Calls for release of venue list return after new tower gets green light

Community activists and a live music venue owner have resumed calls for the state government to release the final version of a list of venues in the CBD that would receive protections under legislation passed nine months ago.

Jul 15, 2025, updated Jul 15, 2025
Hindley Street Music Hall is less than 60 metres away from a newly approved student accommodation development. Photo: Johnny von Einem/CityMag.
Hindley Street Music Hall is less than 60 metres away from a newly approved student accommodation development. Photo: Johnny von Einem/CityMag.

The co-owner of a Hindley Street entertainment venue fears he could be hit with noise complaints weekly once a new $400 million student accommodation tower is erected behind Trinity Church at 88 North Terrace.

The new development, set to be completed in April 2028, is less than 60 metres away from Hindley Street Music Hall, and thus may have been forced to include extra noise attenuation measures if the state government had released its list of ‘Designated Live Music Venues’.

Legislation preventing the demolition of the Crown & Anchor pub passed in September 2024, which also created a new ‘live music venue area’ in the Adelaide CBD.

This zone grants protections to certain live music venues that are to be selected by Planning Minister Nick Champion.

Specifically, the Act prescribes that residential developments within 60 metres of a listed venue must be developed with noise attenuation measures.

In documents seen by InDaily, Minister for Planning Nick Champion sent a draft list of “Proposed Designated Live Music Venues” to stakeholders in October last year, but a finalised list is yet to be published.

In determining whether to designate a venue as a “live music venue”, the minister will consider a number of factors such as the extent to which the venue is used for live music, whether there is likely to be a residential development within 60 meters of the venue, whether the venue is a place of state or local heritage and more.

The proposed list was:

  • The Austral
  • Crown & Anchor Hotel
  • The Crown and Sceptre
  • The Cumby
  • The Exeter Hotel
  • Gilbert Street Hotel
  • Grace Emily Hotel
  • Hindley Street Music Hall
  • The Hotel Metropolitan
  • The Jade
  • Jive
  • Rhino Room
  • Shotgun Willie’s
  • The Stag
  • The West Oak

When the legislation was announced, the state government said: “To further enshrine Adelaide’s reputation as UNESCO’s City of Music, the State Government will also amend planning laws to protect significant live music pubs in the City of Adelaide area from neighbour complaints”.

“The bill will require the installation of noise attenuation and or acoustic treatments on future developments built alongside key live music venues,” it read.

But nine months since the legislation passed, the final list of Designated Live Music Venues is nowhere to be seen.

A spokesperson said the state government was “still considering the best ways to safeguard significant live music venues in the CBD and wider South Australian community”.

It is unclear whether the 88 North Terrace development would attract the attention of the Act, given the only developments that have to comply with the regulations are “residential developments” and does not include “development primarily for the purposes of a hotel or motel or to provide any other form of temporary residential accommodation for valuable consideration”.

But the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) decision included the following reserved matter, which will cover additional noise mitigation treatments where necessary as part of the detailed design stage of the development:

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“The reserved matter is in response to noise mitigation measures that were recommended as part of the acoustic report submitted by the applicant and considered by SCAP,” a state government spokesperson said.

“These outcomes will ensure both the potential noise emissions from the site as well as noise intrusion into the development are managed for acceptable occupant amenity.”

Hindley Street Music Hall co-owner Craig Lock said it was “concerning” that the list was not yet finalised.

“What we definitely wouldn’t want to happen is the tower being built and then we’re receiving noise complaints every week about a business that’s been running for a couple of years,” he told InDaily.

“Who knows if this is going to be a huge problem, but it would be nice to have those protections that had already been negotiated as part of that Crown & Anchor situation.

“To take nine months to release a list of venues… you think they would have had that together by now.”

Save the Cranker/Music Culture Adelaide chair Evan Morony called on the state government to “work out why it is that they’ve been dragging their feet on this issue”.

“There’s multiple venues that are at risk of development that would have been covered by the list and were written on the provisional list,” Morony said.

“We feel that we demonstrated in good faith a voice for the community through the Designated Live Music Venues Report that we did for them.

“The government needs to step to it and provide music venues the protection that they acknowledged was needed.”

88 North Terrace is not the only newly approved development that may have attracted the attention of the Act; an 18-storey tower with 80 build-to-rent apartments behind the historic Cumberland Arms Hotel on Waymouth Street was approved by SCAP.

The Grace Emily Hotel is one venue listed on the government’s draft list of Designated Live Music Venues, and is less than 60 metres away from the proposed development.

Further, a prominent Hindley Street site on the same block as live music venue Jive was listed for sale, with agents advertising the “significant development opportunities” to would-be buyers.

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