‘A shameful dust bowl’: Prime Tarrkarri CBD site sits empty seven years on
SA’s grand First Nations art and cultural centre was meant to open in 2025, but the state government has left the prime city real estate sitting empty. Calls for action are growing.
More than seven years after plans for a Tarrkarri First Nations arts and culture centre were unveiled by the SA Liberals ahead of the 2018 State Election, the prime real estate worth many millions of dollars on North Terrace still sits empty.
When Premier Peter Malinauskas and his team won the State Election in March 2022, concrete had been poured for the new gallery, but the project was halted for an “urgent” review into its $200m cost in October 2022.
Ever since, the Premier has said the resulting report showed costs would have to blow out to between $400m and $600m for the building to be a world-class centre – but the idea was still on the table.
Now growing numbers are calling for action, including Property Council of Australia SA executive director Bruce Djite, who said “the state government has a duty to activate under-utilised land at every opportunity to stimulate economic growth and support the city’s vibrancy, culture and economy”.
“Tarrkarri is an endeavour the Property Council supports. However, the government’s lack of clarity around timeframes for projects, or land banking damages market confidence,” he said.
“If there is a discussion to be had about a change of use for the site, the Property Council welcomes that discussion, if it provides transparency and improves market certainty.”
The new CEO of Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Brenz Saunders said the $200 million still budgeted for Tarrkarri could instead be invested in existing institutions such as the one he leads.
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“I think Tarrkarri is a great concept plan for a government to envision what could possibly be a space to showcase Aboriginal artefacts and culture to the masses, particularly on an international and global scale, but certainly from a Tandanya perspective, we stand firm as an existing space that does that,” he said.
“I think sometimes there really needs to be an approach to address the existing spaces that we have, that require not a significant investment beyond the means of what is being proposed for Tarrkarri, but supporting our existing spaces to emphasise their contribution to the state.
“I wouldn’t want a situation where Tarrkarri is built, this beautiful building is built, and this very tech-oriented building is built, and there’s no means of maintaining operational capacity.”
When the old Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) along North Terrace was demolished in 2017 following the opening of the new RAH at the other end of North Terrace, the original vision for the site included more than 1000 apartments, a massive 5-star hotel and the possible addition of a contemporary art gallery.
Former Liberal Premier Steven Marshall later revealed plans to build an “Australian National Art and Culture Gallery” at Lot Fourteen ahead of the 2018 State Election as “the jewel in the crown” of the Liberals’ proposal for the site.
The project was later renamed Tarrkarri, meaning “the future” in Kaurna, and was meant to open in 2025.
When the Malinauskas Labor government announced it had suspended works on Tarrkarri, it described the existing plans as “sub-standard”.
Malinauskas appointed a panel comprising former Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt, former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr and former investment banker Carolyn Hewson to review the project.
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The panel presented its report to the State Cabinet in April 2023, which recommended the government potentially spend between $400 to $600 million to make Tarrkarri an internationally significant centre.
Tarrkarri was noticeably absent from Labor’s 10-year arts policy, ‘A Place to Create’, which included an $80 million injection of funding for the arts.
Shadow Arts Minister Jack Batty labelled the vacant site at Lot Fourteen a “dust bowl in the heart of our cultural precinct”, but did not say if the SA Liberals would commit to realising the vision of Tarrkarri if elected at the March 2026 State Election.
“The former Liberal Government had a plan for Tarrkarri to be a landmark cultural centre with a $200 million budget,” he said.
“Labor’s decision to pause the project, despite rising costs, has jeopardised its completion and left a shameful dust bowl in the heart of our cultural precinct for over three years.
“The Arts are always an afterthought for this government. Labor needs to tell us what on earth the plan is.”
In a statement to InDaily, a State Government spokesperson said the Tarrkarri plan had not been dumped.
However, the spokesperson said that “Tarrkarri would need to deliver a world-class institution, capable of drawing in international visitors and befitting of celebrating the oldest living cultures on earth”.
“Tarrkarri remains a project under active consideration and has been the subject of discussion with the Commonwealth Government and other potential funding sources,” he said.
Arts writer and University of Melbourne associate professor Jo Caust claimed there has been no additional capital investment since the policy was announced in April, saying that the government seems to be “treading water”.
“It doesn’t feel like anything amazing’s happened since,” she told InDaily.
Asked if there has been an underfunding of the arts, Caust said it had been a problem for the past 20 years.
“It really doesn’t make sense to me that governments are not rising to the recognition that if you don’t look after things, they decline, they deteriorate. In all of our major cultural facilities, you can see that,” she said.
InDaily understands the State Budget had retained the $200 million already allocated to the Tarrkarri project.
