This is the December 2024 newsletter for the St Peters Residents Association, representing the Residents of St Peters, College Park, Hackney, Stepney, Maylands, Evandale & Joslin.

The newsletter is available as a PDF for downloading and printing.

Contents

Items that we hope you will find of interest include: -

• SPRA Membership Now Due
• Ninth Avenue Christmas Lights
• Recent SPRA Submissions
• Remembrance Day Second World War Plaque Unveiling
• NPSP = No Pretty Stobie Poles
• Linde Reserve Sculptue Stolen for the Second Time
• River Torrens Linear Path Lighting
• Adelaide Caravan Park Redevelopment
• Community Alliance Forum with Nick Champion
• Facebook Page

SPRA Membership Now Due

Please consider joining the St Peters Residents Association.

Membership subscriptions for 2025 can be paid now.
See the details on the membership page for how to join and payment options.

Ninth Avenue Christmas Lights

The Ninth Avenue Christmas Lights displays are up and running again, with a few changes this year to reduce traffic congestion. The displays have become very well-known across Adelaide and bring joy to thousands of families and community groups across the 28 days that the lights are on.

NPSP Council, in consultation with SAPOL, will erect traffic barriers from 7.30pm to 10.30pm for the two weeks from Fri 13 to Fri 27 December. The barriers will prevent all right hand traffic movements into Ninth Avenue from Stephen Terrace and out of Ninth into Stephen Terrace.

Council will also be supplying additional litter bins and be checking for illegal parking across driveways.

SPRA however has concerns that the cost to Council for providing the traffic management for this community-organised event over the duration of the event will be about $40,000. For more details see the Council Minutes for the 8th October 2024 meeting.

Recent SPRA Submissions

Over the past few months SPRA has made several submissions on proposals to change the Planning & Development Code.
These submissions can be seen on the SPRA website.

• Greater Adelaide Regional Plan (GARP)
• Future Living Code – Co-located Housing Amendment
• Draft Urban Greening Strategy for Metropolitan Adelaide

Remembrance Day Second World War Plaque Unveiling

On the afternoon of Remembrance Day over 200 people, mostly relatives, gathered at the St Peters Heroes Memorial in St Peters Street for the unveiling by the Governor of South Australia Her Excellency Frances Adamson AC of a new bronze plaque.

The plaque records the names of 89 men from the former Town of St Peters who died as a result of their service in the Second World War and was funded by a grant to SPRA from the SA Government’s Anzac Day Commemoration Fund.

You can read more details on the plaque unveiling and speeches by the Governor, Mayor Bria and David Cree that were given.

NPSP = No Pretty Stobie Poles

Stobie poles are a uniquely South Australian invention, and a distinct part of our local streets. Designed by James Stobie in 1924, these concrete and steel poles have stood the test of time.

South Australian Power Network (SAPN) celebrates residents and artists transforming their infrastructure into vibrant public artworks. Unfortunately, our opportunity to participate in this creative process in NPSP has stalled. The NPSP = No Pretty Stobie Poles article contains more details on SPRA's efforts to raise this matter with council.

Linde Reserve Sculptue Stolen for the Second Time

One of the great features of Linde Reserve is the collection of public art sculptures by metal artists Will Kuiper and Meliesa Judge.

Now another one of the Kuiper & Judge bronze sculptures in Linde Reserve has been stolen.

This time it is the large and exquisite German migration work “Leaving”, which depicts a mother with her two children leaving for a new life in South Australia.

The Leaving Sculpture Missing in Linde Reserve article contains more details on SPRA's efforts to raise this matter with council.

River Torrens Linear Path Lighting

A SPRA member in Hackney recently approached the NPSP Council regarding the hazard at night due to lack of lighting on the River Torrens Bike path from the Sir Douglas Nichols Bridge on the east side of the zoo, to the Hackney Road Bridge (see map). “It is dark, scary and a danger”, the resident said, “in fact, so dark that I had to swerve to avoid crashing into a koala sitting in the middle of the path, and my son said he almost ended up in the Torrens one night due to his speed, the sudden blackness, lack of visibility, and possibly a drop or two of red!”

