Motions

Glenthorne Farm

Mr SPEIRS (Bright) (11:30): I move:

That this house:

(a) acknowledges the importance of Glenthorne Farm as an environmental asset for South Australia and in particular its role in providing vital open space in Adelaide's southern suburbs;

(b) recognises the Liberal Party's vision to create Glenthorne national park, preserving Glenthorne Farm, O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, Marino Conservation Park, Hallett Cove Conservation Park and the Field River Valley for future generations, while creating a recreational precinct focused on Majors Road at O'Halloran Hill; and

(c) calls on the government to fast-track the opening up of Happy Valley Reservoir so it can be enjoyed by South Australian families for recreational pursuits, including fishing, sailing and kayaking.

Last year, the Liberal Party of South Australia launched its vision outlining a desire to create Glenthorne national park in the heart of Adelaide's southern suburbs. The proposed national park would forever protect the often under threat Glenthorne Farm and would also enhance surrounding existing areas of open space, including Happy Valley Reservoir and its surrounds (O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, Marino Conservation Park and Hallett Cove Conservation Park), as well as protect and revitalise the Field River Valley, which is a mixture of public and private land that runs south of Glenthorne Farm behind Trott Park and Sheidow Park before reaching the sea at Hallett Cove beach.

While Glenthorne Farm remains the anchor site of the proposed national park and the focal point of a locally driven and long-term campaign to save that 208 hectares of farmland from urban sprawl, I do believe that it is important to ensure that all the areas of open space adjoining Glenthorne Farm can be encapsulated in this national park as we create an environmental precinct and a corridor. We know that these corridors are so important for the creation and enhancement of biodiversity between the hills and the sea—the hills behind Happy Valley Reservoir, moving through that reservoir site and into Glenthorne Farm, O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park to the north, the Field River Valley to the south and then, on the coast, Hallett Cove Conservation Park and Marino Conservation Park.

We know that science tells us that small envelopes of land, while valuable to protect by themselves, become so much more valuable to overall biodiversity when linked together in a connected environmental site, and that is the vision the Liberal Party of South Australia has for Glenthorne national park. It is the connection of these areas of open space from the foothills at Happy Valley and even extending behind the Field River Valley behind that into Chandlers Hill and Aberfoyle Park and moving right through to the beach, to the estuarine environment and the dune environment at Hallett Cove beach.

Some of those existing areas of land are well cared for at the moment. There are active friends groups looking after the Lower Field River. That is a friends group which I actively got involved with as a founding member in 2006 and which really led me to become a member of the local council and then to this place in 2014. We have a very active friends group at Hallett Cove Conservation Park, another at Marino Conservation Park and another at O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park. We know that these are people who for many years have put their own resources, both in time and often financially, into caring for the local natural environment in the southern suburbs.

We know the value of looking after these existing open spaces, and the Liberal Party want to put more effort, more resources and more coherency of governance into looking after these sites. That is why we have said that not only will we look at protecting Glenthorne Farm and saving it from the ongoing threat of urban sprawl—and I will talk more about Glenthorne Farm shortly—but we also want to invest in these other very important elements of open space which are already protected. Some of them have been protected for many decades by South Australian legislation.

We want to bring them under one management framework. We see that framework being best constituted as a national park, and we want to manage it as one incredibly important landscape of open space within metropolitan Adelaide. The value of open space cannot be underestimated within a metropolitan environment, both for wildlife—birds, insects, animals and flora—and also for the people who live near that open space. We are privileged in Adelaide to have lots of open space within our metropolitan environment, but that open space often is not invested in. It often is not looked after as much as it could be.

There is an opportunity to put a stake in the ground and say, 'When it comes to Adelaide's southern suburbs, we are going to look after this extensive tract of open space from the hills to the beach. We are going to protect it for future generations, and we are going to create a really vibrant, ecological environment which will be good for biodiversity but will also be good for the people who live around that area.' I am sure that people will come from further afield to enjoy it. In particular, those suburbs that immediately surround it are so important to connect with nature and ensure that they do not just become part of urban sprawl.

