Adelaide Park Lands Association

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Axing restored bushland for barracks

Shane Sody

by Shane Sody

More than 15 years of hard work by Bush for Life volunteers is set to be destroyed by the State Government.

Survey work has already commenced within this restored bushland, in preparation for converting it into a fenced police compound, within Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W).

The Police Commissioner, Grant Stevens has had a team examining many potential sites for new barracks to house the SAPOL police greys, their staff, stables, and storage area. He’s suggested that 14 other sites were examined, but he’s not revealed where they were, except to say that not all of them were on your Park Lands.

Nevertheless, Commissioner Stevens has decided that this site, within your Park Lands is the most appropriate "from an operational capability and animal welfare point of view". See how the ABC reported the story on 12 March.

Eight hectares will be required, to house even more horses and staff than are currently located at the Thebarton Police barracks. The police grey herd in this proposed new location would be expanded to 40 horses, up from the 24 horses currently agisted within the historic olive groves in Kate Cocks Park.

The exact location [proposed by SAPOL is yet to be marked on any map, but eight hectares would be more than a quarter of this Park’s total area of 31 hectares:

The likely site of the SA Police compound. It would include not just paddocks for the police horses, but also extensive stabling, offices, and storage areas, all fenced off from the public.

This is the type of fencing that police would insist upon around the large compound.

Bush for Life volunteers have been active within Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W) for more than 15 years, achieving great success in restoring native vegetation. Their countless hours of work have re-created a priceless small slice of open woodland; the type of landscape that existed on the Adelaide plain prior to European settlement.

It is one of only three such Bush for Life sites within your Adelaide Park Lands (the others being in Park 6 and in Park 17).

This is one of just three “Bush for Life” sites within your Adelaide Park Lands (the others being in Park 6 and in Park 17).

Although the State Government has not yet endorsed this Park Lands location, surveyors have already been hired, and began work on-site on Tuesday 14 March.

One of six Park Lands attacks in a single year

Since being elected in March 2022, the State Government has produced plans or proposals to confiscate your Open Green Public Park Lands for:

What can you do?

Write to the Police Minister Joe Szakacs: MinisterSzakacs@sa.gov.au

The only way that this attack on your Park Lands can be prevented is if Minister Szakacs and his Cabinet colleagues can be persuaded that they should Love Your Park Lands and re-examine SAPOL’s short list of other potential sites.

One option worth considering should be the old West End brewery site off Port Road, immediately opposite Bonython Park / Tulya Wardli. Coincidentally that site, up for sale in 2023, was being advertised as being 8.43 hectares; even larger than the 8 hectares that the Police Commissioner says that SAPOL needs for its mounted unit operations.

Background

In 2022, the State Government announced plans to demolish the Thebarton Police Barracks within Park 27, to provide a site for a proposed new Women’s and Children’s Hospital. SA Police were immediately put on notice to start looking for one or more new homes.

Thebarton Police barracks is the base for about 250 police officers and staff, including the dog squad, police armoury, road safety, protective security services, the police band, a police museum and also the mounted unit; home of the police horses, the “greys”.

Within weeks, the State Government admitted that the likely new home for police horses would be another site on your Open Green Public Park Lands. A law passed by State Parliament in November 2022 gave the Minister the power to simply take over an area of your Open Green Public Park Lands; not just to allow horses to roam free, but also for associated buildings for the Police Mounted Operations unit.

https://indaily.com.au/news/2022/10/21/govt-eyes-new-park-lands-acquisition-for-police-horses/

This proposed attack was part of, and fully authorised by the New Women’s and Children’s Hospital Act 2022. It means that the City Council is powerless to intervene.

What about the other horse paddocks?

Privately-owned horses are kept elsewhere in your Adelaide Park Lands: in Lefevre Park /Nantu Wama (Park 6). The depasturing paddocks are Open, Green, Public; with no restrictions on entry.

In contrast, the public is not permitted to enter paddocks in which SA Police Horses are kept, much less any new stables or offices that would need to be constructed for the police mounted unit.