Josef Casilla (NPSP Project Manager Assets) was extremely helpful. Apparently, the well-lit path on the opposite bank is due to Walkerville Council's actions. NPSP are only responsible for the adequate lighting from Richmond Street down the bike path to the Hackney Bridge – the Council boundary. The responsibility for lighting the problem area beyond Hackney Road lies with the Adelaide City Council.

Josef contacted the ACC on the resident’s behalf and Linh Nguyen (ACC Asset Manager) responded assuring the resident the request had been recorded and will be taken into consideration when they set priorities in future planning discussions. In the meantime, the danger to cyclists and pedestrians remains. SPRA will be watching to see if the ACC makes any changes.

Adelaide Caravan Park Redevelopment

In last week of December, Aspen Group, the owners of the Adelaide Caravan Park on Richmond Street Hackney lodged plans for a $70m complete redevelopment of the present caravan park. The 1.4 hectare site is roughly triangular and bounded by Richmond Street, Twelftree Reserve, the River Torrens and Old Mill Park Reserve.

From the details released to the press and on the Aspen Group’s website it appears that the current caravan sites and cabins will be replaced by –

• A six story building containing 78 fully furnished studio and one-bedroom rental apartments on Richmond Street with some facing the Old Mill Reserve.
• Twelve three-story townhouses facing Twelftree Reserve.
• Twelve multi-story townhouses facing the river.
• Twenty four other multi-story townhouses on Richmond Street and in the centre of the site.

It is likely to be several months before the proposal is released for consultation, however SPRA will be closely watching the application and making a submission at that time. More details can be found on the Adelaide Caravan Park page.

Ann Street Pedestrian Crossing

SPRA has written to Council to seek clarification and urge action regarding a proposed pedestrian crossing on Ann Street Stepney.

About four years ago Council circulated Stepney residents following concerns posed for pedestrian safety by traffic traversing Ann Street in the vicinity of the Avenues Shopping Centre. We understand many residents responded, requesting that traffic in Ann Street be restricted to one-way or part one-way access. To date, nothing has resulted from that survey.

The Ann Street Pedestrian Crossing article contains more information.

Community Alliance Forum with Nick Champion

Nick Champion, Minister for Housing, Urban Development, Housing Infrastructure and Planning, spoke at a Community Alliance Forum on housing on 21 November, along with Michelle Lensink shadow spokeswoman on planning and Robert Simms Greens Party MP in the Upper House.

One of the questions to the panel asked was whether the population-fuelled high demand for housing was consistent with Australia cutting its greenhouse gas emissions and living more sustainably. The Minister pooh-poohed the concern that high immigration might be placing pressure on the supply of housing in SA, stating that household formation rate was more important, such as when marriages break- up and new households form.

An interjection from the audience pointed out that the Albanese government had presided over a record immigration intake of over 600,000 people per year for two years straight. The Minister replied that he was not into “blaming migrants” and went on to extol Paris which has a lower environmental footprint than Adelaide. It did occur to some in the audience that a large part of Paris’ population lives in high-rise flats outside the charming tourist-friendly city centre in the fairly notorious ‘banlieues’

The other two speakers also picked up on the population growth concern. Ms. Lensink said the Coalition had committed to reducing the size of the permanent migration intake by 25 per cent with a ban on foreigners buying homes. Robert Simms stated that “population growth is not driving housing shortages in our State”. He went on to criticise capital gains tax concessions for investors, negative gearing and Airbnbs. He appeared to not like private investors in the rental market, urged more government investment in housing and suggested a tax on vacant houses.

The Greater Adelaide Regional Plan (GARP) proposes an expansion of residential land up until 2051 to cater for projected housing needs. This plan is based on a projected population increase of 670,000 people in the Greater Adelaide region from 2021 to 2051. This growth suggests over 22,000 extra people, on average, each year. While this growth is much less than that being imposed on our bigger capital cities, it is still an issue worth considering.

The “Future Living – Co-located Housing” Code Amendment to allow back garden housing development in six council areas, together with the GARP proposal to stack people into multistorey housing on our busy main roads (including Payneham Road and Magill Road) points to the pressure in securing sufficient residential land and containing Adelaide’s spread in future.

Facebook Page

SPRA now has a Facebook page where some matters will be posted and where you can leave comments on items that have been posted.

Please follow on your Facebook app.