by Shane Sody
More than a dozen mature native trees have been felled this month in the Narnungga Urban Forest, off Port Road in your Park 25.
The destruction is apparently linked to the construction of the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital on Park Lands on the other side of Port Road.
Last year, hundreds of 160-year old trees were cleared from Kate Cocks Park and Bonython Park, off Port Road in your Adelaide Park Lands.
As documented in this video, these mature sheoaks, olives, and carob trees were felled in 2024 to make way for what will eventually become a new eight-storey car park, to service the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
But the loss of these hundreds of 160-year-old trees, in 2024, was not the end of the tree devastation in the north-western Park Lands.
In June 2025, contractors moved into Gladys Elphick Park / Narnungga (Park 25) on the opposite (southern) side of Port Road to remove even more trees, without notice or consultation,
At least a dozen trees, including a 20-metre-tall lemon-scented gum were chain-sawed over two days in early June.
Gladys Elphick Park /Narnungga (Park 25) on Port Road, opposite the construction site for the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Park 27.
Note the tall trunk of a lemon-scented gum tree, and several other trees along the roadside, all missing in the “After” photos.
At least a dozen mature native trees, either side of the bus stop, were felled in June 2025.
Gladys Elphick Park /Narnungga (Park 25) on Port Road, opposite the construction site for the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Park 27.
The State Government’s builders have been given legal authority to clear not just the site of the new hospital, but also any nearby land in a massive “expanded area” of 19 hectares.
The State Government’s "expanded area" for the hospital construction: 19 hectares (190,000 square metres, or 47 acres); supposedly required for "large scale excavation works" (and tree destruction). The new hospital is intended to be on a footprint of about 3 hectares.
The massive “expanded area” supposedly required for construction of the new hospital will be subject to more excavation and potential tree loss as the hospital construction continues for several more years, until its scheduled completion in the early 2030s.
A separate works compound
The “expanded area” includes a bitumen-covered part of Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli (Park 27) off Port Road near the Thebarton tram stop. The sealed area was used for many years as a car park.
This area was the subject of a 2021 written agreement between the City of Adelaide and the Adelaide Park Lands Association, for what was to have been a pilot re-greening project: “Unpaving Paradise.”
It had also been identified as a preferred location for new beach volleyball courts and building.
However, our “Unpaving Paradise” re-greening project was cancelled after the State Government claimed the 19-hectare “expanded area” for hospital construction.
Now the area is neither a car park, nor beach volleyball courts, nor scheduled for any re-greening.
The Adelaide Park Lands Association is still lobbying the City Council to identify an alternative location for our long-anticipated re-greening pilot project.
Read more ….about the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and our campaign in 2022 to get the Government to choose a brownfield site instead: https://www.adelaide-parklands.asn.au/wch
Image credits: Shane Sody, Kim Woods, Google Streetview
The author of this article, Shane Sody, is the immediate Past President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association, and the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".
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