A Horse's Tale in Two Parks
by Shane Sody
There are two places in your Park Lands where you can see horses.
But the two places are worlds apart when it comes to public access.
Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama (Park 6) off Kingston Tce
Up to 20 privately owned horses have grazed peacefully in Lefevre Park /Nantu Wama (Park 6) for decades.
Their owners feed and care for them. The fences around the horse paddocks are designed only to keep the horses in - not to exclude you.
The low-key fence around the horse paddocks off Lefevre Tce in Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama (Park 6)
You can walk through the horse paddocks in Lefevre Park and admire the horses. Of course, for your own safety, you need to be careful not to get too close to the horses.
Don't approach them unless the owner is there and invites you to come closer. But provided you take care around them, you can enjoy the horse paddocks in Park 6 just like any other part of your Open Green Public Adelaide Park Lands.
An owner tending to a horse in Lefevre Park / Nantu Wama (Park 6) off Robe Tce
However it's a very different story at Kate Cocks Park next to the Thebarton Police Barracks in Park 27.
This two-hectare site is where the SA Police keep their "greys". The horses browse around ancient olive trees that were planted in the 1860s and 1870s by prisoners from the nearby old Adelaide Gaol.
A police “grey” among the olives in Kate Cocks Park (Park 27)
Although this is also, in law, part of your Open Green Public Park Lands, there are signs warning you to keep out, and not to feed or pat the horses. This is partly for your own safety, and partly because SAPOL has reported some incidents of public “interference” with the horses.
This peaceful part of your Adelaide Park Lands is set for two changes.
The State Government wants to build a multi-storey car park here - threatening both the historic olive trees and the home of the police horses.
The State Government’s plan for Kate Cocks Park
But in the short term SA Police want to put up higher more secure fences to ensure that you can't get into the horse paddock.
The Adelaide Park Lands Authority has endorsed SAPOL’s request for secure fences, 2.4 metres high.
The SAPOL fencing plan - two different types of fence, but the height would be the same, 2.4 metres, to protect the police greys and ensure no public access
The Authority also has recommended to the State Government and the City Council that the number of horses kept there should be reduced by “at least” 50% because there is evidence that overstocking of the paddock is damaging the historic olive trees
The soil is badly compacted and some of the police "greys" have been nibbling away at the olive tree bark. Affected trees are dying.
A police “grey” among the historic olives in Kate Cocks Park (Park 27)
The recommendation from the Park Lands Authority is for horse numbers there to be reduced from 24 to no more than 12.
However neither the Park Lands Authority nor SA Police is likely to be able to save the site in the longer term - if the State Government goes ahead with its plans for a multi-storey car park here.