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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-03-19 Daily Xml
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Glenthorne National Park

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (14:37): My question is directed to the Minister for Environment and Water. Could the minister please update the house on the progress of the Glenthorne National Park and, in particular, the open days that are occurring in the coming months?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (14:37): It is always good to be able to update this house on the progress towards one of our flagship environmental projects, that is, the creation of Glenthorne National Park. How much happened with Glenthorne after 16 years of Labor? Nothing. In fact, cosying up to their developer mates, they were probably looking to flog big chunks of it off and preserve a little component for the public. Under this state Liberal government, we are preserving this incredible 208 hectares of open space—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: —working with the University of Adelaide to bring that into public ownership at the moment, and opening those gates on 5, 6 and 7 April 2019 to stakeholders, members of our community, and people who are passionate about the environment and keen to see the recreational opportunities and environmental restoration opportunities that will be created as a result of bringing these 208 hectares of open space into the public realm and investing in it for both recreational and environmental opportunities.

We know that this piece of land, which sits between Main South Road and the Southern Expressway, has so much value. It forms a much broader open space corridor from Happy Valley Reservoir, moving through Glenthorne, O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, Marino Conservation Park, Hallett Cove Conservation Park, the coast along there as well, and the Field River valley—some 1,500 hectares of open space. We know that for biodiversity to survive and thrive, it needs space, and that is the critical component of the creation of Glenthorne National Park.

It is winding together important areas of open space. For the first time, at the beginning of April, the broader community can get in and explore that. They can have their say as to what they want to see occur at Glenthorne National Park, whether that's walking and biking trails, camping opportunities, an interpretive centre perhaps, a nature playground and adventure opportunities. All of these things will have the opportunity to unfold at Glenthorne National Park.

We have already invested $300,000 of additional funding in the creation of mountain biking trails, and that is making O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, just to the north of Glenthorne Farm, a go-to destination for mountain biking in our state. We know that's a growing sport, a sport that people will visit South Australia to partake in and, in the mountain biking precinct that we have established at O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park, there are incredible views of the city and the sea, as well as $300,000 worth of new trails that have been implemented.

We have established the Glenthorne Partnership so that this new national park is not handed down to the community by government but is developed by the community from the grassroots up. That is led by local businesspeople, representatives from local schools, environmental groups that have a long history of working on the site, young people, people with a background in heritage who are putting forward ideas and helping us to manage and create and curate that vision for Glenthorne National Park.

This is an incredible opportunity for our state. It's a flagship environmental project. Of course, I look forward to inviting everyone who is a member of this chamber to come along on 5, 6 and 7 April to see the possibilities.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is called to order and warned for a second and final time. The member for Lee.

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