Park lands promises: Long-road for world heritage, golf course consultation extended

Three sections of the Adelaide park lands are under the microscope of various council and government decision-makers, and each issue has a key First Nations component.

Aug 06, 2025, updated Aug 06, 2025
Adelaide City Council is in the process of nominating the park lands for UNESCO World Heritage listing. Meanwhile, other park lands projects are under the microscope. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily.
Adelaide City Council is in the process of nominating the park lands for UNESCO World Heritage listing. Meanwhile, other park lands projects are under the microscope. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily.

Achieving UNESCO World Heritage Status for Adelaide’s park lands could still be a decade away, with no financial commitment from the state government so far.

Last night, the Adelaide City Council’s Planning, Development and Business Affairs Committee heard the First Nations consent process will take at least another year, and the whole process could take 10 years.

The city’s World Heritage bid began at the end of 2018, and securing the status is one of the goals in the council’s Heritage Strategy, which spans to 2036.

Adelaide City Council’s City Shaping Director Ilia Houridis said the submission is “largely drafted” but now requires consent from traditional owners.

“We can’t be seen to be pushing communities to an outcome, and then we are on an annual basis of submission, so we can’t submit at any point in time,” Houridis said.

“Then we’re also subject to the assessment periods and questions that may come back through UNESCO, so we’ve previously shown some case studies that these processes can be anywhere up to a decade by the time they’re realised.”

In its 2025-26 budget, the council allocated $178,000 to the bid, and currently, there is no financial contribution from the state government.

Ahead of the 2022 election, the Malinauskas government committed to working with the council to explore the heritage listing of the park lands.

Houridis said currently, the government is involved from an “in-kind” perspective and the final submission will require state government approval.

Former Liberal leader David Speirs backed the bid when he was Environment Minister under the Marshall Government in 2019, but foreshadowed that the process would take time.

Current leader Vincent Tarzia reiterated the Opposition’s commitment to the bid in his June budget reply.

From early discussions with traditional owners, the council were told the process, including relationship building, before First Nations consent is granted may take an additional year, meaning they won’t be able to submit their bid until February 2027.

There are multiple representative groups involved because the bid isn’t just for the park lands, but is grouped with the Mount Lofty Ranges.

The Mount Lofty Ranges bid started in 2013 by the Adelaide Hills Council, and a report recommended it fold into the city park lands application in 2020, making the tentative submission cover “Adelaide and its Rural Settlement Landscapes”.

Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the rural settlement part of the bid is “weird”, but it’s probably inevitable.

“We’re all fairly impatient about this, and I think for many of us newer members of council, it is weird this rural settlement,” she said.

“It is challenging for me to understand what the point of it is, and the people involved with that bid get really angry every time I ask them, but they have never actually managed to convince me it’s A: worth a bid and B: isn’t slowing us down.”

Council staff are working with seven different Aboriginal language groups that are the traditional owners of the areas covered by the bid.

This includes the Kaurna Yerta Aboriginal Corporation, First Peoples of the River Murray and Mallee, Ngadjuri Nation, Ngarrindjeri and Peramangk Aboriginal Corporations.

Houridis said just because there are more parties, it doesn’t mean the process will be slower.

Lomax-Smith pointed to the World Heritage Bid from the Flinders Ranges’ Nilpena Ediacara National Park, which has “overtaken” the Adelaide park lands bid.

“I’m sure it’s because we’re being held back with the multiple consultations, so I’ve said this many times, but I don’t think we can escape the rural settlement landscapes even though I’d very much like to,” she said.

The Malinauskas Government invested $4 million in the 2025-26 state budget to expand the Nilpena Ediacara National Park.

No plans yet for future safe gathering place

The council wants to see more action from the state government after hearing the Department of Human Services is under-resourced and has no plan yet for a long-term solution for the Aboriginal support service known as “Safer Place to Gather” operating in Edwards Park, in the west park lands.

The Department of Human Services (DHS) asked the council’s City Community and Culture Committee for an extension on its park lands license to keep the program in Edwards Park.

DHS representatives said it was “too optimistic” that they would have a long-term solution and could move the site by now.

Safer Place to Gather includes marquees, tents and bedding and works with cultural advisors, social workers and SAPOL to provide services to people travelling to Adelaide from remote communities and connects them with health services or returning to country where it’s safe to do so.

The current license expires at the end of August, and councillors are frustrated at the need for an extension when the current set-up was supposed to be temporary.

“The problem is we keep being told we don’t have the resources because the state government isn’t giving enough priority to this issue,” councillor Janet Giles said on Tuesday.

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The state government committed $490,000 to the program in 2023, with the aim that it would only continue to early 2024, or longer, if required”.

“I’m really frustrated by this because last time we met, we all agreed that it wasn’t ideal to have a place like Edwards Park as a permanent solution,” Giles said.

“It’s shameful if we can’t work out an alternative solution.”

When asked how much funding DHS would need to find a permanent solution, chief executive Sandy Pitcher told the committee: “because we don’t know what the business case will turn into, I don’t know how much money I need”.

“I do think we’re making a lot of progress,” Pitcher said.

“I’ll probably have more optimism that we can get a solution in the future because we are seeing what happens in other places and taking those learnings,” Pitcher said.

The committee recommended extending the lease, but asked the Lord Mayor to write to the minister expressing the council’s concerns, and requested an additional meeting with DHS in November for a progress report. The council will vote on this next week.

Aboriginal consultation extended for controversial golf course

Special legislation to allow the state government to own and upgrade the North Adelaide Golf Course bypasses planning consultation requirements, except the Aboriginal Heritage Act. Photo: Helen Karakulak/InDaily

The Aboriginal Affairs Minister has extended a golf course consultation with the Aboriginal Community after a councillor labelled the process “tokenistic”.

The consultation with traditional owners and Aboriginal community groups for the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment has been extended to August 21, giving the community three extra weeks to respond.

The original closure date was July 31.

The golf course redevelopment is located at Possum Park / Pirltawardli (Park 1) and its surrounds. These parks are considered a “sacred site” to the Kaurna community and hold burial sites of traditional owners. 

A spokesperson for the government’s Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation department said the consultation was extended “at the request of traditional owners”.

“The original consultation timelines are consistent with Aboriginal heritage applications more broadly. At the request of Traditional Owners, consultation on this application has been extended for an additional three weeks,” the spokesperson said.

This comes after Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith wrote to the state government asking them to consider a five-week extension.

The letter was prompted by Adelaide City Councillor Janet Giles who said the consultation was “tokenistic” and inappropriate given there are still no clear plans for the golf course.

“The way that Aboriginal people and the Kaurna traditional owners are being consulted is, in my view, tokenistic, and it’s also culturally inappropriate,” Giles said at the July 22 council meeting.

The letter also requested an additional in-person Aboriginal Community Consultation meeting hosted in the City of Adelaide.

InDaily asked the Aboriginal Affairs department if another meeting has been scheduled, as there have been no details of any more in-person meetings publicised by the department.

A spokesperson said “Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation will continue its comprehensive consultation process which involves online submissions, and options for one-on-one verbal submissions”.

In the original consultation, only one in-person meeting with the Aboriginal community was held on July 19 at the Mawson Lakes Hotel.

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