The Nullarbor Links Golf Course is an 18 hole course spread over 1,365 kilometres with one hole in each participating town or roadhouse along the Eyre Highway. Some holes are set up specifically for the course, others are a nominated hole at an established golf course.
Hole 9 of the Nullarbor Links Golf Course (or hole 10 in reverse) is at Madura. It is a short 125m Par 3 hole with the tee next to the service road opposite the snack bar of the Madura Pass Hotel next to the Madura Roadhouse.
Madura was originally settled in 1876 to breed horses for the British Army in India, later becoming a sheep station. The land expanded at times with 4 million acres in the 1880s and became known as the Clifton Downs Station. Clifton Hills Station is today 4.2 million acres, Australia’s 2nd largest cattle station.
Another 5 million acres acquired in the 1920s, a mammoth station, but its prosperity declined and by the 1940s it was believed to be abandoned. Following years of drought, in the 1950s the homestead was converted to be a stopping place with petrol pumps installed and the homestead converted to a motel-hotel.
Today, at 1.75 million acres, Madura Station is the third largest sheep station in Australia. That is over 7,000 square kilometres. Rawlinna Station and Commonwealth Hill Station are larger with about 2.5 million acres each, Commonwealth Hill Station is the largest sheep station in the world.
The Tee is devoted to Barbara and Brian Pike, who have been managers of roadhouses along the Eyre Highway since 1979 and first managed the Madura Pass Oasis Motel in 1984. Since 1996, Brian and Barbara have been managers of five roadhouses, including Nullarbour Roadhouse, Border Village Roadhouse, Madura Pass Oasis Motel, Wedgetail Inn at Cocklebiddy, and the John Eyre Motel at Caiguna.
Next: Hole 10 – Eagles Nest
Next Reverse: Hole 8 – Watering Hole