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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-09-10 Daily Xml
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Glenthorne National Park

Mr MURRAY (Davenport) (16:02): My question is directed to the Minister for Environment and Water. I ask the minister could he please update the house on the Marshall Liberal government's commitments to establish Glenthorne National Park in our southern suburbs?

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Minister for Environment and Water) (16:02): I thank the member for Davenport for a great question. It is always good to be able to update this house on the progress of one of the Marshall Liberal government's flagship environmental initiatives—that is, the creation of Glenthorne National Park in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

It is an area of land stretching from around Happy Valley Reservoir through the former Glenthorne Farm property and through to the sea around Marino Conservation Park and Hallett Cove Conservation Park, saving a body of land that was long-slated for development, that being Glenthorne Farm. That 200 hectares of open space is such an important piece of open space for the southern suburbs community. I think it was once described by Mike Rann as 'the lungs of the south'. He liked the quotes and the slogans but didn't actually do anything to save the lungs of the south.

That took the Marshall Liberal government, and that's exactly what we did. We said that if we got elected in March 2018, we would save that land from almost inevitable development and save it from 16 years of inaction—likely to be 22 years of inaction or 20-plus years of inaction under Labor should they have been re-elected. We know what their Glenthorne Lite—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member: They hate national parks.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: They do. They hate national parks, rangers, reservoirs, the River Murray, the Coorong—they hate lots of things. Anyway, we know with Glenthorne Lite that was pitched by Ian Hunter in the lead-up to the last election, the likelihood would be that the southern portion of that land would have been sold off for Tuscan villas and the like, and the northern part might have ended up as some sort of park.

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: But rest assured the Marshall Liberal government has saved this land. On 28 May 2020 that land was protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act and also rolled into the O'Halloran Hill Recreation Park in the north to create a body of land about 550 hectares or so of connected open space on both sides of Majors Road.

Since the house last sat, the loop trail, which gives the community access to that site for the first time in many, many decades, has opened, and the community can get into Glenthorne and explore what that site currently has to offer but also, perhaps more importantly, the environmental and recreational potential the site has in the medium to longer term. Glenthorne will take decades to unfold in its full environmental form, but we are getting there very quickly.

That loop trail, that 4½ or five kilometres or so, is enabling people to get in and explore the heavily vegetated creek line that runs through the property, where there are plenty of mature trees and shade. There is a lot of birdlife in there, a real corridor running through the property. They can then see the plans for the revegetation, the walking trails, the cycling, the picnic sites and, potentially, camping further down the track as that site is brought to life.

On 2 August, National Tree Day, it was great to have the Premier and many members of the community come along to Glenthorne to take part in the inaugural community tree planting on that site. Over the coming years we will plant in excess of 100,000 trees in Glenthorne National Park, and this planting season—which is coming to an end in a few weeks' time as the weather warms up—we will get around 35,000 new trees and shrubs into the site. It is all part of greening Glenthorne and creating a great place that people can enjoy. It is great for the wellbeing of the southern suburbs and, of course, securing that legacy—the lungs of the south.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for West Torrens is warned, the member for Playford is warned for the second time, the member for Kaurna is called to order, the member for Newland is called to order, the member for Lee is warned, the member for Cheltenham is warned. Notwithstanding the present difficulties, given the COVID restrictions, it is important that order is maintained throughout the chamber. The member for Elizabeth.

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