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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-06-17 Daily Xml
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Glenthorne National Park

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (15:07): It is good to be able to make a presentation this afternoon on the—

Mr Picton: What about the Hallett Cove buses, all those buses in Hallett Cove?

The SPEAKER: The member for Kaurna can leave for half an hour under 137A.

The honourable member for Kaurna having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Environment and Water has the call.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: It is good to be able to update the house today on the creation of Glenthorne National Park or Ityamaiitpinna Yarta, the co-name, which we have worked on with the Kaurna traditional owners of that park.

It was a historic occasion for the southern suburbs when on 28 May this year the Governor in Executive Council was able to proclaim this new national park in Adelaide's southern suburbs—a unique opportunity to weave a new national park into the suburbs and create opportunities for many South Australians to be able to engage with this open space, to be able to connect with nature and to be able to immerse themselves in green areas in a way that will be good for their wellbeing, where they can learn, where they can grow their knowledge and understanding of the natural environment and where they can recreate with their friends and family.

This has been a vision I have been working on with the local community since 2016, and it is so great to be able to see it come to fruition and take a big step forward. In October 2019, we were able to secure the tenure of the Glenthorne Farm property, that 208 hectares of open space on the south side of Majors Road at O'Halloran Hill. We secured that tenure and an agreement with the University of Adelaide, and since then we have been working on a master plan to unfold in the coming months and years to bring that 208 hectares of open space to life, to create a place where people can go to enjoy themselves, to immerse themselves in that open space, and also to create a place that becomes part of a vibrant open space corridor stretching from the Hills behind Happy Valley through the Happy Valley Reservoir area across Glenthorne and O'Halloran Hill into the coastal areas at Hallett Cove through the Field River area and at Marino Conservation Park as well.

This is a precinct that the Marshall Liberal government is investing significantly in. We are investing in a state BMX facility on Majors Road. We are investing in a new soccer precinct on Majors Road. We have invested over $2 million in the upgrade of the Hallett Cove Boardwalk. That will be extended, repaired and revitalised. It is one of South Australia's great local walks. It attracts people from the local area and also from further afield and forms a key part of the broader Glenthorne precinct. We are taking multiple areas of open space. We are investing in them and we are bringing them to life to ensure that they are secured for future generations and that they are able to be a great asset for our natural environment and our wildlife.

A real dark cloud hung over the Glenthorne Farm site for many, many years. Throughout the 16 years of Labor government, it regularly came under threat of being sold off to development. We said in 2016 that we did not want houses built on that site; we wanted to bring it to life and we wanted to work alongside the local community—the passionate local community—to ensure that it was preserved and met the needs of the local community. We want the vision for Glenthorne and the master plan, as it is developed and rolled out, to bubble up from the community.

That is why we have formed the Glenthorne Partnership, a group of highly engaged local people connected into the area who can use their networks to feed ideas and opinions into the planning for Glenthorne and ensure we get this right. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a new urban national park. We need to get it right and we need to have the community involved at every single step of the way. That is why this Glenthorne Partnership model is so innovative and will lead to so much success for this new national park.

I want to take the opportunity this afternoon to thank the members of the partnership for their work to date: our chair, David Greenhough; our City of Marion councillor, Ian Crossland; chair of the Hallett Cove Business Association, Marie Soliman; Alan Wilson from the Friends of Marino Conservation Park; the patron of Friends of Glenthorne, Pam Smith; Corey Turner, a Kaurna leader; Alan Burns, the secretary of the Friends of Glenthorne; Kinda Snyder from Friends of Pine Gully; Chris Thornton, an expert in environmental communications; Kersten Stengel, who has an education background; John Hoult from O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park; local parent and outdoor educator, Tash Howard; and Bob Major from Friends of Hallett Cove Conservation Park. They are great local people partnering with the government to drive the vision for Glenthorne National Park forward.

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