by Shane Sody

It’s time to step up. This is your opportunity to save eight hectares of priceless regenerated bushland within the City of Adelaide - currently marked for State Government destruction.

Unless you take action now, a massive fenced police compound, almost twice the size of the Adelaide Oval stadium will be confiscated from your Open, Green, Public Adelaide Park Lands.

This is the approximate site: a targeted eight hectares in Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W). For comparison purposes, the area of the Adelaide Oval stadium is five hectares.

Unless you take action now, the entire area within the compound will be off limits to you.

Unless you take action now, the rich web of biodiversity within the proposed compound will be trampled under hooves, and under concrete.

Unless you take action now, it will become the home of 40 SA Police horses, as well as their stables, offices, training facilities, storage sheds etc. The Lord Mayor, Jane Lomax Smith has described the proposal as “a semi-industrialised complex.”

The area selected for this Park Lands heist has remained Open Green, Public throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, throughout two World Wars, through the Great Depression, and South Australia’s various economic booms and busts. Through 186 years it has been reserved for the public.

But Peter Malinauskas and his Government have decided that you and your descendants should not get to enjoy it any longer.

Despite more than 15 years of painstaking work to restore native vegetation, and re-establish a haven of biodiversity, the State Government has so far been taking advice only from the Police Commissioner (no-one else) and has seemingly determined that the convenience of 40 horses outweighs any other considerations.

However the fight to save this precious slice of your Park Lands has only just commenced.

Your support is now vital.

What can you do?

• Book to attend a public meeting with the Premier Peter Malinauskas and the Member for Adelaide, Lucy Hood, MP, 9.30am on 1 April 2023, at the Piccadilly Cinema, North Adelaide.

• Attend the Save Mirnu Wirra public rally, 11.30am the same day, Saturday 1 April. Here’s the meeting place:

• Sign the petition to the House of Assembly being organised by Unley City Councillor Chris Crabbe

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

• Write to the Police Commissioner, Grant Stevens. He does not publicise his email address, so to contact him, you will need to use snail mail: Mr Grant Stevens, Commissioner of Police, GPO Box 1539, Adelaide SA 5001

Read more:

• about the biodiversity in this area: https://citymag.indaily.com.au/happening/its-like-ayers-house-its-important-heritage-conservationists-protest-barracks-move/

• from the Lord Mayor, Jane Lomax Smith: "This isn’t about horses. It’s about a semi-industrialised complex alienated for all time." https://indaily.com.au/opinion/2023/03/21/park-lands-protection-a-losing-battle-but-worth-fighting-for/

• in our earlier story: Axing restored bushland for barracks (15 March 2023)

• see our Golden Wattle Park / Mirnu Wirra (Park 21W) page.

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:

• more bitumen to help stage carbon-emission motor races in your Victoria Park.

• a new $98 million eight-storey high school building,

• a new $82 million aquatic centre,

• a new multi-storey car park,

• a new $3 billion hospital, and now

• a new police barracks and stables for the mounted police unit.

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 the new stables, offices and sheds that would need to be constructed for the police mounted unit.