New Aquatic Centre

The State Government is spending $135 million to build a new regional Aquatic Centre for Adelaide's central and inner-northern suburbs.

The Government could have chosen any brownfield site to build the centre. However it chose a new location immediately south of the existing Aquatic Centre, on your Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2).

This is how State Government contractors attacked your Park in November 2023:

Four broken promises

The Government’s Park Lands attack has broken FOUR promises.

  1. First, it broke a promise to consult you on the proposed location. You were TOLD (not consulted) that your Park Lands would be taken.

  2. Second, it broke a promise to protect and restore Adelaide’s tree canopy. To use this site, Government contractors destroyed dozens of mature trees, that were providing habitat for possums, koalas, and many bird species.

  3. Third, from August 2024, it will be breaking a promise to keep the old centre operating while the new centre is being built; and

  4. Fourth, it is breaking a promise that the new centre would be smaller than the old one to return land to your Park Lands.

We Love Your Park Lands. That’s why, for more than 18 months, we campaigned to try to convince either the State Government, or the Adelaide City Council (or both) that a proposed new Aquatic Centre should go on a brownfield site.

Our campaign was not just about saving trees, but also about increasing the tree cover, on a fully-restored and fully-protected Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2).

This was a campaign to PROTECT and RESTORE your Open, Green, Public Treasure.

We had overwhelming support for that position:

We campaigned relentlessly, using social media, newsletters, YouTube, and mainstream media:

However, on Monday 13 November, the day after our “Be a Lungs Lifeguard” event, the calm in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park ) was shattered by the discordant buzz of chainsaws, wielded by State Government-hired tree assassins Jensen Plus and their crew.

Pic: Eve J

Pic: Eve J.

Background

During the 2022 State election campaign, then-Opposition leader Peter Malinauskas promised that an incoming SA Labor State Government would consult with you, about where to build a new Aquatic Centre: either on the existing site or a nearby “adjacent site”.

After the State election, hopes were raised that the State Government might choose an “adjacent” brownfields site in a near-suburb such as Medindie, Brompton, Thebarton or Hindmarsh. We offered lots of suggestions, pointing out multiple sites around Adelaide that could be used.

The State Government has powers to acquire any lands it needs for any public purpose. The Government was purchasing 524 properties to upgrade South Road, so surely it could have purchased ONE property to restore three hectares of this Park?

However on 14 June 2022, the State Government re-neged on its promise to consult and instead offered choices ONLY within Park 2 of your Park Lands.

Community “consultation” was open only for 26 days in mid-2022. However, we carried out our own, rival consultation to seek real feedback, from you, on possible alternative locations. By 31 July 2022 we had received 682 responses from across Adelaide and provided this real, unconstrained feedback to the State Government, so that the Government could take your uncensored views into account, well before any final decision was taken on a new location.

We had hoped that the State Government would not repeat the mistakes of the past, and instead would seize the opportunity for a win-win; restoring Denise Norton Park/ Pardinyilla (Park 2) and choosing a different brownfield site for a new Aquatic Centre.

However, on 5 September 2022, the State Government announced that it had picked a new location immediately south of the existing Aquatic Centre.

Later, on 10 June 2023, the Government announced changes to its plan:

  • shifting the proposed site (only slightly, but now proposed to slightly overlap with the current Aquatic Centre site);

  • promising a more expensive building (up from $82m to now $135 million);

  • including (in the new design) shops, offices, consulting rooms, club rooms so that the new building would become both an aquatic and commercial centre on your Park Lands;

  • expanding the proposed car park by an additional 118 spaces, taking up even more of your Park;

  • re-neging on a previous promise to keep the existing Aquatic Centre operating, while constructing a new one; AND

  • started falsely claiming that the new development would have a smaller “footprint” on your Park Lands than the existing Aquatic centre.

We met with both the Premier and the Lord Mayor, and presented thousands of petition signatures:

LEFT: The Lord Mayor, on 27 July 2023, receiving what was, at that time, 5,100 signatures from APA President Shane Sody and Deputy President, Ben Ayris.

RIGHT: The Premier, on 26 September 2023, receiving what was, at that time, 7,500 signatures.

More than three hectares will be behind a fence; preventing Park access to any non-paying visitors. This part of your Park Lands will be no longer “Open, Green, Public”. It will be effectively privatised and commercialised, including with shops, offices, gym, and consulting rooms; run for profit by leaseholders. Government image: https://dit.sa.gov.au/infrastructure/adelaide_aquatic_centre

A long-running saga

Before SA Labor stepped in with its promise during the March 2022 State election campaign, hopes for a new Aquatic Centre had rested entirely with the Adelaide City Council.

Earlier, in 2020, the Council had entered secret negotiations with the Adelaide Football Club who were, at the time, attempting to put a $65 million corporate football headquarters on Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2).

The possibility of getting a new Aquatic Centre (on a brownfields site) was an opportunity to restore something world-unique - part of your Open Green Public Park Lands that is (and will now again be) fenced off and bricked over by the Aquatic Centre in Denise Norton Park / Pardipardinyilla (Park 2).

Park Lands are “Open, Green and Public”. The Adelaide Aquatic Centre is a building in public ownership but it’s not “Open” and it’s not “Green”

Park Lands are “Open, Green and Public”. The Adelaide Aquatic Centre is a building in public ownership but it’s not “Open” and it’s not “Green”.

Although the State Government has taken this initiative, there was a role for the City Council to play, because the State Government’s chosen site is on Park Lands that is under the care and control of the City Council. Regrettably, on 10 October 2023, the City Council decided by the narrowest of margins (5 votes to 4) to allow the State Government to launch its attack on this Park.

During the debate, the Lord Mayor Jane Lomax Smith made the stunning admission that she had not even asked the State Government to look for any alternative brownfield site.

Read more

See our rolling blog post coverage, during what was an almost two-year campaign, beginning in February 2022: