by Shane Sody
Kadaltilla/Adelaide Park Lands Authority (Kadaltilla) is "the key advisor to the City of Adelaide and the Government of South Australia on the protection, management, enhancement, and promotion of the Adelaide Park Lands."
There are 10 members on the Kadaltilla Board, some appointed by the City Council, and some appointed by Planning Minister Nick Champion.
The Kadaltilla Board. Pic: Kadaltille / Adelaide Park Lands Authority
Kadaltilla's main role, under the Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005, is to produce an over-arching Park Lands Management Strategy, and update the Strategy each five years.
The new, 2025 edition of the Strategy "Towards 2036" was released in draft form last year. In July 2024, APA offered comments on the Draft, some of which led to revisions in the Strategy.
Now, after it has been endorsed by both the City Council and the State Government; the Strategy has finally come into effect, and is supposed to guide decisions about how your Park Lands are managed. You can read it here: (PDF, 93 pages, 16.4 Mb)
Unfortunately (and despite formal approval of the Strategy by Planning Minister Nick Champion) the State Government habitually deals with your Park Lands without heeding the Strategy it has endorsed!
Nowhere is this more apparent than the tension between:
the Park Lands Management Strategy; and
the State Government’s plans to axe hundreds (probably thousands) of trees on the golf courses in Possum Park /Pirltawardli (Park 1 of your Park Lands) and commercialise the Park with new money-making buildings.
Tension, or contradiction?
The Strategy "Towards 2036" includes these "future considerations" for what it calls "the golf course precinct":
Undertake succession planting between the golf course fairways to strengthen ecosystem processes, improve biodiversity values and increase visual amenity;
Revegetate and enhance vegetation and understorey of the vegetated areas of the golf course.
Nowhere in the Strategy is there any suggestion that the golf course precinct in Park 1 should be remodelled to suit elite professional golfers, with widespread destruction of trees to widen and lengthen all fairways, along with new commercial buildings.
Rather, the Strategy recommends (at page 50) that sports other than golf, and other non-golf uses of this Park be pursued:
Investigate an alternative Park Lands Purpose for all or part of the northern section of the North Adelaide Golf Course;
Improve access and amenity to the community [tennis] courts adjacent Mills Terrace;
Support enhancement and increased usage of the North Adelaide Golf Links golf courses, clubhouse and supporting facilities to broaden opportunities for social activity and other sporting activities.
In June 2025, the State Government legislated a “hostile takeover” of this part of your Park Lands. In so doing, it sidelined not just Kadaltilla and this Park Lands Management Strategy, but also a wide range of its own policies and procedures:
For a start, the Government’s decision to push through the North Adelaide Golf Course Act 2025 with haste (two Parliamentary sitting days) was in direct conflict with its own Ministerial Code of Conduct. The Code says:
“A Minister must use all reasonable endeavours to obtain all relevant information and facts before making a decision on a particular issue and should consult, as appropriate, in relation to the matter at issue.”
Did any Minister “consult on the matter”? Well, no:
The City of Adelaide - IGNORED
The State Government’s advisory body on your Park Lands (Kadaltilla) - IGNORED
The statutory Adelaide Park Lands Management Strategy “Towards 2036” - IGNORED
Treasury costings! No estimate has been released and the Bill actually says that the project can proceed without approval for expenditure of money - SECTION 12;
The biodiversity of the area. There is no provision in the Bill taking any account of the more than 100 species found in Possum Park;
The Premier’s promise of “making it easy for community and business to engage in and contribute to the development of government policy and decision making” - IGNORED
Protections in the Local Government Act 1999 for “community land” - SIDESTEPPED by taking the land away from local government control - SECTION 8.
State Government offers that you can “join the conversation to shape our future” with its “yoursay” website - IGNORED
Advice from the State Government’s own “Green Adelaide” agency on the value of protecting mature trees - IGNORED
The State Government’s own 2025 “Greening Adelaide” strategy - IGNORED
The State Government’s own rules on protecting Adelaide’s tree canopy - IGNORED
Planning regulations can be ignored because the entire project is “deemed to satisfy” planning law - SECTION 11
Our petition to “Protect Possum Park, Pete” - IGNORED (Sign HERE)
No “assessment, decision, consent, approval, authorisation, certificate, licence, permit or permission” is required for the project - SECTION 12;
No “consultation, inquiry, notification or other process or procedural step” is required for the project - SECTION 12;
The Roads (Opening and Closing) Act 1991 is bypassed - so the Minister can unilaterally create or close any roads - SECTION 15
Tearing up any rules that might limit the Minister’s absolute powers.
For years, the Adelaide Park Lands Association has been lobbying the Government - including in personal meetings with Premier Peter Malinauskas and Planning Minister Nick Champion to improve legislative protection for your Park Lands, including:
acting upon a 2018 recommendation from the State Heritage Council to include your Park Lands on the State Heritage register; and
reviewing the ineffective Adelaide Park Lands Act 2005
The Act that does not protect your Park Lands.
Neither Mr Malinauskas nor Mr Champion has replied to these representations.
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".
Subscribe here. Reader contributions are welcomed.
https://adelaideparklands.m-pages.com/YWRrGW/adelaide-park-lands-assn-mailing