The people living there, young and old, can have areas of open public space in which to enjoy recreational activities and be able to connect with nature and their ecology within the urban environment. We know that cities are often characterised as places for people, but they should and can also be characterised as really great places for nature as well. I have a vision—a vision which the Liberal Party shares—that Glenthorne national park can be not just a national leader, but perhaps a world leader in what a great national park can look like within the metropolitan environment.

It is not something that will happen overnight; in many ways, it is a blank canvas, particularly the Glenthorne Farm part of our proposal. It will take a generation or several generations to maximise the environmental benefit and impact of this site, but in the longer term we can certainly get a fantastic environment connected with local communities. We can bring local communities into that site and get them to love that site. The best way to protect natural environments is to get people to love those natural environments. Get them to fall in love with them, and they will value them and they will invest in them. They will invest their time and resources, they will protect them and they will revitalise them.

That is our overarching vision for Glenthorne national park. It is worth dwelling for a moment on Glenthorne Farm itself. It is 208 hectares of open space (farmland) with quite a chequered history. Glenthorne Farm has a history going back to early European settlement in this state. It was the first home of Major O'Halloran, South Australia's first police commissioner, in the 1830s through to the 1840s, so it has a substantial historical significance to South Australia as well. There are also some significant heritage buildings on site, which could have significant adaptive value in the future. Sadly, they are falling to rack and ruin, or at least some of them are at the moment, but there is opportunity to look after those, to revitalise them and have that farm homestead, or what remains of it, as an anchor point within our plan for the national park.

As I mentioned, Glenthorne Farm has a chequered history. The land itself ended up being used by the CSIRO for several decades and then, in the early 2000s, it was transferred to the University of Adelaide, which has had stewardship of that land ever since. The University of Adelaide was given that land by a previous Liberal government. There was a transfer of funds, which enabled the land to be purchased by the CSIRO and a very significant deed was placed over that land, which, unfortunately, the University of Adelaide has really struggled to be able to fulfil.

I think it is a case of someone being given a gift that perhaps they did not really want and they did not have a series of plans that went alongside that gift, so they were left holding the baby and I do not think they really wanted to become parents. They have not embraced a really strong vision for the land. They have had it rented out ever since. As I said, they have let heritage buildings go to waste and have not at all done what is necessary to maximise the value of the Glenthorne Farm site.

That is something that I know the local community is disappointed about and that I think the wider environmentalist movement in South Australia is also disappointed about, that is, the University of Adelaide's inability to articulate and execute a vision which was in line with the deed for that site. We know that on a number of occasions the university has canvassed selling off portions of the land. I know that in the past the Labor government have opposed that and stopped it from happening, with a significant groundswell of angst and campaigning from the immediate community and also a community of stakeholders from further afield across the state.

While it is vested within the University of Adelaide with the current lack of plans for that site, there remains that threat. It is a blank canvas for the environment, but it could also be a blank canvas for development. It would be land that would be easy to develop, and I know that developers drive past that land and they look at it. No doubt they use Google Maps to measure it up and think, with an element of salivating mouths, that they could actually exploit the land for significant development opportunities.

The Liberal Party have said that we do not want that happening to that land. We do not want to see development on that land. It must be preserved. It is open space. Open space to that extent is rare to find in a metropolitan environment, and of course we know that once open space is lost to development open space is lost forever. So Glenthorne Farm should be protected, it should be protected under a national parks structure and it should be created for environmental restoration purposes and for the community to enjoy for recreational opportunities.

I want to pay tribute to the Friends of Glenthorne. I have mentioned other friends groups this morning, but I want to pay tribute in particular to the Friends of Glenthorne, who have had access to that property only once per month and who have done a significant amount to restore elements of that area's environment. But also, more than that, they have been the figureheads of driving forward the protection of that site and they have really fought time and time again to protect it.

