The restaurant owners launched a petition and said there had since been a swell of community support.<\/p>\n
Aston Hills Mount Barker developers Lanser, who said they had been working on a master plan for more than 16 years, said there were more suitable sites for the school.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784699593_595_730e201ba8a5d12ecd4e9989a42deb6d.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The SA government plans to build a new school on a 5.5 hectare site at Mount Barker. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)<\/p>\n
Today, Education Minister Lucy Hood told 891 ABC Adelaide the government would pause the compulsory acquisition following a meeting with the restaurant owners on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“We’re just going to hit pause while we consider all our options here,” she said.<\/p>\n
“That obviously doesn’t guarantee an outcome, but we can see the enormous community impact that Wok the Duck has in that area, so we’re just going to look at all those options to make sure we’re achieving the best outcome for that community.”<\/p>\n
![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/275be6488e4380dc860a8584f4f10ef2.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The SA Premier spoke with the restaurant owners on Wednesday morning.\u00a0 (ABC News: Carl Saville)<\/p>\n
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas said a pause did not mean the government would pull the pin on the development.<\/p>\n
“What I’ve done is pause that compulsory acquisition process so I personally can examine exactly the work that has been undertaken up until this point, and make sure it’s been done with the best interests of the community writ large, as a whole, at heart,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’m really sympathetic towards the proprietors of Wok the Duck, I understand their concern here and I just want to satisfy myself that the state government is acting prudently by considering every last option where we can, before we go ahead with the final decision.”<\/p>\n
‘Pause’ welcomed<\/p>\n
Wok the Duck co-owner David Keir said he had spoken with Mr Malinauskas this morning.<\/p>\n
“It was appreciated getting a phone call from the premier \u2026 he just said he’s going to investigate, he’s going to look into it because something’s not right,” Mr Keir said.<\/p>\n
Lanser managing director Shaun Bowden said the company was “very grateful to the premier for intervening” and hoped the restaurant would stay.<\/p>\n
“We think this is a great outcome for the community and we look forward to working with the government on a positive resolution,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/e1f82ae28db4f98b5816642166ae5c63.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The restaurant cafe’s owners launched a petition against the acquisition. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)<\/p>\n
Local MP Matt Schultz welcomed the pause, saying it was “a case of sensible heads prevailing”.<\/p>\n
“I’m really pleased that the government and the department have put pause on this and are looking at alternate options,” Mr Schultz said.<\/p>\n
“I’m very pleased that we are having a school built here, but we don’t want to see Wok the Duck impacted in terms of being relocated or shut down.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/b35d80c0500a1086b73b3e628ddf3983.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lucy Hood met with Wok The Duck owners on Tuesday. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Ms Hood said the department had evaluated 16 other sites in Mount Barker for the new school, but the Wok the Duck site was selected as the best location.<\/p>\n
Last week, Ms Hood said compensation for the restaurant owners would be considered as part of the compulsory acquisition process.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South Australian government will “hit pause” on its plan to compulsorily acquire a popular Mount Barker restaurant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[154158,391126,391127,379442,43,115526,15625,44,24805,13408,1124,41,39,42,40,131149,379440],"class_list":["post-815918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-adelaide-hills","tag-cafe-restaurant","tag-compulsory-acquisition","tag-david-keir","tag-headlines","tag-lucy-hood","tag-mount-barker","tag-news","tag-peter-malinauskas","tag-sa-government","tag-south-australia","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-urban-development","tag-wok-the-duck"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815918","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=815918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}