by Shane Sody
The State Government wants to (in its words) “re-develop” a golf course. But that’s a simplistic “one-dimensional” way of describing what the Government proposes with its “hostile takeover” of a huge part of your Park Lands.
Until now, debate has focussed on the number of trees that would be destroyed, the loss of biodiversity and loss of habitat for the more than 100 species that share the 90-hectares of the urban forest that hosts the North Adelaide golf courses; as well as the likely disturbance of Kaurna burial sites.
Legislation hastily passed in June 2025 assigns ownership of all of the marked land - about 86 hectares or more - to “the Minister”. It covers not only the 71 hectares of Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1) - home to more than 100 species - but ALSO John E. Brown Park (Park 27A) approximately 15 hectares west of the railway line. What’s more, the legislation allows the Minister to take even more land, anywhere else, if wanted for ”the project”
But there is another dimension to this debate: the financial cost of losing each one of the hundreds, if not thousands of trees that would be destroyed in this proposed multi-million dollar “re-development”. There is a financial value to each tree, and also a financial cost in uprooting each tree, while (presumably) trying not to disturb Kaurna burial sites nor the roots of any nearby trees that are intended to remain.
What are these values? Australia has internationally-recognised expertise in valuing trees.
On Tuesday 23 September 2025, international Golf course designer, Peter Dalkeith Scott made a presentation to an Adelaide City Council meeting about the extent of these foreseeable costs.
Valuation of trees
Mr Scott referred to the Thyer Tree Evaluation Method devised by Sydney’s Peter Thyer.
This method:
was used by the New South Wales Government in the 1990s, to value trees lost during construction of the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. It is also one of the tree valuation methods recommended:
in the current Minimum Industry Standard MIS506 for Tree Valuation; and
in other countries around the world, including Denmark, Singapore, and Canada.
Relying upon this widely-accepted method, Peter Dalkeith Scott told the City Council that removal of each tree would represent a loss of $60,000 per tree, based upon an average tree canopy of 17-metres … “and thar’s medium in the area”.
Mr Scott has provided a demonstration plan, to show that a championship golf course, with desired longer and wider fairways, would need to remove at least 54% of the tree canopy on the current golf courses in Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1 of your Park Lands); i.e. some 5,000 of the existing 9,000 trees.
To accommodate the longer and wider fairways required by elite-level golfers, a huge number of trees would need to be removed. Peter Dalkeith Scott says this example that he prepared has attempted to minimise tree loss, but he could not avoid a minimum 54% reduction, which he has marked in red.
The State Government has rejected Mr Scott’s estimate as incorrect, but has not yet come up with its own estimate of tree loss. Rather, the Premier, Peter Malinauskas has been advising that for every tree that is to be removed, three new ones (or seedlings) would be planted.
However, Mr Scott told the City Council that any new saplings would be valued at only about $50 each, and so would represent a huge net loss in the value of trees in your Park Lands:
“If there's 5,000 trees that are taken out, that's $300 million of assets that the City of Adelaide loses. If it's [only] 1,000, [trees] then that's $60 million.”
Cost of removal
Mr Scott also drew attention to the expenses involved in actually removing big trees, while (presumably) trying to reduce foreseeable collateral damage to Kaurna burial sites, or the roots of other trees in the vicinity.
“To remove the trees, normally on a golf course when you've got a lot of trees, like in a forest, you bulldoze them. You just go get a big D12 [bulldozer] and you bulldoze them out of the ground. You can't do that on this site because the golf course is built on Kaurna burial, Kaurna land, which is their traditional land.
“So pulling a big tree out will disturb everything under the ground for more than 15 metres. So there's really big issues there of that. So that means they will have to use specialised equipment to remove the trees. …
“To remove one tree by the specialised method, which actually is already in Adelaide, I think you're using it already, will cost around about $10,000.
“So the bigger trees will be more expensive, smaller ones, of course, much less. But the key is that it doesn't disturb the ground underneath the overlay of the golf course. So let's say we're back at 5,000 [trees] again, then that's $50 million just in tree removal to not disturb the land.
“So the numbers, my feeling is the government has not even thought about these things.”
You can view Mr Scott’s presentation to the City Council at this link: https://www.youtube.com/live/2-DdTwZhmKU (starts at 9.00 minutes)
Newly-installed State Environment Minister, Lucy Hood, MP, the SA Labor Member for Adelaide, has told The Advertiser that claims of 5,000 trees being destroyed are “not correct” but has not explained why, nor offered any alternative figure.
Ms Hood sent her apologies to the Adelaide Park Lands Association for being unable to attend the “Stop the Chop” Community Forum on Sunday 21 September.
Here’s a multiple choice question. Is the State Government intent on:
Re-developing a golf course?
Wrecking an urban forest?
Disturbing Kaurna burial sites?
Wasting tens of millions of taxpayer dollars? or
All of the above?
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".
Reader contributions are welcomed. Subscribe here: https://adelaideparklands.m-pages.com/YWRrGW/adelaide-park-lands-assn-mailing
