by Shane Sody
A Prospect private school has received a green light to renew its lease and licences over part of your northern Park Lands, after a decision not to invite anyone else to lodge Expressions of Interest.
Most other schools and community organisations who use (or want to start using) sports facilities in your Park Lands have to lodge an Expression of Interest with the City of Adelaide; with their proposed usage evaluated against other bidders and the broader public interest.
On this occasion, Kadaltilla / the Adelaide Park Lands Authority has recommended that Blackfriars Priory College should be exempted from this process "recognising their long-standing contribution to youth sport in the area."
Accordingly, Kadaltilla has recommended to the City Council that these playing fields and this sports shed near the new Aquatic Centre under construction in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2) should remain in the hands of Blackfriars Priory College until at least 2031
.In 2017, when the lease and licences were last reviewed, two other organisations expressed interest in the sporting fields here, but Blackfriars nevertheless had its occupation rolled over, from 2018 until now.
A lease applies to the sports shed (marked in yellow on the map below) while the licences apply to the sports fields (including the tennis courts off Prospect Road) marked in red.
A new oval being laid immediately north of the new Aquatic Centre); the two eastern sports fields, and the tennis courts (all outlined in red) comprise the areas licenced to Blackfriars Priory College. Pic: Kadaltilla / Park Lands Authority.
Under the terms of the sporting field licences, Blackfriars Priory College will retain the first right of use of the fields and courts; but they are open for the public to use whenever the College is not using them for organised sport. The shed will remain locked and controlled by the College.
Meanwhile the State Government’s $135 million commercial aquatic and leisure industry complex (with a vastly expanded car park) is nearing completion, with opening promised by late January 2026.
A Government “construction update” published on 9 December 2025 is still peddling the lie that the new Aquatic Centre returns to the community “more than 1,000 square metres of Park Lands”.
We exposed that lie back in 2023, pointing out that the increased areas devoted to car parking, paving, roadway, and fenced off adjacent to the main building, would result not in MORE, but in far LESS Open, Green Public space compared to the time before construction began
Image: Shutterstock
Read more about the new Aquatic Centre, and our two-year campaign to have it built on a brownfield site instead.
