Sturt Gorge Recreation Park

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (15:00): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, and Water, a question about Sturt Gorge Recreation Park.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: Over the last year or so, a good deal of work has been done building new walking and mountain bike trails in the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park. However, there is one remaining missing link, and that is a pedestrian crossing over the Sturt River at the site of the massive flood control dam. If members are not familiar with this, it is one of the largest structures in Adelaide that most people have never seen. It is difficult to gauge its height but it must be 50 or more metres in height. Made in 1965, it is a monumental structure.

The public have access to both sides of the dam; in fact, there is a public footpath accessible to the public that goes to the spillway in the centre, but what is missing is a pedestrian crossing of the last 20 or 30 metres. At this section of the Sturt River, there is no road crossing between Blacks Road in Coromandel Valley and down near Flinders University at South Road, which is eight, maybe even 10 kilometres. There is no way of crossing it. There is a 20-metre gap.

I note that the advantage of filling that gap would be that the two halves, if you like, of Sturt Gorge Recreation Park would be joined. The suburbs of Flagstaff Hill and Bellevue Heights would be joined. It would be a superb sea-to-summit route because it is popular. I know the minister is fond of bushwalking, but you can actually walk from the gulf to the top of Mount Lofty through bushland and recreation parks most of the way, if not for this missing link.

The final bit of information is that I note that the management plan for the Sturt Gorge Recreation Park includes as one of its strategies continued negotiations with SA Water, who own the dam, for public access across the dam wall. My question to the minister is: what consideration has been given to this important project which has been called for not only in the government's own management plan for the park but also by the Friends of Sturt Gorge Recreation Park?

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation, Minister for Water and the River Murray, Minister for Climate Change) (15:02): What an excellent question from an excellent local member! He is getting in touch with his bushwalking skills, and I hope to see him one day do the gulf to Mount Lofty walk in one go. That would be something to watch.

The Hon. M.C. Parnell: I've done it in a day. It's 30 kilometres.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: You've done it in a day. Excellent work!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER: Other way around—gulf to Mount Lofty, I said, not Mount Lofty to the gulf. I thank the honourable member again for raising the topic. It is something that members of the local community and the Friends group have sought for some time, but for reasons of public safety, SA Water have to this date, as far as I know anyway, withheld their position on this matter.

I have not discussed this with SA Water for some time, I must confess, so I will undertake to take this question back to them and see what their current thinking is. But I know, from speaking previously to people involved in this discussion, that it has been an issue of public safety that has been the major concern. I will see if there has been any progress for the honourable member and bring back a response.