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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-11-17 Daily Xml
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Motions

Golden Grove Road

Ms LUETHEN (King) (12:38): I move:

That this house—

(a) celebrates the one-year anniversary of the turning of the sod of the Golden Grove stage 1 project on 11 December 2019;

(b) acknowledges that this project supported up to 65 jobs over the life of the project;

(c) looks forward to stage 2 completion, which will support up to 70 jobs per year over the life of the project; and

(d) acknowledges that this project will reduce congestion, improve safety and deliver better outcomes for the north-east community.

With delight, I rise to celebrate the anniversary of the turning of the sod of the Golden Grove Road upgrade in December. The Golden Grove upgrade was not just a few politicians with shovels at the sod but a large group of local people and business owners who donned hard hats and dug in with 10 shovels, because this campaign was a community campaign.

The main construction works for the $20 million stage 1 started in December 2019 and was completed in 2020. Stage 1 supported around 65 full-time equivalent jobs over the life of the project. The works are being undertaken by South Australian-based company Civil & Allied Technical Construction Pty Ltd or, as we affectionately call them, CATCON. I am proud that the South Australian Marshall Liberal government committed $20 million towards delivering stage 1.

Since my election in March 2018, I have continued to fight for this upgrade to be delivered. On 28 February 2019, I presented to the parliamentary Public Works Committee to advocate on behalf of the King electorate for support for the critical upgrade of the perilous Golden Grove Road. Having lived in Golden Grove for over 20 years, I have seen this region develop into one of the best suburbs in the world. In my earlier days growing up close by in Ingle Farm, I even used to ride my trail bikes in the green paddocks, which are now our beautiful housing development.

Golden Grove's star keeps rising. In The Advertiser last week, on 11 November, Golden Grove was dubbed a national rising star. It was reported that Golden Grove has been listed as a stand-out for its infrastructure and amenities, including local schools and green spaces, with strong demand from tenants and buyers, and rents and prices rising. I was so excited to read that The Advertiser proudly noted:

Major local investment includes the $50m Golden Grove Rd upgrade, while a new $33m Park ‘n’ Ride is currently being built to service increasing commuter demands.

The suburb’s median house price jumped almost 10 per cent over the last quarter to $565,000.

Those who live in Golden Grove, Greenwith and Surrey Downs know the local area is a wonderful green suburb, and people are always out walking and jogging. We have numerous walking trails, creek lines and parks, such as Cobbler Creek Recreation Park, great playgrounds, early settler landmarks and orchards, well-kept houses and gardens, and we have an excellent choice and combination of public and independent schools.

However, amongst this beauty, one section of road on the north-east of Golden Grove Road after 25 years remained an ignored, untouched, unsafe, dilapidated, dusty, potholed, old country road. I campaigned on behalf of my community to fix Golden Grove Road for over four years both on council and then in the run-up to the state election, because this section of Golden Grove Road is an essential local road used by thousands of northern and north-eastern suburbs locals each day. Businesses such as local quarries, trucking companies, Garden Grove and real estate companies must frequent this road. The Tea Tree Gully council have moved its service centre and its truck and car fleet to this section of Golden Grove Road too.

There was inadequate investment into this section of the road for over 20 years, as numerous housing developments took place as the local population grew, which led to many issues, including:

the road was too narrow to cater for existing traffic flows of cars, bikes, B-double trucks, with turning cars and stopping buses creating chaos;

the poor condition of the road surface and lack of overtaking lanes created significant safety risks;

there was limited lighting alongside the road, causing safety risks for drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and commuters at night;

locals had no safe place to walk or to wait for a bus. No footpaths forced people to walk on very uneven dirt, around bushes on the road and often on muddy tracks;

insufficient stormwater drainage caused the road to flood every time it rained. This stormwater run-off towards the adjacent homes was a key issue;

the notoriously busy intersection at Hancock Road and Golden Grove Road was unsafe for local traffic, with people needing to grit their teeth and plant their foot to get across the road safely;

the extremely poor condition of the road caused excessive noise for residents, as countless trucks bumped along this road and the unevenness of the road caused quarry and garden trucks to unintentionally release dirt into the air, which covered our homes and outdoor areas.

As a councillor at Tea Tree Gully council, I and my co-councillor Bernie Keane wrote to the previous state Labor government to ask about the plans to have this section of Golden Grove Road upgraded. The previous Labor government wrote back telling us it was not a priority. A year or so later, because our local community continued to share their grave concerns and frustrations with me, I again wrote personally to the previous state government on behalf of my community, requesting this upgrade to be prioritised. I received an acknowledgement but still no action.

In 2017, local residents and businesses, all heavily dependent on this stretch of road, made it abundantly clear to the previous Labor government that upgrading this section of road was a priority for people and businesses in King. People signed my petition and they honked their horns. Today in the King electorate we certainly have a strong, united community living in Golden Grove. A very engaged community of over 1,200 people signed my Fix Golden Grove Road petition asking for the Labor government to prioritise this upgrade of road.

