by Shane Sody
There's uncertainty about the future of the three North Adelaide golf courses, on Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1 of your Adelaide Park Lands) and the 85 identified species, acknowledged as an incomplete record of the biodiversity of that Park.
The City Council is entering a 'Memorandum of Understanding' with the State Government, envisaging a long-term lease and a multi-million dollar "re-development".
What will this mean for the hundreds of significant, century-old trees on and around the existing Park Lands golf courses? What will this mean for public access, and for golfers, during construction and later?
How much fencing will there be, for how many months of the year? What large new buildings will be proposed? How much of your Open, Green, Public space will be lost?
The Premier has not given the answers to these questions, but it’s possible to read between the lines of what’s been publicly announced.
The Adelaide Park Lands Association wants to gauge community reaction, to inform any public campaign over coming months.
What: Public meeting: “Will They LIV or Die?”
Where: North Adelaide Community Centre, 176 Tynte Street, North Adelaide
When: Saturday 29 March 2.00pm to 3.30pm
Speakers include: (from left):
* APA Committee member & North Adelaide golfer, Sarah Russo;
* Former junior professional golfer and 4x club champion of the North Adelaide Golf Club, Keith Preston
* North Ward Councillor, Phillip Martin; and
* APA President, Shane Sody
The Member for Adelaide, Lucy Hood MP has been invited to speak but has a prior engagement. Her office has advised that the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, will provide a statement for the meeting.
Hear the speakers, ask questions, and make up your own mind: Can your Park Lands live with LIV Golf?
Places at this community event are limited, so please reserve your place with free ticketing through Humanitix: https://events.humanitix.com/will-they-liv-or-die
The biodiversity of Possum Park
Citizen scientists who’ve uploaded their observations to iNaturalist have (so far) found 85 species on or around the North Adelaide golf courses in Possum Park/ Pirltawardli (Park 1)
Other reading:
North Adelaide journalist John Bridgland has done an analysis of the forces at work, and their likely plans for Park 1: (PDF, 5 pages, 370 Kb)
“Jaw-dropping images revealed” (Glam Adelaide, 4 March 2025) NB: these images are seven years old, not current proposals, drawn from the document below:
City of Adelaide golf course Master Plan, 2018 (PDF, 23 pages, 2.3 Mb)
And for an entirely different perspective on how a golf course can be re-imagined: “The re-wilded golf courses teeming with life” (BBC, 16 February 2025)
The author of this article, Shane Sody, will be retiring on 27 April after eight years as President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association. He is also the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".
Subscribe here.
https://adelaideparklands.m-pages.com/YWRrGW/adelaide-park-lands-assn-mailing