The people I want to pay particular tribute to include Alan Burns, who has been heavily involved in that group; Dr Pam Smith; Pete Smitherman over the years; Martin Schumacher; and many other members of that group who have toiled away for quite some time. I want to pay tribute to my colleague the member for Mitchell. Much of that site falls in the area of South Australia he has stewardship of in this place. He has worked very closely with me as the local representative for that area as we have worked together to articulate that vision.

I also want to look very briefly at the third part of my motion, which calls on the government to fast-track the opening up of Happy Valley Reservoir for recreational opportunities. This has been something that the Liberal Party has been keen to see, not just at Happy Valley, but it has supported the opening up of a number of our reservoirs across the state. It happens interstate and it happens overseas. We know that the science tells us that passive recreation certainly does not impact on water security.

Of course, we know that much of our water in metropolitan Adelaide is sourced from the River Murray, not exactly the cleanest source of water but obviously, through modern purification techniques, it is lifted to drinking water quality and beyond, and there is absolutely no indication that recreation on reservoirs impacts water quality. In fact, having people involved in activity around reservoirs creates a system of passive surveillance, which in turn creates safer environments. To me, that is a very important part of the recreational opportunities that lie with Glenthorne national park, the reservoir and also the recreational opportunities that lie along Majors Road, including a possible soccer precinct, a BMX precinct joining the existing model aircraft club, the archery club and the pistol shooting club.

The vision articulated by the Liberal Party of South Australia to preserve and revitalise Glenthorne Farm and the surrounding reserves as a national park is an exciting one. It is a flagship environmental project. I hope it is one that the Labor Party will embrace as well so that we can see that vision fulfilled and a fantastic environmental outcome delivered for South Australians.

Mr DULUK (Davenport) (11:46): I begin by putting on the record my congratulations to the member for Bright on his hard work in this policy development on this side of the house. I know that he will make a fantastic and very diligent minister for the environment in a future Liberal government. This is about the vision that we are seeing here on this side of the house, and this is how you make good policy that is in the public interest because you do what is right for the people of South Australia. As I said, I would like to make a few comments about the importance of open space and the importance of open space in providing liveable communities in South Australia.

Open space provides opportunities for formal and informal sport, recreation, as well as cultural endeavours. Open space helps preserve our natural environment and provides much-needed habitat for wildlife. An open space in close proximity to urban centres increases the livability and enhances property values in those centres. They also provide environmental educational opportunities, as well as mental health and physical benefits that impact positively on health care and healthcare costs. Open spaces play an important role as the lungs of our communities that offset, of course, air pollution.

Advantages come from open space. Creating a policy framework that looks at capturing open space is so important, but it has been lacking for the last 15 years from this Labor government. In fact, their policy has been quite the opposite. Their policy has been to encroach on open space, create congested living for residents of South Australia and to see urban sprawl continue unabated. Communities that take the time to care for their open spaces and natural areas I believe find a reciprocal benefit that goes with it. Their open spaces lead them to a better way of life. In my own community, where there is so much open space around Mitcham and the Mitcham Hills, the number of people you see walking through the national parks and reserves, participating in Trees For Life and Landcare, all enhance the value of the community and people's outlook on their community.

The Liberal Party appreciates the importance of protecting open space. We understand that these areas must be preserved for future generations, and we recognise that conservation is an investment in the wellbeing of our community. That is why we are conservative, and conservatives believe in conservation. Unfortunately, those opposite do not always share this view. As I stated earlier, those opposite have overseen a rapid decline in open spaces throughout metropolitan Adelaide, a result of their preoccupation with selling anything that is not nailed down to pay for the damage of 15 years of economic mismanagement.

That is what it is all about: it is about selling land to pay the interest on the debt. That is what we are seeing at Daw Park and the Repat and the desire to sell that land. We have seen it across the board. We even saw, several years ago, this government looking in a pre-budget bid in about 2010 to privatise the Wittunga Botanical Gardens—an absolute shame. That was canvassed by those opposite. This government loves to sell because it does not know how to create.

