by Shane Sody
More and more people are becoming aware of what you stand to lose if the State Government goes through with its threats to continue chopping down hundreds of trees in your Adelaide Park Lands.
In the past two years, more than three hundred mature Park Lands trees have already been destroyed, to make way for infrastructure (school, hospital, aquatic centre) that could have been built elsewhere, on brownfield sites.
But those 300+ are set to be followed shortly by almost twice as many.
This two-and-a-half minute video, “What you stand to lose” starts in Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli (Park 27) when 13 trees were destroyed on one day in December 2025, but the video goes on to recap what has happened in the past four years to Kate Cocks Park, to Frome Park, to Denise Norton Park, and elsewhere in your Adelaide Park Lands.
This short video culminates by showing “What you stand to lose” in Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1):
There has been little media focus on the State Government's tree-felling, and how this is at odds with its own “Greening Adelaide” strategy and the inadequacy of proposals to replace each destroyed mature tree with three seedlings.
But gradually the word is spreading.
By 13 January 2026, more than 4,200 had signed the petition: Protect Possum Park, Pete!
Have you signed yet? Your signature could be the one that tips the balance and persuades the Premier to think again about his tree-destruction plans. https://www.change.org/p/protect-possum-park-pete
By 13 January 2026, more than 500 had completed a two-minute survey about the Government's controversial 2025 North Adelaide Golf Course legislation:
See the single question and respond here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/68BB867
On 18 December 2025, the Premier released what he described as “plans” for a re-developed golf course on Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1 of your Adelaide Park Lands). But the Premier’s news release was accompanied by no plans, only vague and incomplete imagery.
This Government-issued diagram purports to be a “plan” of a proposed "Championship Course", a "Short Course" and a "Driving Range."
As author John Bridgland describes it, all that the government did on 18 December “was deliver pretty pictures, video entertainment: intentions. But ‘plans’? No.”
We’ve urged the Premier to now identify:
each one of the 585 trees that he admits would be destroyed;
the areas to be set aside for car parking, maintenance sheds, a new clubhouse, and storage sites for all of the temporary viewing stands that would be regularly unpacked and deployed within this urban forest;
the extent of fencing that would be required, to keep you out of your Park Lands, prior to and during major events.
We’ve also asked him to honour a promise, made in March 2025, to carry out "extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders".
What can you do?
You can ask the Premier to reply to you, with the same information. [Click here.]
If you’d like a first-hand view of the urban forest that’s under threat, come to one of our two-hour weekly twilight Guided Walks in the urban-forested Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1).
The walks, titled “It’s Not Just a golf course” are being offered at 5.45pm on multiple dates up until mid-March. Choose a date to come along. Book here:
https://events.humanitix.com/host/adel_park_lands
The author of this article, Shane Sody, was the President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association from 2107 to 2025 and remains the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".
Subscribe here.
https://adelaideparklands.m-pages.com/YWRrGW/adelaide-park-lands-assn-mailing
