by Shane Sody
It is likely that after a thumping electoral victory on 21 March, Premier Peter Malinauskas might claim that he has a “mandate” to carry out his planned assaults on your Park Lands to cater for elite FIFO professional sports.
But does he?
The Premier has made no secret of the fact he wants to chop down, by his own admission:
585 trees to build a “championship” grade golf course on the urban forest of Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1); and
another 45 trees in your eastern Park Lands, widening and extending a bitumen racetrack for an annual three days of motorcycle racing.
There is no guarantee that tree losses, biodiversity and habitat destruction would be limited to these numbers. Indeed, expert opinion suggests much greater destruction might be required to realise the Premier’s elite FIFO professional sport ambitions at least in the urban forested Possum Park.
Before the State election, the Premier refused to release details of planning for either of these Park Lands attacks. Questions directed to the Government over the extent of the proposed impact on Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1) went unanswered.
Not even the State Government’s own Park Lands advisory body has a clue of the extent of damage that’s been calculated by State bureaucrats behind closed doors.
Therefore, you would have voted in the 21 March State election, without any way of knowing how much damage the Premier was planning to inflict upon your Open, Green, Public Park Lands.
The only information the Premier was prepared to release before the State election, were these two diagrams, not any actual plans.
Left: a diagram of the proposed “championship” golf course layout on the urban forested Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1 of your Adelaide Park Lands) released by the Premier on 18 December 2025, along with his estimate that 585 trees would need to be destroyed to achieve this layout.
Right: a diagram of the proposed Motorcycle Grand Prix course through your eastern Adelaide Park Lands, released by the Premier on 19 February 2026, along with the Premier’s estimate that about 45 trees and a children’s playground would need to be removed to achieve this layout.
The Premier and his team of candidates went to the election, refusing to outline any specifics for either of these proposed Park Lands attacks.
Motorcycle track
State election voters were not told about the Motor Sport’s likely push to clear away all trees at each of the corners marked with red stars below. Nor were you told about threats to a rare butterfly colony in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16).
“X” marks the spot where the State Government’s proposed Motorcycle Grand Prix circuit would abut and (experts say) cause the end of the protected rare Chequered Copper Butterfly in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16). The other red markers, on the right-hand image are locations where significant trees would have to be felled to build the circuit.
Golf “re-development”
The Premier’s 18 December diagram of the proposed championship golf course layout failed to identify any Open, Green, Public Park Lands areas that (to fulfil his ambitions) would need to be set aside for car parking, maintenance sheds, a new clubhouse, nor storage for major event infrastructure.
Before the election, neither the Premier nor his Sports Minister would identify even a single one of what the Premier says would be 585 doomed trees in this Park.
Nor did the Premier's publicity before the State election mention the extent of fencing that would be required, to keep you out of your urban forested golf course Park during major events.
The State Government has made it very clear over the past four years, that protecting your Park Lands is a low priority.
This two-and-a-half minute video, “What you stand to lose” starts in Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli (Park 27) on one day in December 2025, but recaps 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.
It culminates by showing you “What you stand to lose” to the Premier’s golf course ambitions in Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1).
In 2025, the Premier’s response to questions about the costs of new golf course plans, the re-development time-line, and public consultation were all deflected by promising answers only when "draft designs are available.”
But even after the incomplete diagram above was released on 18 December 2025, no “consultation” was offered in the leadup to the 21 March State election.
Therefore, no mandate
Neither the Premier nor any of his Ministers can claim any mandate to inflict Park Lands damage when they were unwilling (either before or during the election campaign) to put forward their proposed Park damage plans.
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".
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