Mount Barker 15 years on: Planning minister says urban ‘sprawl’ is not a dirty word
As InDaily explores urban sprawl 15 years on from a controversial rezoning, the Planning Minister assures Mount Barker was “one of the more successful” rezonings. Watch the video.
Planning Minister Nick Champion told InDaily Mount Barker has been “very successful” despite “legacy issues” from a 2010 rezoning.
“Of the rezonings [15 years ago], I think Mount Barker was actually one of the most successful ones,” Champion told InDaily.
“Angle Vale has probably been the one that has had less attention, but is, from an infrastructure point of view, actually, there are bigger gaps in the infrastructure provision in Angle Vale, often than there is in Mount Barker.
“Mount Barker has been successful. Could it have been better? Absolutely.
“Will we work with the local community to fix legacy issues and think more carefully about the provision of public services and other things as we go forward? Of course, we will.”
His comments come after InDaily revealed 25 per cent of 1300 hectares of the farming land that was rezoned for housing in 2010 has been developed as of 2025, according to the Mount Barker District Council.
The rezoning was done to accommodate future urban growth with the then-current version of Greater Adelaide’s 30-year plan.
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A 2010 cabinet document, acquired by InDaily via FOI, specified that the Mount Barker rezoning was targeted for the first 15 years of the 30-year plan.
When InDaily asked if the planning minister thought the 25 per cent status was enough in 15 years, he said development has a long tail for a variety of reasons.
“Many of the urban rezonings, greenfield rezonings or even brownfield projects in a city like Bowden, they don’t run over one or two years, they run over a decade or more and so the pace of them will change, in part due to the market,” he said.
“It’s not for state ministers to say, ‘oh, this is going at the right pace or the wrong pace’.
“I think one of the things we’ve tried to do as part of our 30-year plan, the Greater Adelaide regional plan, is to put in place a number of development fronts.
“With Mount Barker, we didn’t make it any bigger because we thought there was enough capacity in Mount Barker under the 30-year plan, and, of course, for about 25 per cent of the way through.
“I think ultimately the market, or citizens, will decide the pace of it, because it’s, it’s how many people want to buy a house there. How good is demand?”
At the 2021 census, Mount Barker ranked as South Australia’s fifth largest city, but the council expect the city to jump to second place in the next census, given it has outpaced 2003 predictions.
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In a 2003 report obtained by InDaily via FOI, the state government projected that if housing demand was met in Mount Barker over the next 20 years, the Mount Barker population would double from 15,000 to 30,000.
That figure has already been far exceeded, with 45,000 residents in 2024.
Mount Barker District Mayor David Leach said there is plenty of demand to live in the area, and that it’s growth is on track to complement surrounding areas like Murray Bridge, but the council would still call for infrastructure funding.
“Every time we’re going to see a minister, they get the message that Mount Barker is doing a lot of its own heavy lifting,” he said.
The Mount Barker Residents Association were concerned about the rate of the town’s growth, and that it’s been “too fast to enable infrastructure to keep up”.
“The old adage ‘build it and they will come’ was applied in reverse, with the people arriving despite serious lack of infrastructure, facilities and amenities – resulting in complaints from new residents and the council having to place levies on the rezoned land in order to raise funds for basic infrastructure needs (sewage, water, roads both major and minor),” spokesperson Di van Eck told InDaily.
The Planning Minister said he understood council and community concerns.
“What typically happens is, if you have small legacy issues, like roads, if people don’t get a sense that the council and the state government are working together about thinking very carefully about how things proceed, then that’s when the frustration, I think, begins,” Champion said.
“I think the most important thing about the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan is it didn’t add to the growth in Mount Barker,
“We thought that pretty much the figure that they picked at the beginning was the right one.”
The minister told InDaily that 15 years on, reflecting on the urban sprawl planning of the district, he does not think urban ‘sprawl’ is a dirty word.
“I think cities have to grow up and out too, in order to be functional,” he said.
“We’re seeing both in South Australia, we’ve opened up the greenfield front, Mount Barker was already open, but we’re really opening significant greenfield growth front in the northern suburbs in southern Concordia, if you go to Angle Vale or to anywhere in the northern suburbs along the Northern Expressway, you see a growth front that’s actually quite a bit bigger than Mount Barker.
“People should not see any one development front in isolation, because we, although there are distinct markets that kills is different from, you know, the north of Adelaide and Murray Bridge will be a different proposition to Mount Barker.”