This Labor government have repeatedly demonstrated their complete disdain for the importance of native understorey in our urban ecosystem. A great example of this at the moment is the Glenside development, one of the most telling examples. Eighty-three significant trees are the collateral damage in the Treasurer's desperate search for a few extra dollars to help his budget bottom line. The gaping hole along Greenhill Road is a constant reminder of our community's loss. The latest threat to our natural environment is the proposal to allow housing and retail development on the 208-hectare site at Glenthorne Farm.

Glenthorne Farm, as the member for Bright indicated, is an important environmental asset of considerable significance to southern Adelaide. It is a revegetation site and a corridor for wildlife. It is imperative that we protect it for future generations. That is why the deed of sale to the University of Adelaide in 2001 explicitly stated that the land will not be used for urban development. That is why the state Liberal Party has made a very firm commitment that we will return Glenthorne Farm into a national park, wrapping several other open spaces in the southern suburbs into one very large national park, a national park that is not only about conservation but also about recreation.

It is a flagship environmental commitment. We have a clear vision for the environment. We will protect our open space. The Glenthorne national park will bring together existing areas of conservation: the Hallett Cove Conservation Park and the Marino Conservation Park as well as the O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, Happy Valley Reservoir and the Field River Valley. It will provide national park status to more than 15,000 hectares of open space, bigger than Belair National Park, which is in my electorate. That will provide public ownership of this space for the entire community to enjoy.

Wildlife and vegetation corridors will be given the support they need to survive. Extensive weed eradication and revegetation projects will be carried out, creating an urban forest that will be enjoyed for generations to come, and a recreational precinct will be created. I went out doorknocking through Happy Valley with Steve Murray, the Liberal candidate for Davenport, and Aaron Duff, the Liberal candidate for Hurtle Vale in Happy Valley on the other side of the reservoir. We talked to local constituents about the ability and desire for us to open up the Happy Valley Reservoir for recreational use.

The community think it is a wonderful idea, and so many people say, 'I don't know why we haven't thought of that before.' The Friends of Glenthorne Farm have been fighting to protect this area for more than 21 years for improved community access and activities. The Friends of Glenthorne Farm Community Vision 2015 reports details the many activities they hope may one day be realised on this new precinct, including a large-scale nature playground for families, picnic areas, walking and cycling trails linked to surrounding parks, produce markets, tourism attractions and much more.

We share their vision. We want to work with the community to deliver a vision for the communities that people live in, people and communities who want to enjoy their lifestyle, their Adelaide, their South Australia. The Friends work tirelessly so that future generations can enjoy open spaces that I believe we have for too long taken for granted. I certainly look forward to working with them as a member of the Liberal team to achieve this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect and revitalise this open space and turn it into an environmental and recreational precinct.

In the few moments that I have left, I would like to talk about some of the work done in my own community, particularly by the Friends of Belair National Park, including their president, Mark Pedlar, and Tina and Wayne Gallasch, who are on the committee, as well as all the other volunteers who do so much fantastic work in the Belair National Park. A couple of months ago I had the privilege of inviting the shadow environment minister, the member for Bright, to go on a walking tour of the park, which you can do every Tuesday and Sunday, to show him the great work that the Friends do, and to let the Friends know that we appreciate what they do for us.

If it were not for the Friends of Belair National Park, the Friends of Brownhill Creek or any other reserves and nature parks across South Australia, the government and its agencies would not be able to fulfil its mandate for weed eradication, pest eradication and dealing with feral animals. We owe a debt of gratitude to the many volunteers who participate in the friends groups, who ensure that the national parks and reserves are maintained in as good condition as they can be, free of eradication.

Also, in recent weeks I had the pleasure of attending the final Green Army project graduation which was, of course, a federal government initiative and one which the federal member for Boothby championed in the 2016 campaign. The last Green Army initiative was in Brownhill Creek Reserve and it was fantastic to work with people like Ron Bellchambers and Professor Wayne Myers, who are so dedicated to the preservation of Brownhill Creek, to lift the whole reserve and to create a focus on the importance of Brownhill Creek to the Mitcham Hills community and the significant role it plays in Kaurna history.

