A WHAAAAT-ER HAZARD? ! THE GOLF CLUB THAT IS HOME TO A SQUAD OF BULL SHARKS

“Ah. Just like I thought... He came up with the Golf Stream - from southern waters.”

When it comes to golf and animals, you’re probably familiar with birdies and eagles - but how about sharks? Well, that’s exactly the case for Carbrook Golf Club in Queensland, Australia whose lake is home to around 12 Bull sharks.  Talk about the ultimate water hazard.

Carbrook Golf Club started when Tom Smith bought the old dairy farm on the Logan River back in 1972. Tom had just retired from his wool buying business and decided to sell his home in Sydney and buy a larger property on the outskirts of Brisbane to escape the Sydney “rat race”. As fate would have it, he chose the Carbrook property on which the Golf Club largely now stands.

Carbrook Golf Club has worked their resident Bull sharks into the branding and marketing

Being a keen golfer, (Tom played Pennant Grade golf in Sydney off a low single figure handicap), he decided he would build a golf course on the land, so he and his sons could pursue their passion for golf, as you do. The first golf course was completed and opened to the public in 1976.

Carbrook Golf course flooded in 1996 and is believed to be when the Bull sharks entered

The sharks are believed to have entered the course during an extreme flood in 1996. As the water dried up, six sharks found themselves trapped inside the course’s 52-acre lake. Since then, the sharks have reproduced and currently, there are believed to be 12 in the lake.

Bull sharks are commonly found worldwide in coastal areas of warm oceans, in rivers and lakes, and occasionally salt and freshwater streams if they are deep enough.

Despite bull sharks being historically dangerous, the sharks on Carbrook Golf Course pose no serious threat to golfers. Obviously, it is not advised to go swimming in the lake, but bull sharks live alongside humans all over the world. Since a shark is unlikely to directly come into contact with a golfer, the course has continued to let the sharks live there. They have even named a monthly tournament “Shark Lake Challenge”.

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