by Shane Sody

A pedestrian and cycling route through your north-western Park Lands, blocked off for the past seven years, has been quietly re-opened.

For decades, until 2017, there was a pedestrian crossing here, between John E Brown Park (Park 27A) and Mills Terrace North Adelaide, across the Golf Course via War Memorial Drive in Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1).

The crossing was closed in March 2017 with the promise that it would be re-opened after the completion, the following year, of the $350 million Torrens Rail Junction Project.

However long after that project was completed, the pedestrian and cycling route remained closed, effectively blocking any pedestrian and cycling access between North Adelaide and Thebarton.

In 2019, the former Infrastructure Minister Corey Wingard advised that there were no plans to EVER re-open the crossing, because, he said, it could not be made disability compliant.

Shared-use bitumen paths in both Park 1 and Park 27A that had been constructed in 2018 to lead to the crossing appeared to have been rendered useless.

In March 2024, the Department for Transport and Infrastructure was still advising on its website that this crossing would “remain closed until further notice.”

However that advice was out of date.

Just before Christmas 2023, almost seven years after the crossing was closed, new electric gates began operating.

So it’s once more become possible to walk, run or cycle across the north-western Park Lands between John E Brown Park (Park 27A) and the North Adelaide Golf Course off War Memorial Drive in Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1).

This will help you to Explore your Park Lands, and also help pedestrian or cycling commuters needing a more direct route between Thebarton and North Adelaide.