Poatina Golf Club

Poatina sits at roughly 800 metres above sea level on Tasmania's Central Plateau, a remote highland community that was built in the 1960s to house workers constructing the massive hydroelectric scheme that still powers much of the island state. The golf club grew out of that same self-sufficient spirit — a course carved by and for a community living well off the beaten track, with the Great Western Tiers rising dramatically as a backdrop and the cool, clean air of the plateau shaping every round.

Tasmania's interior is a world apart from the island's better-known coastal courses. The highland climate means genuine four-seasons-in-a-day conditions are routine, and the native bush presses in with the kind of dense, distinctive scrub unique to this part of the world. Golf here is an exercise in reading the wind and accepting the landscape on its own terms.

Getting to Poatina takes commitment, which is part of the appeal. This is community golf in one of Australia's more extraordinary settings — unhurried, unpretentious, and grounded in a history unlike almost any other club in the country.