Suspicious fire at controversial park lands golf course site
Police are investigating a fire that gutted a structure at North Adelaide golf course overnight, just hours after thousands lined North Terrace protesting 585 trees being felled for the $45 million redevelopment.
A temporary structure – set up as a golf pro shop – was gutted at the North Adelaide golf course overnight, SA Police confirming this morning that the fire was being treated as suspicious.
Police and fire crews were called to the North Adelaide Railway Station, which is part of the course site on War Memorial Drive, at 2 am Thursday morning.
The fire was extinguished by MFS crews, and the fire was now being investigated.
SA Police are asking anyone who saw suspicious activity in the area overnight or has footage that may assist to contact Crime Stoppers.
The fire comes just hours after thousands of protesters filled the steps of Parliament House on North Terrace calling for an end to the controversial $45 million golf course redevelopment and to halt work on removing 585 trees on the site.
The crowd spilled out onto the street and surrounding areas, many carrying placards and chanting “stop the chop”, as opposition grows to the state government development plan and the start of trees being removed this week.
There is no suggestion that the protesters were responsible for the fire.
A petition from the Adelaide Park Lands Association opposing the tree felling has amassed more than 40,000 signatures, almost a year after the state government enacted new legislation to wrestle the park lands area from council control so it could be upgraded in time for LIV Golf 2028.
It comes after the Adelaide City Council voted at a meeting on Tuesday night to call on the federal Environment Minister Murray Watts to investigate whether the work triggers controls under the national Environment, Protection and Biodiversity Act and for a pause on golf course works.
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Unlike other developments that require planning approval to remove significant trees –trees with a trunk of two metres or more – the golf course upgrade was given the green light under the new state government legislation passed last year.
The North Adelaide Golf Course Act – introduced to fast-track the site upgrade in time for LIV Golf 2028 – also granted planning and building consent to the project before the plans had been released
The Premier has continued to back the development, a state government spokesperson saying the “utmost care” was being applied to tree removal, including specialist fauna handlers on site and possum boxes installed to support the local possum population.
This week the government Environment Minister Emily Bourke also supported the removal of trees saying that for each one removed three would be planted in its place. The government has not released any information about what species of trees are being removed.
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