In addition, we had the support of local businesses such as Garden Grove, local hairdresser 1385 The Hair Bar, local pizza bar, Aroma Pizza House, and Sam Domain Ray White sharing the petition and urging locals to support the petition to fix Golden Grove Road. Even the Tea Tree Gully mall walkers gave me petition pages full of signatures. My colleagues the member for Newland and the Minister for Innovation and Skills came out to support the roadside campaign and get the petition signed.

Our local campaign for Golden Grove Road resulted in $20 million being promised to fix the Golden Grove Road. I was so pleased that during consultation on the first draft of the upgrade plan hundreds of locals came out to have their say on the upgrade and to personally look at and provide feedback on the concept plan over three days. I take this moment to thank residents, local businesses, my friends and colleagues for the colossal effort to prioritise the fix of Golden Grove Road. Our local King community had been waiting over 20 years for this stretch of road to be safe and to reflect the standard of roads throughout the rest of the Golden Grove development.

Today, on stage 1 of Golden Grove Road we have a great new roundabout at the junction of Golden Grove Road and Hancock Road, protected right-turn lanes to keep traffic moving safely, on-road bike lanes in each direction, improved pedestrian facilities including footpaths and pedestrian crossing facilities, and indented bus bays. I get ongoing feedback from people, young and old, every week about how well this road works. There is also kerbing, guttering, drainage and road resurfacing, as well as new and upgraded road lighting.

Initially, I had to fight for the City of Tea Tree Gully elected members to honour their previous commitment to provide paths alongside the road, and I thank local residents and the member for Schubert for joining me at a council meeting to advocate heavily for the footpaths. I thank Councillor Bernie Keane who stood up for local residents and the need for the council to provide the necessary council infrastructure required to complete this road upgrade.

Footpaths are a council responsibility and for so many years when I was on the council the council had said, 'When the road is upgraded, we will provide the footpaths.' Labor Party members, Councillor Brett Rankine, Councillor Peter Field, Councillor Lucas Jones and Councillor Olivia Savvas all voted against footpaths alongside Golden Grove Road and used this important matter of footpaths to score political points rather than concentrate on getting the job done that the ratepayers of the City of Tea Tree Gully had asked for. Fortunately the voices from our community were more powerful and stronger when combined together, and the right outcome was finally achieved for our local community.

Furthermore, the City of Tea Tree Gully and the state government have now partnered to provide $325,000 to landscape Golden Grove Road stage 1 and the City of Tea Tree Gully have told me they will complete this step of the project by the end of the year. If you drive down the road you can see the little sticks where all the trees are about to go. They told me that, at the end, there will be more trees alongside Golden Grove Road than there were before.

The Marshall Liberal government's $20 million investment in Golden Grove Road has now grown to $50 million. That is $50 million of investment that our local community have fought hard for over many long years. Stage 2 works are focused on Golden Grove Road between Kunzea Way and Park Lake Drive. Intersections are being upgraded to ease congestion and reduce bus travel times on the road. We will work to improve traffic flow with additional through lanes on Golden Grove Road and turning lanes. Stage 2 involves upgrades including the Golden Grove Road/The Grove Way/Yatala Vale Road signalised intersection upgrade with:

second right-turn lane from The Grove Way approach;

second through lanes on Golden Grove Road approaches;

protected right-turn lane at Highgrove Road junction;

on-road bike lanes in each direction;

kerb and gutter, drainage, road resurfacing, as well as new and upgraded road lighting, lighting up a very dark old road;

improved pedestrian facilities, including new footpath and pedestrian crossing facilities; and

indented bus bays.

In even more good news, CATCON, which is a local business, which does employ many local people, have secured the second stage of the $30 million stage 2 Golden Grove Road upgrade, creating another 70 jobs. You can see people working out there every day. I thank, for their terrific work, leadership and collaboration, David Baker, Nathan King from Catcon, George Panagopoulos and Surinder from the DIT team and all the team working on the road every day. The Golden Grove Road upgrade means more jobs and better services in our local community. We are also backing local businesses with this upgrade.

Thank you for the opportunity to move this motion today and recognise the awesome progress that has been made in the King electorate to fix Golden Grove Road. I love driving down this road, seeing people walking and jogging safely, seeing people step off the buses onto concrete and not uneven dirt and mud, seeing people cycle safely without having to risk their lives, seeing people flow from Hancock Road onto Golden Grove Road. I very much enjoyed my first 10 laps of going around the new roundabout.

This project has reduced congestion, improved safety and is delivering better outcomes for the north-east community. Of course, there is still more to do and I implore people to keep their feedback, ideas and ambitions for our local area coming so together we can keep making sure King is the best place to live and work. I will continue to work hard every day and get on with the job of delivering for my King constituents. We will fix Golden Grove Road and we will achieve so much more together because King matters and people living in the north matter too.