The skills that the volunteers have achieved through the Green Army project have been fantastic. In the patch that they have been working on in Brownhill Creek, they have really lifted that whole reserve in the eradication of feral pests and weeds. As I said before, the work that our volunteers do across-the-board is to be commended and on this side of the house I thank all the volunteers and friends of all our parks and reserves across South Australia for their hard work and dedication.

Mr WINGARD (Mitchell) (11:55): I rise today also to speak on the motion put before the house by the member for Bright, and I acknowledge the great work that he has done, as follows:

That this house—

(a) acknowledges the importance of Glenthorne Farm as an environmental asset for South Australia and in particular, its role in providing vital open space in Adelaide's southern suburbs;

(b) recognises the Liberal Party's vision to create Glenthorne national park, preserving Glenthorne Farm, O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, Marino Conservation Park, Hallett Cove Conversation Park and the Field River Valley for future generations, while creating a recreational precinct focused on Majors Road at O'Halloran Hill; and

(c) calls on the government to fast-track the opening up of Happy Valley Reservoir so it can be enjoyed by South Australian families for recreational pursuits including fishing, sailing and kayaking.

I mentioned the great work that the member for Bright has done and it has been a pleasure to work alongside him. This precinct technically fits in my patch, as far as the state is divided up at the minute. However, as the member for Bright and I always say, our electorates are there for the community and communities cross over. We see this space as wonderful space that our community can use.

They have open days at Glenthorne Farm once a month or so, weather permitting. I think I have been up there half a dozen times and we have not been able to access the site because it has been too wet and too slippery. The fence that is around the farm is a very significant sign of the frustration that there is with Glenthorne Farm, in particular. People drive past it all the time and they cannot access this site. What the Liberal Party has put forward, again led by the member for Bright, is an absolutely brilliant plan to turn this space into a national park.

The member for Bright and I often hold listening posts around the Hallett Cove area, the Seacombe Road area, around our local communities and even at the Marion shopping centre. People love to talk about this policy, this idea and this vision for South Australia and the opportunities it creates, both from a recreational sense and also from a potential sporting sense. There are some great sporting clubs tucked away up there that people do not really know much about. This has exciting potential for the people of the south.

When you look at it from the bigger picture, it is in the member for Bright's and my backyard. I acknowledge that, and we are lucky to have it right there for our local communities, but this is a policy that has far greater reach. As the biggest national park in the metropolitan area, it will draw people from Adelaide and across South Australia to come and use this park, with the opportunity of walking trails and bike trails. I know the mountain bikers are very keen to work in this space as well.

I have had a lot to do with the O'Halloran Hill recreation team and a group of people I will talk about a bit later, who do a lot of work in removing weeds. Their frustration is that they get school groups up there and they come and do some work, but they are not drawn back to this space. It does not entice people in. The policy that we have put forward, again under the stewardship of the member for Bright, I think is incredibly exciting and has so much upside it is not funny.

As I said, I have been up there a number of times. Local people who live around the O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, which is the northern aspect, often have concerns about grasses overgrowing at this time of the year, around summertime, and they believe that in this whole bigger picture it will be looked after and taken care of. The park rangers looking after that area will be well resourced to make sure that this is a space that is open and accessible and there for people to use.

The member for Bright has talked about developers licking their lips as they drive past and see this vast parcel of land. If you get onto the internet and look through Google Maps, you can see how big a space it is. The concept of linking all these spaces together and making them one big facility is absolutely fantastic, as is the journey that we can go on with this. The member for Bright also pointed out very astutely that this is not something that is going to happen overnight. This is going to be a growth project that the community will be able to come along with and share in the journey.

We look at the young people in the local areas. A lot of great schools are in and around this area the member for Bright and I share. It is something that they are going to be able to start with as reception students, even kindy students, in the local area and grow through the development of this project. I think that they are going to relish it all the way along. When they are parents, they will be able to take their kids there and talk about the part they played in developing this precinct that overlooks Adelaide.

