Club enjoy a drink after their weekly round of golf. By Peter Owen “It was a very good week of golf and I enjoyed the competition and the fellowship,” said Mitchell who, as a young man, played golf on a Saturday morning, then opened the batting for Sandgate/ Redcliffe’s cricket team in the afternoon. Mitchell played in the following year’s national tournament on the Gold Coast, then the one in 1969 in Adelaide. Since then, he has missed only five – two in the Covid years, one when he was moving office, another when he was ill, and one when he was just too busy. This year’s tournament in Brisbane – to be played at Oxley, Carbrook and Nudgee from October 11 to 15– will be his last. Mitchell, whose handicap over the years has blown out from five to 24, plans to terminate his membership of Keperra Golf Club, in Brisbane’s north, in September, and retire from the game. “It’s getting too hard,” he said. “Where once I was getting onto a par four in two shots it’s now taking me four. I just can’t hit the ball far enough.” He’ll also retire from the Master Builders Golf Club, which has been hosting the national golf tournament since 1959, when teams from Victoria, NSW and South Australia first played for the M. R. Hornibrook Cup. The tournament honoured Sir Manuel Richard Hornibrook, the acknowledged elder statesman of the Australian building industry, whose company built many significant engineering works in Australia in the mid-1900s. The Master Builders National Golf Tournament is contested by teams from Victoria, NSW, South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland, with regional teams representing the Gold Coast and Newcastle. The five-day celebration of golf includes competition on the Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, dinners, social gatherings, a rest day, and plenty of time for catching up with old friends and swapping stories. It generally attracts between 110 and 140 players, all of whom work, or worked, in the building industry, or in businesses involved with the industry. They play an individual stableford competition, with the winning team determined by averaging the scores of each team member over three rounds. To promote fellowship, each group of four comprises a player from the host state, plus three others from different parts of the country. All players must have an official handicap. Master Builders Golf Club national secretary John Duncalfe, who believes the tournament is probably the longest-running social golf event in the country, said registrations always filled quickly. “We’ve got 29 from Tasmania already for this year’s event,” he said. As for John Mitchell, he’s preparing for life after golf by taking up bowls, which he describes as a much more dangerous sport than golf. “I’ve already had a couple of accidents,” he said “I keep tripping over those gutters and falling down.” John Mitchell (left) shares a cart with Tasmania’s John Erends at last year’s Master Builders tournament in Hobart. Lynn Astley (NSW), David Bird (Gold Coast), Darren Imber (Qld) and Trevor Mowbray (Newcastle) before their round at Claremont, Tasmania, last year.
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