Mr BOYER (Wright) (12:52): I rise to speak on this motion. Perhaps I could provide somewhat of a different perspective on how the upgrade of Golden Grove Road came to fruition. Some of the facts I seek to share with the house now I think may not align completely with the preceding comments from the member for King. Nonetheless, this is how I recall the machinations that led up to not just the campaign to have Golden Grove Road upgraded but how funding actually came to be committed to make sure that much-needed upgrade was actually realised.

As part of the 2017 Mid-Year Budget Review or the 2017 midyear budget, the former Labor government approved $20 million to begin works on upgrading a 3.4-kilometre section of Golden Grove Road that stretched from One Tree Hill Road to Park Lake Drive. Park Lake Drive is one of the entrances to Wynn Vale, not far from our Wynn Vale Dam and just opposite the Golden Grove Tavern, which the member for King mentioned in her remarks, and is a very busy part of the north-eastern suburbs and one that is not only near a very busy suburban area but also near a very popular pub and shopping centre, being the Surrey Downs Shopping Centre.

Certainly as a member of state parliament who represents the area of Wynn Vale in this place, I have had many constituents over probably five years now talk to me about the need for an upgrade not just of that stretch of Golden Grove Road—and I do not for a second suggest that the upgrade was not needed; it absolutely was—but also for something specifically to be done about the very busy intersection where Golden Grove Road intersects with Park Lake Drive into Wynn Vale, which is not only the entrance for many people to where they live, but is also where a lot of parents access St Francis Xavier's Regional Catholic School, which is one of the biggest Catholic primary schools in the north-eastern suburbs and has historically had a lot of issues with traffic in the streets in and around the school there.

There was no doubt that something needed to be done, and as part of that Mid-Year Budget Review in 2017 the then Labor government approved $20 million to begin works on that 3.4-kilometre section on Golden Grove Road from One Tree Hill Road to Park Lake Drive. Early exploration and service location works actually began in January and February of 2018. I refer to these two dates, being the Mid-Year Budget Review of 2017 and those early exploration and location works being commenced in January and February of 2018, because, of course, that was under the tenure of the previous Labor government.

Although the member for King has given her own version of how this road came to be upgraded, I think in the spirit of transparency it is important for residents of the north-eastern suburbs—many thousands of whom use Golden Grove Road on a daily basis, and I count myself in that number—to know who actually started this project, and that was under the former Labor government.

Although I am happy to state that I think the road needed to be upgraded earlier than it was—I think growth in that part of the north-eastern suburbs greatly outstripped improvements to the roads and upgrades in areas like Golden Grove Road, and it should have happened earlier—nonetheless, the government that actually committed the money that started this really important local project was, in fact, the former Labor government.

Perhaps the most important part of that upgrade was at the other end of the section of Golden Grove Road, that 3.4-kilometre section, where Hancock and Golden Grove roads intersected. This is immediately adjacent to Garden Grove, which many people in this chamber I think would be familiar with. It is an incredibly successful South Australian business. It started as a smaller family business and has grown into an incredible success story that, from memory, employs something like 160 staff.

I have had the pleasure of seeing their trucks on roads all across South Australia and into the Northern Territory as well. They are fantastic: a garden nursery, cafe, and now a steel dealership as well—it is where I go to get my things serviced once I mistreat them. They are incredibly busy. There is a lot of traffic there, and that was a shocking intersection; there is absolutely no doubt about it. It is a miracle that no-one came to more serious grief there.

This first 3.4-kilometre section of works saw the installation of a roundabout there. As someone who has used that roundabout on countless occasions and spoken to many local residents who use it on a daily basis to get to and from work or to and from their house or to drop the kids off at school, I am happy to say it is a huge improvement on what used to be there. I have no doubt that not only will there be fewer traffic incidents than had occurred in the past but also it will be much safer for cyclists and pedestrians who use the area.

There are a number of people who live behind or around Garden Grove who cross down to Tilley Reserve, just off Hancock Road, and might walk the dog or have a kick of the football or soccer ball or walk down to play tennis or something like that. They can now move through that intersection and down Hancock Road with a lot more safety than they could in the past.

Of course, what intervened between the commitment of the $20 million in the 2017 Mid-Year Budget Review and the change in government was the commencement of what was called the North East Public Transport Study. How could I characterise that? Well, it was billed by former and current ministers for transport basically as the panacea to all the public transport woes, real or perceived, in the north-eastern suburbs.

We waited a long time for it. We were told, when the former Minister for Transport, the member for Schubert, was still in that role, that it had been received and that he was looking forward to speaking about it publicly and that it would not be long until we got to see it. Then we had a change of minister, and the new minister seemed far less keen on publicly releasing that document. Here we are, years later, and the North East Public Transport Study still has not been publicly released. I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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