From a sporting perspective, there are a number of sporting groups there I would like to acknowledge. As I said, they are very much tucked in there. There is the archery club and the pistol club. I have spoken about the archery club in this place before. I have walked the course, but they did not give me a bow and arrow, which is probably a good thing. I am not so good with a bow and arrow (I have not done that since we did it as a subject at school), but it was wonderful to walk the course, and the views from this location are absolutely exquisite. I highly recommend that people get up there and have a look.

When I was walking the course and taking in the views, I realised how much this space and the opportunity there has been overlooked by this current government. It has been left to sit there and has not been opened up for people from right across South Australia to access. The opportunities are absolutely immense. In fact, the guys from the archery club were telling me that they had the police and fire games there a number of years back. The Americans came and competed, and they were just blown away by the views off Majors Road over the city and the coast. They thought that it was one of the most special places and a little bit of a secret. Alongside that, I mentioned the pistol club, which does a marvellous job.

Some of the walking trails through there at the moment have just been serviced by local volunteers, as we have been talking about. They are fantastic walking trails. With a bit more love, care, community help and support, they will be fantastic. We know that the state BMX centre is proposed to be there. We know that there are some concerns about the soil, so we are really keen to hear more from the government about this because the prospects were good. We are keen to follow through and see where that ends up. I know that the council now has a bit of concern around the money involved, so we will see where that takes us.

Riding for the Disabled is there as well and do a marvellous job. They are a great group of people who take people with disabilities riding. The passion and the smiles on their faces is just sensational. It is another part of this precinct that can be incorporated. There is vision for a soccer precinct and a driving range, too, so it really has great scope to be opened up for all the people of South Australia to be allowed to access this.

The history of the place has been mentioned briefly. I mentioned that Riding for the Disabled has a long history with horses. Of course, the military took ownership of this land in the early 1900s, I think it was, and of course the Australian Army trained troops and horses there as part of the Light Horse Brigade, as far as I am aware, so Glenthorne Farm has some great history. Of course, the first police commissioner, Mr O'Halloran, lived up there as well.

This is a great opportunity for South Australia and a wonderful vision. For so long, this precinct has sat there untouched, and people have been locked out. I think that the surrounding communities will just love having this opportunity literally in their backyard. As I said, it is wonderful for the entire state. Some of the people I have worked with very closely on the O'Halloran Hill site in particular include Mr John Bollinger. He really has been fantastic and does a marvellous job—he had me and Michelle Lensink from the other place up there removing weeds. Don Webster is also part of the Friends of O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park.

I said that Michelle Lensink from the other place and I were up there pulling weeds. The group works tirelessly to kill off the olive weeds, and I commend them for all the work they do in that vicinity. The other group that has long been a campaigner for this is the Friends of Glenthorne Farm. It is a very small but passionate group that has made a lot of noise about this over a number of years, but it has never been able to get any traction. Lo and behold, along comes the member for Bright and we engage with a few people in the community. I was lucky enough to get involved and follow along with the vision the member for Bright had from the work he had been doing over a long period of time.

We have come forward with this plan that this group has really never seen before and was probably unable to envisage because of its size. I remember that I was with the member for Bright the day we told Alan Burns about the vision and plan we had, and he broke down in tears. This is something he had always wanted but had never been able to implement. Again, I commend the member for Bright; he brought Mr Burns to tears not by upsetting him but because of joy, which showed on his face. It is truly admirable.

The scope we have for this is incredibly exciting. I could talk for a lot longer, but the member for Bright has covered a lot of the important points. This is a very exciting policy and it is one that the Marshall Liberal team is very keen to progress and deliver for the community of South Australia. It is something the local southern region will really embrace, as well as the whole of the state, having this precinct there that people can access, walk through, take in and really feel a part of. It is a great vision for South Australia's future, and we look forward to working with the community to deliver this.

Ms COOK (Fisher) (12:06): I move:

That the debate be adjourned.

The house divided on the motion:

Ayes 23

Noes 17

Majority 6

Motion thus carried; debate adjourned.