{"id":476479,"date":"2026-02-13T03:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476479\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T03:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:26:10","slug":"ex-footy-stars-barossa-golf-getaway-rejected-second-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/476479\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Footy Star\u2019s Barossa Golf Getaway Rejected Second Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Downsized plans by a South Australian football champion for a luxury Barossa Valley golf resort have been refused by the state\u2019s planning gatekeeper with a decision-maker saying the design of the two-storey project is still \u201cincredibly intense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Neville \u201cRocky\u201d Roberts (pictured above) became a property developer 40 years ago, towards the end of a football career that included 44 games for Richmond in the VFL and one for the Victorian state team. He played 230 games in the SANFL and five as captain of South Australia.<\/p>\n

This week at a State Commission Assessment Panel hearing in Adelaide, Roberts floated a two-level, 73-unit resort for Williamstown Road at Sandy Creek in the famed Barossa Valley wine region.<\/p>\n

In 2024, he had withdrawn plans for a three-level, 102-key resort at the site, which adjoins the 18-hole Sandy Creek golf course, after a planner for the panel recommended refusal.<\/p>\n

After this week\u2019s panel hearing that lasted 90 minutes and which Roberts attended, the panel went behind closed doors and decided to refuse his latest application.<\/p>\n

The panel reasoned that the planned resort was not compatible with and would not complement the \u201csecluded semi-rural or semi-natural\u201d residential character of the area.<\/p>\n

At the hearing, occasional panel member John Eckert said he had not been privy to the approvals process to date but understood Roberts\u2019 project had now been \u201csimplified\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt had to be pretty intense to start with because it\u2019s still relatively intense; in terms of the forms [and] colours it\u2019s quite heavily modelled and there\u2019s quite a few things going on there in terms of the front bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me … it\u2019s not necessarily \u2018Australian shed\u2019 but more almost Nordic buildings because of the sharp-nosed edges etcetera, so that\u2019s quite distinct in its own character.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext to it is almost Kent Town<\/a> townhouses and then at the end there\u2019s something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eckert said that he did not \u201cfind the building offensive in any way\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s quite nicely detailed, sort of refined, but I do think it\u2019s incredibly intense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A\u25b2 A rendering of Roberts\u2019 refused golfing getaway, the design of which a decision-maker said was \u201cincredibly intense\u201d.<\/p>\n

Set on a 6000sq m block, the resort would have included 51 rooms in the main building and 22 separate villas.<\/p>\n

Three outdoor spa baths landscaped as billabongs would have accompanied the project\u2019s two main swimming pools.<\/p>\n

Before the meeting, Roberts told The Urban Developer his golfing getaway would have had a five-star restaurant and a stormwater holding pond to hydrate the golf course.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been intimately engaged with the golf course for 10 years on achieving synergies with our plans,\u201d the SANFL hall-of-famer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re integrating the hotel reception into the way the golf club operates.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatrons will be able to book a round of golf, jump straight into their buggies and head out for a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the resort would have cost between $25 million and $30 million to build.<\/p>\n

\"null\"\/<\/p>\n

\u25b2 A rendering of the latest version of the resort planned for Sandy Creek in the Barossa Valley. <\/p>\n

Roberts also operates the BoxMod modular building company and said the construction cost would have fallen to about $20 million if the villas were modular, an option he had kept open.<\/p>\n

The golf club\u2019s sale of the block to Roberts had been conditional on the development application being approved.<\/p>\n

After the panel revealed its decision, Roberts told The Urban Developer he would go on to \u201cdo something somewhere else\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only a million dollars and 10 years,\u201d he said, ironically, of the expense and time that had gone into the rejected resort project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have [the AFL\u2019s] Gather Round in the Barossa now and [SA] Premier [Peter Malinauskas] is creating a lot of major events to attract visitors to Adelaide and surrounding areas and there\u2019s nowhere for them to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Downsized plans by a South Australian football champion for a luxury Barossa Valley golf resort have been refused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,44,85,217658],"class_list":["post-476479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-undefined"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476479","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=476479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}