HISTORY teaches many lessons - among them the diametrically opposed notions of tradition and change.
Sunshine Golf Club and the Sunshine Advocate are two icons in Brimbank with illustrious histories. Both share the theme of embracing change while maintaining tradition.
Established in 1924, the Advocate was the area's first registered newspaper. It was preceded by establishment of the club the year before. In August 1925, 85 years before this edition, the Sunshine Golf Club was front-page news at the newly formed newspaper.
As the Advocate prepares to enter a new era in its history next week under the masthead of Brimbank Weekly, it spoke to long-term golf club associate and former captain Billy Vaines about changes at the club and the traditions it preserves.
"I've been involved with the club about 32 years," Vaines says.
The 87-year-old is one of the few long-standing members who still maintain regular contact with the club.
General manager Danny Zernich said the move to the current site, on Mt Derrimut Road, had ironically taken the club back in time. It is now based in a heritage-listed, 1850s building formerly owned by the University of Melbourne.
"We have a strong history and every Wednesday we still have our ladies' competition. We try to keep our traditions going. We've got members who've been here for long periods. Some are in their 80s. Billy Vaines is one of those long-standing supporters; he's a pensioner now and still comes down every Saturday without fail."
Vaines fondly remembers his first experience of Sunshine, having been introduced to the area after "following a girl here". "I was a horse trainer at Flemington for 25 years and then I met a girl who brought me here to Sunshine."
Much has changed since he arrived as a member of the club.
"We moved to a nine-hole course in 1976 or 1977, but the clubhouse burnt down not long afterwards and they built the Taj Mahal, as we call it. We had to sell that building to the Masonic Lodge so we built another club on Fitzgerald Road. It was a tough little course," Vaines remembers.
The current building has a distinguished history. It was originally established as part of the Mt Derrimut homestead as a cattle stud farm before being acquired as the agricultural teaching centre for the university. Its future looks set to rival its colourful history, according to Vaines. "It's only been going for three years, and in two or three more it'll be the best course in the west."
Vaines intends to continue his association with the club. "There's a junior championship coming up and I'll be involved in that, too."
Vaines, the club captain in 1989, is a strong advocate of promoting competitions that encourage involvement by all age groups. "The first thing I did when I got on the committee was bring in a veterans' championship. They'd never had one before. There's a walking stick cut out of part of an old coffin used as a trophy for the championship - it's been named the Bill Vaines Stick."
The Advocate makes its own change next week, and Vaines says he will look out for the first edition with interest.
"I always read it, but I haven't noticed it change that much," he says. Some traditions go unchanged, it seems.
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