Last Saturday, 13/12/2025, I had a very pleasant meet and greet at my home address with the new Labor candidate for the Gawler region James Agness.
I mentioned the traffic problems and expressed concern about the building of the Concordia estate, the proposed 12,000 new builds on the boundary between the Barossa and Gawler.
I also informed him that some of the land acquired had been part of a parcel of land bequeathed to the creation of the Heysen Trail had been sold to the developers.
He informed me that regarding the traffic problem in Gawler, Concordia residents were going to be encouraged to use the Gawler Ring Road.
Also, plans had been drafted to create walking trails to connect the new Greater Adelaide Regional Plan, GARP, (i.e. Kudla) and create the Northern Parklands along Gawler River, north of Hillier to compensate for sale of the Heysen Trail land.
Well, imagine my surprise when I read on page three of The Advertiser this morning (15/12/2025) that the Housing Minister Nick Champion will be initiating “the rezoning process, to consider future growth and infrastructure requirements to support new neighbourhoods and high quality open spaces as Adelaide continues to stretch north… the development would likely be similar to what’s being constructed at Concordia, on the other side of Gawler, where a master planned neighbourhood of a mix of low and medium density housing”.
It will include the relocation of the South Gawler cricket, football and netball clubs and co-location of other community facilities.
For the record, I live next door to Gawler footy oval and have done so for 40 years. I have also endured the building of the freeway and the Rau Avenue estate, many years of noise and dust.
I am not happy that a wide-open space that has been enjoyed by generations of sports people will be removed to install concentration camp type housing (as is evident from the train that has been built at Tambelin).
I am not happy that Mr Agness should have known these details when he was a door-knocking and informed me of changes in my environment.
I dread to think the amount of traffic that will eventuate and also the future of Gawler as a whole if uncontrolled housing development is allowed to continue.
Cathy Young, Evanston
