{"id":20219,"date":"2025-07-25T04:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/20219\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T04:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T04:10:10","slug":"fears-for-sacred-site-amid-liv-golf-course-plans-to-churn-up-park-lands-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/20219\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears for \u2018sacred site\u2019 amid LIV Golf course plans to churn up park lands – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state government took ownership of the North Adelaide golf course from the Adelaide City Council last month<\/a> to redevelop it in time for Liv Golf 2028.<\/p>\n

While the special legislation that passed parliament<\/a> allowed the government to bypass some planning consultation protections, it\u2019s required to consult with the Aboriginal community under the Aboriginal Heritage Act \u2013 a process currently underway and under fire.<\/p>\n

The site, Possum Park \/ Pirltawardli (Park 1) and its surrounds, is a significant site for the Kaurna people, who are concerned that the development will disrupt burial sites.<\/p>\n

Kaurna elder and traditional owner Tim Agius told InDaily it would be likely ancestral remains would be found in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where you dig, it needs to be assessed because you\u2019re more likely to be surprised if you don\u2019t find ancestral remains because of the density of the population,\u201d Agius said.<\/p>\n

Concerns about the park lands burial grounds affected by golf course landscaping have been raised for decades.<\/p>\n

A 1998 report<\/a> prepared for the council by the Kaurna Community Heritage Committee noted that \u201cworks on the banks in this area turn up the bones of Aboriginal graves, indicating that the site has not been completely destroyed by landscaping\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 18-hole championship-standard golf course, driving range and clubhouse would take over Pirltawardli and its neighbouring Park 27A John Brown Park, requiring ground-disturbing works like large-scale excavation, digging potentially 5 metres deep.<\/p>\n

According to the Attorney-General Department\u2019s consultation information pack<\/a>, \u201cif Aboriginal remains are encountered and cannot be avoided by Project works, they will be recovered by a qualified archaeologist in consultation with Traditional Owners\u201d.<\/p>\n

Within the Aboriginal community, there are different views on how remains should be handled and preserved if they are found, but the overall sentiment is that ancestral remains should not be disturbed.<\/p>\n

Agius said the topic is distressing for traditional owners and a cause of recurring trauma after actions at the Riverlea housing development<\/a> and the new Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Agius said if the state government want to build a world-class golf course, \u201cwe don\u2019t care, but not at the expense of our people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as they don\u2019t dig up our ancestors, and that there\u2019s an acknowledgement to that place as being significant to Kaurna people, I\u2019m sure we can work something out but no, we will not support the digging up of our people any longer, whether it\u2019s here or anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The park lands flagged for the golf course redevelopment have a storied history, as a site of a missionary-run school, the first place the Kaurna language was recorded, and, Agius said, as a place of incarceration for Kaurna people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that site is going to be developed, without disturbing our ancestral remains, there now also needs to be clear acknowledgement about what that site is, because at the moment, it acknowledges the Lutheran Brethren and it doesn\u2019t acknowledge the history around truth telling, what happened at that place? Our people were incarcerated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The colonial history of the site includes a \u201cNative Location\u201d established in April 1837 to supervise Kaurna families, including huts, a garden, storehouse and schoolhouse. This picture: School room at the Native Location \/ William A. Cawthorne. Courtesy of the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW.<\/p>\n

South of War Memorial Drive, the section of the golf course near the Weir was used to concentrate the local Aboriginal population in one place, where they were taught European language and culture by missionaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were camp sites absolutely everywhere, because it was a significant area, and so because our people were rounded up, well our other people visiting from our south or north, gravitated to that area as a camping site,\u201d Agius said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where our people were incarcerated; they weren\u2019t allowed to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The park\u2019s traditional name derives from \u201cPossum Place\u201d, believed to reference the area as a preferred place to hunt possum for meat and fur-skins for rugs and clothing. Photo: Adelaide Park Lands Association<\/p>\n

The stretch of Karrawirra Pari (River Torrens) between Park 1 and Park 27 (Tulya Wodli) is also culturally significant, as Agius said it \u201cplayed an important role in the survival of our people for many years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Agius says the significance of the site cannot be understated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our church, it\u2019s like the church you got near Adelaide Oval. It\u2019s our temple. It\u2019s our sacred site,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the only place we have left on our country that we can go to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go down there often, just sit and, you know, just take it all in, because this is where you can sort of connect because that\u2019s where our people were.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do it anywhere else. So that\u2019s what it means to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Golf course consultation labelled \u201ctokenistic\u201d\"\"Councillor Janet Giles said it\u2019s inappropriate for the Aboriginal community to be asked to give feedback on a project there are no clear plans for. Photo: Tony Lewis\/InDaily<\/p>\n

The Lord Mayor will write a letter to the state government asking them to consider extending the existing consultation with the Aboriginal community by five weeks.<\/p>\n

The Adelaide City Council voted in favour of this at Tuesday night\u2019s meeting, led by councillor Janet Giles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way that Aboriginal people and the Kaurna traditional owners are being consulted is, in my view, tokenistic, and it\u2019s also culturally inappropriate,\u201d Giles said at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that we don\u2019t have a role in this, however, we can have a role in requesting to the Premier that the process of consultation under the Aboriginal Heritage Act is done in a more sensitive, more culturally appropriate way than it is currently.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter will also request an additional in-person Aboriginal Community Consultation meeting hosted in the City of Adelaide.<\/p>\n

According to the council agenda documents, only one Aboriginal community consultation was scheduled for July 19 at the Mawson Lakes Hotel.<\/p>\n

Agius said the meeting was attended by six or seven people, despite the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation having some 400 members.<\/p>\n

Janet said the consultation documents on the YourSay website are \u201cvery difficult to understand, even for people who\u2019ve got their heads around the legislation and processes\u201d.<\/p>\n

A state government spokesperson for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation told InDaily it ensures Traditional Owners and interested Aboriginal parties are \u201cfully informed\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs is the case with all applications received under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (AAR) undertakes to ensure that Traditional Owners and other interested Aboriginal parties are fully informed of what is being proposed and given every opportunity to provide their input,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAAR\u2019s consultation process is comprehensive and includes community meetings, online submissions, and options for one-on-one verbal submissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis approach ensures community members have every opportunity to fully understand what is being proposed, and importantly, that their views are accurately and completely represented in the report for consideration and decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cAAR\u2019s consultation approach is built on long-standing relationships with Aboriginal community members, demonstrating acute awareness of the sensitivities often involved in these applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Currently, no plans or details of what the golf course redevelopment will look like have been revealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Submissions from members of the Aboriginal community can be made via the YourSay website<\/a> until July 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The state government took ownership of the North Adelaide golf course from the Adelaide City Council last month…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-20219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}