{"id":355164,"date":"2025-12-18T02:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T02:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355164\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T02:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T02:33:11","slug":"long-awaited-45-million-north-adelaide-golf-course-plans-revealed-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/355164\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-awaited $45 million North Adelaide Golf Course plans revealed – News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The North Adelaide Golf Course redesign would remove 585 trees from the Adelaide park lands but leave \u201csacred\u201d Aboriginal land untouched, the Premier announced today.<\/p>\n

Premier Peter Malinauskas revealed the designs with Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland and North Adelaide Golf Course President Kevin Naughton at Adelaide Oval on Thursday morning in front of a state government display where punters can view the designs and play a golf simulator between the Ashes Test.<\/p>\n

Malinauskas said the current Par 3 section of the North Adelaide Golf Course at Possum Park \/ Pirltawardli (Park 1) and its surrounds was a \u201cquarantined\u201d area due to the \u201cthe big risk for disturbance\u201d of Aboriginal remains, and this was protected by the Aboriginal Heritage Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very strict legislative process that dictates the way those [Aboriginal Heritage] applications operate and that was done quite independently of me, as it should be, but effectively there was engagement, and that decision was made clear and easily accommodated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis project is an active engagement with organisations like KYAC [Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation] to make sure this is done as sensibly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes after Kaurna elder Tim Agius told\u00a0InDaily\u00a0in July<\/a> that if the state government wanted to build a world-class golf course, \u201cwe don\u2019t care, but not at the expense of our people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"Render: Supplied<\/p>\n

The 18-hole course was designed by former LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman and would align with the Professional Golfers\u2019 Association standards. It includes a driving range on the neighbouring park 27A and a short course.<\/p>\n

The Premier said there would also be a putt-putt course for kids associated with the driving range, but that was \u201cnot the priority\u201d of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Australians of all levels of golfing experience \u2013 and those without it \u2013 will be able to enjoy the high level of amenity provided by this investment in our park lands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The designs do not include any permanent fencing, and the golf course would remain public, with a differential price structure charging tourists more than locals \u2013 something that was passed in the special legislation earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"A map of the proposed North Adelaide Golf Course upgrade. Photo: Government of South Australia.<\/p>\n

Golf Australia CEO James Sutherland said the investment into a public course would make SA a national leader and that in the last 12 months, about $10.3 billion of household expenditure was spent on golf in Australia.<\/p>\n

The details of the course have long been sought after by groups like the Adelaide Park Lands Association who have raised concerns about the absent designs, tree loss, park lands penthouses, and potential closures of War Memorial Drive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The plans came about six months after the state government passed special legislation<\/a> to take control of the park lands from the Adelaide City Council.<\/p>\n

Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the council offered full cooperation to the state government throughout the process and asked the state government about the plans for \u201cmany months\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the loss of any trees is disappointing and regrettable, it was always an expected consequence of this significant upgrade,\u201d Lomax-Smith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to offer cooperation, despite being formally excluded from contributing, to the extent that extraordinary legislation was put through the state parliament to simply take possession of our two public golf courses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat legislation cast aside all planning rules, all environmental protections and nearly all public consultation requirements, its only saving grace being to consult with the traditional owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now look forward to the state government honouring its stated commitments to ensure the courses remain in public ownership for the enjoyment of all South Australians, with no permanent fencing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Render: Supplied<\/p>\n

The golf course is the latest on a list of park lands developments the Malinauskas government has had a hand in, including relocating police barracks, the new Adelaide Aquatic Centre, the new Women\u2019s and Children\u2019s Hospital and the plaza strip neighbouring the River Torrens and including Festival Tower one and two.<\/p>\n

In its sitting term so far, the Malinauskas government has taken control of 96.04 hectares of park lands \u2013 the largest park lands grab, transferring care, control and management to a state government since 1837.<\/p>\n

Independent Adelaide candidate and Deputy Lord Mayor Keiran Snape said while he was happy Par 3 would be untouched after Aboriginal concerns, he thought any tree loss was \u201creckless\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state governments made an election promise to protect our park lands and to increase canopy across the state,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow this announcement, following on the many others that we\u2019ve seen in the park lands, flies in the face of that, regardless of whether it\u2019s hundreds of trees, 1000 trees, any loss of trees in this era of climate change, that is not only morally reprehensible, but to be honest, downright reckless.\u201d<\/p>\n

For every tree lost, the government is required to plant three in its place.<\/p>\n

North Adelaide Golf Course President Kevin Naughton said there were problematic trees the club had been asking to be removed for years, because when they were planted decades ago, they were not appropriately chosen for a golf course.<\/p>\n

Construction is due to begin on the course in mid-2026, and it would need to be completed by 2028 to host LIV Golf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North Adelaide Golf Course redesign would remove 585 trees from the Adelaide park lands but leave \u201csacred\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-355164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355164","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=355164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}