Patron and life member Noel Gallien cut the cake at the Pōrangahau Country Club 50th Jubilee. Photo / Eva Kershaw
Patron and life member Noel Gallien cut the cake at the Pōrangahau Country Club 50th Jubilee. Photo / Eva Kershaw
By Eva Kershaw
For fifty years, Noel Gallien’s favourite part of being a Pōrangahau Country Club member has been “arriving”.
“Because if you weren’t here, you weren’t having any fun,” he said on Saturday when he cut the cake at the country club’s 50th jubilee.
The establishment of the Pōrangahau Country Club in 1974 was memorable for two reasons.
The concept of a multisport facility was revolutionary and far-sighted at the time. The club was one of the first of its kind in New Zealand, with people from as far as Auckland and Wellington signing up to be members.
Secondly, the club was the product of a considerable community fundraising effort, with individuals and businesses of the small coastal community raising $65,000 over several years.
The Pōrangahau Country Club, established in 1974. Photo / Michaela Gower
The large open-plan clubhouse took six months to build and today acts as a hub for a nine-hole golf course, tennis, bowling, arts and fishing clubs. The club is open to the public every Friday for dinner with Coastal Catering and is available for weddings and other functions.
There were 250 guests at the Pōrangahau Country Club's 50th Jubilee. Photo / Michaela Gower
About 250 people were invited to the jubilee, where the club provided lunch and there were speeches from committee members.
The country club leases land from the Puketauhinu Trust, for three holes of the golf course. Trust chairman Murray Patterson delivered a tauparapara acknowledging the joining of relationships and binding of community.
“When I think about the relationship that Pukepuke Tauhinu, the whenua, and all of those kaitiaki who have had with the country club – they’re so intertwined,” he said.
Murray Patterson (left) and Anthony Tipene enjoying the Pōrangahau Country Club's 50th Jubilee. Photo / Michaela Gower
“That’s the beauty of sport, it brings everybody together no matter what their background is ... sport breaks down a lot of barriers.”
Don Mouat was the club’s president at the time of the build. His son Bryan Mouat read aloud his father’s speech from the club’s opening night in 1974.
Saturday’s activities at the Pōrangahau Country Club included demonstrations of golf and bowls. Photo / Eva Kershaw
“It makes you realise what a wonderful country we live in when people have confidence and such district pride that they are prepared to back a project such as this with their time, their effort, and their money,” Bryan read.
The country club has been improved consistently by the committee, with more recent fundraising efforts generating a new Astroturf facility for tennis and netball in 2009, and a revitalised bowling green in 2017.
In 2020, Sport Hawkes Bay granted funding from Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa to support a junior golf programme.
This year, through Civil Defence, the country club has also become the Te Paerahi Beach community emergency hub.
In four years, the community will also celebrate the centenary of the Pōrangahau Golf Club.
