Adelaide Hills businesses fear Woodside Barracks is next in line to get marching orders

Fears Woodside Barracks in the Adelaide Hills will be sold for housing are growing after the federal Defence Minister failed to rule out its closure.

Fears Woodside Barracks in the Adelaide Hills will be sold for housing are growing after the federal Defence Minister failed to rule out its closure.

Independent Adelaide Hills MP Rebekha Sharkie said the site’s resident 16th Air Defence Regiment and army cadets, plus nearby businesses and residents are “waiting in trepidation” for news about its future.

This followed Defence Minister Richard Marles telling federal parliament he would not respond to concerns until next year.

“We are hearing a lot of rumours from people who are connected to the barracks, they are saying ‘we’ve been told we are going’,” Ms Sharkie said, concerns further fuelled by news of Keswick Barracks in the Adelaide CBD being closed for housing.

Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

If the site, established in 1927, that hosts more than 100 army and air force cadets is closed, Ms Sharkie said it would have a deep impact on Adelaide Hills businesses and if it was sold for housing the community would lose a huge tract of native bushland.

“All the businesses will suffer, the barbershop at Woodside for one, the army guys are often lined up there for a short back and sides,” she said.

Woodside Barracks is part of a national review of defence land sites completed this year but Mr Marles told parliament yesterday the government would not respond to its findings until next year.

“Defence is one of, if not the biggest, landowner in the country, so this is an important process to go through,” he said.

He said that “pretty much every member of this place (Parliament House) will have a part of the defence estate in their electorate” and there was an “important process to go through”.

Last year, the Federal Government announced it would hand over the Keswick barracks in a land swap for land at the Osborne shipyard earmarked for a nuclear-powered submarine production line.

A decision was also made to move the Adelaide-based 7th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (7RAR) to Darwin.

Adelaide Hills deputy mayor Melanie Selwood said the council would look at pros and cons of any proposed decision to close Woodside Barracks “should there be notification by the government”.

“Council is aware of the rumours regarding the closure of the barracks but has no formal position at this stage,” Ms Selwood said.

In 2015, the Federal Government announced the former “married quarter” Inverbrackie land alongside Woodside Barracks would be sold after it was used as a detention centre by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for asylum seekers.