Eight arrests as park lands golf course protest continues to tee off
SA Police have arrested and removed protesters, including a 78-year-old, from the North Adelaide Golf Course this morning.
Eight people were arrested at North Adelaide this morning after protesting the felling of trees for the state’s $45 million golf course redevelopment in North Adelaide, SA Police confirmed.
A 27-year-old woman who chained herself to a work site entrance on War Memorial Drive before 7am on Friday was arrested and charged with obstructing a public place and resisting arrest.
Four protesters entered the park lands site where trees are being felled and chained themselves to machinery at about 6am saying they wanted to “stop the chop” – as protest groups have now gathered 44,700 signatures on a petition urging the government to halt the development.
Police were called at about 6:45am and arrested a 26-year-old man from Kensington Gardens, a 34-year-old person from Ferryden Park, a 34-year-old woman from Modbury, and a 52-year-old woman from Happy Valley. The four were charged with being unlawfully on premises.
Three more women were arrested at about 9:30am after entering the site and charged with being unlawfully on premises; a 43-year-old woman from Semaphore Park, a 67-year-old woman from Mile End, and a 78-year-old woman from Adelaide.
The Semaphore Park woman was taken to hospital in an ambulance for assessment but SA Police said there were no injuries during the protest activity.
All the protesters arrested were bailed and would appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court at later dates.
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SA Police will maintain a presence in and around the golf course to deter unlawful activity, saying “anyone participating in a protest must do so lawfully and peacefully, those who engage in disruptive or unlawful behaviour are likely to face enforcement action.”
The latest escalation in protest action in the park lands follows two other arrests for trespassing on the project site made on Thursday afternoon.
A suspicious fire also gutted a temporary building being used as a golf pro shop on War Memorial Drive at 2am on Thursday morning.
Adelaide Park Lands Association President Mat Monti said none of those arrested were linked to the association, “but we believe they’re keeping entirely with the tradition of the environmental movement, which is peaceful, nonviolent, direct action”.
“We’ve exercised every possible option we have prior to this to try and get the state government to change their mind to reconsider this redevelopment,” Monti said.
“So I think these are the actions of people who have found that the state government isn’t listening to them, and this is the only option they feel they had.”
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It comes as police continue to investigate the suspicious fire at the North Adelaide Golf Course on Thursday morning .
There is no suggestion that the protesters were responsible for the fire and the Park Lands Association has issued a statement saying none of its members were involved and the group “condemns any violent actions”.
In the statement, the association also called for people on all sides of the debate to “turn down the temperature”, after Monti had an unknown liquid thrown on them by a person inside a passing van while at the golf course site.
The Premier has continued to back the development, saying on Friday morning that “the job is almost complete” for the first phase of the golf course project. More works and tree felling are expected on the north side of the site in the next phase.
“There’s a few more trees that’ll be addressed today but after that it’s pretty much done and then let’s get on with the job of planting trees and restoring the course to bring it up to a world standard,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said.
Malinauskas said at a press conference at Edinburgh this morning that he was concerned about action escalating at the golf course.
“People do have the right protest, just as long as they do it peacefully and respectfully,” he said.
“I think by and large, the majority of protesters around the golf course redesign have been doing that, they’ve been protesting peacefully, but it’s unfortunate to see some extremists take hold and start to take their feelings out on workers who are just doing their jobs.”
The state government has said “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, 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.
On Wednesday night, an estimated 3000 people protested the tree felling at Parliament House and another protest organised by First Nations-led group Preserving Pirltawardli was scheduled to be held at Parliament House on Sunday.
Unlike other developments that require planning approval to remove significant trees –trees with a trunk of two metres or more – the golf course upgrade and felling of trees did not have to undergo that process under 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 – took authority for the site from the Adelaide City Council along with granting planning and building consent to the project before the development plans had been released.
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