‘A lot of work to be done’: Quarter of Mount Barker’s rezoned farmland developed in 15 years
Only 25 per cent of rezoned land in Mount Barker has been developed in 15 years after a controversial planning decision. InDaily explores the challenges and triumphs of developing in the area and what Adelaide Hills leaders want to see as it continues to grow. Watch the video.
About 25 per cent of 1300 hectares of farming land that was rezoned for housing in 2010 has been developed, according to the Mount Barker District Council.
The council said it did not have further information about the breakdown of the remaining 75 per cent and how much was in progress or vacant but that it was actively upgrading the processes for tracking that data.
The rezoning was executed to accommodate future urban growth with the then-current version of Greater Adelaide’s 30-year plan.
A 2010 cabinet document, acquired by InDaily via FOI, said the Mount Barker rezoning targeted the first 15 years of the 30-year plan.
Mount Barker Mayor David Leach told InDaily that 15 years on, “there’s a lot of work to be done”.
“This council and this community did not invite that subdivision to happen,” he said.
“We knew that it was probably inevitable that it was going to happen but now that has happened, what we’d like to see is a fair amount of money from the state and federal government to ensure that we can make this the most liveable part of the greater Adelaide region.”
Leach pointed to a $200 million investment in wastewater infrastructure as “heavy-lifting” the council has done, after a promised SA Water sewer service slated to cater for growth never occurred.
“That’s a problem all over South Australia that some of the housing is waiting on the infrastructure,” Leach said.
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Planning minister Nick Champion told InDaily in September that “the private sector, the state government and council all play an important role in providing infrastructure to support sustainable growth in Mount Barker”.
“Additional growth in Mount Barker will occur in a sensible and planned manner within the land currently zoned for urban development,” he said.
“This will continue to provide a steady supply of homes in Mount Barker over the next 10 to 15 years, contributing to new regional infrastructure, population, workforce and local jobs.”
In June 2025 – as the council’s debt projection was forecast to reach $61 million –the council called for other levels of government to invest $48 million in wastewater projects, public transport, education and road upgrades.
Leach said he wanted to see arterial roads built “sooner rather than later”.
“If we’re only 25 per cent of the way to developing those new areas, you can imagine if it’s troublesome now by the time we increase another 75 per cent of those new development areas, it’s going to be pretty bad.”
Greens candidate in the Legislative Council, Melanie Selwood, who is a former deputy mayor of the neighbouring Adelaide Hills Council, said “everyone acknowledges that Mount Barker’s rezoning wasn’t done right”.
“At the time of Mount Barker’s rezoning, the Greens were concerned about losing land that provides our food, but if rezoning like this is to occur, we need to do it better,” she said.
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Mount Barker Resident Association spokesperson Dianne van Eck said local growth rates had been “too fast to enable infrastructure to keep up” with some new residents complaining about the lack of facilities and amenities.
“Given our infrastructure has not even kept up with the 25 per cent done then perhaps it is just as well it is taking so long,” she said.
‘Making Mount Barker proud’
Burke Urban property and managing director Olivia Burke said its Newenham masterplanned community – located on Flaxley road, two kilometres from Mount Barker town centre – is still five to eight years from completion, with more than 1000 residents now living in about half the allotments developed since it was established in 2015.
“If you ask the community, it should have been done a long time ago and this is a challenge with development, it’s timelines are often long,” she told InDaily.
“Our responsibility is to try to deliver on the promises that we created within these master plans and that are supported by council, but there are challenges to getting this neighbourhood activity zone going.”
She said the landscape at the time of the 2010 rezoning was “frightening” despite Burke Urban having existing relationships with landowners and farmers in the region beforehand.
“There was definitely considerable community outcry and to be frank, I can empathise with that,” she said.
“They were very concerned about loss of their character and culture and an agricultural food hub.
“So, whilst we were nervous about it, we used it as fuel for the fire and it inspired us, if anything, to make sure that we paid homage to that heritage and the culture and do Mount Barker proud.”
In addition to housing, the Newenham masterplan includes Kings Baptist Grammar School and a proposed second school grounds, future retail and sports and recreation precinct.
It currently features Kitchen Farm, regenerative farming land with a productive garden delivering produce to a farm-to-table restaurant.
Olivia says Kitchen Farm was a “liability with the project that we believe that we could turn into a community asset”.
“The challenge for us at the time was how to create a community and a master plan and set of road networks and neighbourhood precincts that actually sits in and around that beautiful topography, the trees, and that doesn’t harm it but actually embellishes it and uses them to become features of a place that people become proud of and connected to.”
Mount Barker residents Mark and Bronnie Agius have lived in Mount Barker for about 28 years, and since 2020 have lived in the master planned community Newenham.
Mark – who worked in the building industry before retiring – said that in the time they have lived there, they have not seen infrastructure keep up with development, but that he believed that was “typical”.
“You can’t have a fast-growing area and expect infrastructure to keep up and it really hasn’t,” he said.
“But I don’t think it’s lagging all that far behind. We’re getting a new hospital, we’ve gotten a new ambulance centre, we’ve got a new aquatic centre, people winge about the roads and yeah, they’re not the best in places but…it’s not bad.”
