The Adelaide City Council has belatedly joined the battle to save your Festival Plaza from being dominated by a 38-storey private office building.
Despite multiple objections, the Planning Minister Nick Champion has changed the zoning of Festival Plaza (part of Park 26 in your Adelaide Park Lands) to permit an office tower that would be the biggest in Adelaide. His decision has been rubber-stamped, by Parliament’s “Environment Resources and Development Committee” in a closed-door meeting.
How big would it be? An artist’s impression of how a 38-storey tower such as the one proposed for Festival Plaza would dominate even Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament at Westminster in London.
After being lobbied by heritage advocates, and many Park Lands supporters, the City Council on Tuesday 13 May entered the debate, by formally declaring that:
“the proposed 38 storey tower negatively impacts the National Heritage Significance of the adjacent National Heritage listed Parliament House and Adelaide Park Lands.”
The Council motion went further:
“Requests the Lord Mayor to write to the Premier of South Australia, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Federal Member for Environment and Water, and the Chair of the Australian Heritage Council, (the Hon Bob Carr), expressing councils opposition to the Walker Tower development on the Festival Plaza and urges them to fully assess the heritage impacts of the proposed development.”
The motion was moved by Councillor Keiran Snape (left) with support from Cr Janet Giles (right).
Cr Snape says:
“To build a monumental 38 story corporate tower which will loom over and obscure Parliament House on public, civic space goes against Lights vision for our Park Lands and Don Dunstans vision for the Festival Plaza.”
The Australian Heritage Council has also been urged to intervene, by recommending Federal legislative protection for places such as your Park Lands and State Parliament House, both of which are on the National Heritage register.
APA Park Guardian Stewart Sweeney is one of those leading the fight to protect Festival Plaza. He’s argued that allowing the 38-storey tower would “place democracy in its shadow”.
Democracy in the shadow
by Stewart Sweeney
In 1894, South Australia became the first place in the world where women won not only the right to vote—but the right to stand for Parliament. This groundbreaking democratic reform took place right here in Adelaide, on North Terrace, in a building that still stands as a global symbol of political equality.
But today, that powerful legacy faces a looming threat.
A development application from Walker Corporation proposes a 38-storey private office tower just nine metres from Parliament House, on land that is part of the Festival Plaza—itself a section of your Adelaide Park Lands.
The tower would dominate the skyline, block northern views of the Parliament, and cast a literal and symbolic shadow over one of the world’s most important democratic sites.
The proposed Walker Corporation Tower Two at Festival Plaza threatens not only the skyline of our city but the very soul of Adelaide—the Park Lands and the Parliament they embrace.
Adelaide should not cast its democratic legacy in shadow.
It should illuminate it—through the care of our public realm, through education, through celebration, and above all, through protection and restoration of the Park Lands.
Lord Mayor, Jane Lomax Smith addressing one of the many public rallies that are held on the steps of State Parliament House on North Terrace - a site that risks being overshadowed by a 38-story private tower immediately behind Parliament House.
This is not just a planning issue. It is a cultural and democratic moment of reckoning.
Adelaide has the chance to reaffirm itself to the world as the City of Democracy, not the city that sold its civic soul for speculative office space.
Let us restore what was taken. Let us protect what remains.
Let us inspire future generations by ensuring that our Park Lands—and the democratic values they hold—are preserved and revered, not overshadowed and privatised.
YOUR Park Lands Are Part of This Story
The Adelaide Park Lands are not just open space. They are part of a National Heritage-listed cultural landscape that includes the city’s unique layout and civic institutions. Designed from the beginning to serve the people—free, green, and public—they are a physical expression of democratic values.
To allow private high-rise development in this space is to undermine everything the Park Lands represent.
This tower is not part of any public plan. It provides no public function. It replaces a previously approved three-storey structure with something entirely out of scale—and out of step with the principles of civic dignity, heritage protection, and environmental stewardship.
Time for the Premier to Act
The Malinauskas Government has the opportunity to lead. Premier Peter Malinauskas has shown a strong commitment to public purpose and progressive reform. Now, he must decide: Will we privatise the people’s land for private profit? Or will we honour and elevate the democratic values that make this site sacred?
Image: SA Government
Take Action Now
Contact Premier Peter Malinauskas:
Email: premier@sa.gov.au
Phone: (08) 8429 3232
Post:
The Hon Peter Malinauskas MP
Premier of South Australia
GPO Box 2343
ADELAIDE SA 5001
Together, we can protect the Park Lands, defend our democratic heritage, and create something truly worthy of Adelaide’s place in the world.
Read more
The full story about the commercial giveaway of your Festival Plaza goes back to 2015. Read the full sorry story here: https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/festival-plaza
