by Shane Sody
New laws to authorise the "upgrade" of a forested golf course on your Park Lands will allow fences or nets as high as a five-storey building (or higher) permanently disfiguring and barring you from parts of your Open, Green, Public Park Lands.
A golf driving range in Hong Kong. Pic supplied by Peter Dalkeith Scott
Legislation passed in June 2025 allows “the Minister” to authorise permanent fencing, wherever necessary, for “public safety” or “otherwise for a good purpose.”
Section 18 of the North Adelaide Public Golf Course Act 2025
The Premier, Peter Malinauskas, has made it clear that John E. Brown Park (Park 27A of your Park Lands) is intended to be the site of a new golf driving range.
At any golf driving range, it is essential to install very high fences or netting, to prevent wayward shots from:
injuring other players, staff, or spectators,
damaging nearby property or vehicles, and/or
endangering public areas, roads, and homes.
International golf course designer, Peter Dalkeith Scott has explained to APA’s Christel Mex that insurers would not allow a driving range to operate without permanent netting or fencing of “at least” 21 metres, which is the height of a five-storey building.
Fences, or netting around some driving ranges can be as high as 30 metres or more. Apart from the visual impact, the other effect would be to keep the public off a large part of John E Brown Park (Park 27A of your Park Lands).
A “minimum” 21-metre fence around a driving range? Pic: openart.ai
It’s not just the driving range
Of course, the fences or nets around the proposed golf driving range would not be the only fences installed from time to time to restrict your Park Lands access within or around the North Adelaide Golf Course.
The Government has made it clear that it wants this urban forest part of your Park Lands (home to 9,000 trees and more than a hundred biodiverse species) to be fenced not only for an annual LIV golf tournament, but for other as-yet-unspecified major golf events each year.
During debate in Parliament on 26 June 2025, the Greens Rob Simms moved an amendment that would have restricted the duration of fencing for “major events” in this area to “no more than three months in any 12-month period”. However the Government rejected the proposed amendment and it was voted down on party lines.
Government Minister Emily Bourke said, at the time:
“We oppose this amendment. As I am advised, this proposed amendment could have the effect of limiting the opportunity to stage other national and international championship golf tournaments, not only the annual LIV Golf event. This would also include the time for smaller declared events and the time before any event required for preparation, and the time after any event required prior to resumption, all of which unduly limits the golf course.”
Minister Emily Bourke MLC
Therefore, the North Adelaide Public Golf Course Act 2025 contains NO LIMIT to the duration or size of any “temporary” fencing of any part of these Park Lands, for LIV Golf and/or other any other “major events” throughout the year.
Final approval for this “re-development” project was given on 17 October, by Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Kyam Maher.
The Minister imposed some conditions to protect Kaurna heritage but only within a small part of the targeted Park Lands area. The conditions do not protect any of the 9,000 trees in the project zone, and there are predictions that an elite-level course would require thousands of trees to be destroyed.
The area of the State Government’s “hostile takeover” of your Park Lands, in Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1) and John E. Brown Park (Park 27A).
The author of this article, Shane Sody, is a former President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association (from 2017 to 2025) and remains the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".
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