Show us the money: Mt Barker Council calls for government funding boost to address infrastructure needs
Mt Barker’s leaders are calling for an immediate investment in key services to meet the demands of their rapidly expanding city. See their infrastructure wishlist.
Adelaide Hills
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An immediate cash-splurge on roads,health services, education and public transport is needed to keep pace with Mt Barker’s booming population, says the city council’s chief executive.
Mt Barker District Council boss Andrew Stuart has issued a stern warning to the state government to help fund the town’s multimillion dollar infrastructure shortfall or face the wrath of local voters at the March state election.
His threat comes after Kavel MP Dan Cregan’s shock defection from the Liberal Party.
Mr Stuart, who this week unveiled an investment council wishlist, said he hoped political unrest in the former blue-ribbon electorate would help attract much-needed funding.
“We’re going to be the biggest city outside of Adelaide with a size of places like Wagga Wagga and other regional cities interstate,” he said.
“But the state government thinks there is no issue and that’s what I call denial.
“There is a need for the government to acknowledge that the growth issues in Mt Barker are real and that there needs to be an infrastructure plan to deal with it.”
Heysen Boulevard
At the top of Mr Stuart’s wishlist is the completion of the Heysen Boulevard, a critical ring road which will link the town’s new growth areas between the centre’s two SE Freeway access points.
Around 50 per cent of the road has been completed but as much of the land is privately owned, Mr Stuart expects the remainder likely to take another 20 to 30 years to finish, without government assistance.
“It was because of the state government that we ended up with a model that the road is built when the development occurs,” he said.
“With 15 different developers and 100 different landowners, this road will never get built as one, so as a consequence, we now have dead-ends everywhere.
“It’s also the (future) dedicated road for public transport, which means, we won’t have any public transport out to these new areas, until this road is complete. So something needs to happen.”
Hahndorf Main Street
Mr Stuart said government funding was also needed for a much needed upgrade of Hahndorf’s Main St. Final plans for a $6m upgrade were approved by the council last year but a $3m grant application was recently rejected.
This is despite $250m in state and federal government funding having been pledged to the traffic management plan between Hahndorf and Mt Barker.
“What they are proposing is a good thing but what we would want is that the Main St of Hahndorf would be renovated as part of that funding as well,” he said.
Education
Mr Stuart said Mt Barker’s population was on track to exceed 60,000 by 2036 – 10,000 more than the original target set in 2010 when 1300ha of land was rezoned for residential development by the then-Labor government.
According to a staff report presented to Mt Barker District Council in June, dwelling applications have increased by 117 per cent since July last year, compared with just 19 per cent across SA.
It equates to an average of 91 new dwellings and over 215 new residents per month.
With Mt Barker being particularly popular among young families, Mr Stuart said investment is needed within public primary and secondary schools.
This, he said, included the possibility of a new state campus to accommodate the 238 new school students coming to Mt Barker each year.
Opportunities to create an entrepreneurial specialist school at Mt Barker High – with a focus on agricultural technology – has also been flagged with the state government as well as a regional university centre.
Utilities
Mt Barker has come a long way since 1300ha of land was rezoned in 2010.
So it’s hard to imagine that only 10 per cent of land has been developed so far. With the next 15 years critical in terms of growth, Mr Stuart said funding utility upgrades was critical, including the provision of a new electricity sub station.
Council has also advocated for reticulated natural gas to be provided to Mt Barker.
But Australian Gas Network/Australian Gas Infrastructure Group is yet to proceed with the required infrastructure.
The town’s ageing sewer system has also failed to attract support from SA Water, leaving the council to fund the upgrades.
“When they rezoned Mt Barker there was no minimum lot size; so 10 to 15 years ago, it was challenging for people in Mt Barker to understand that our housing lots could be under 600sqm as generally they were about 1000sqm,” Mr Stuart said.
“But now it’s down to 100sqm … as we can’t control the minimum lot size, that’s not within the council’s power.
“So what has happened is that the 1300ha that were rezoned now has much denser housing than what was originally conceived as the development is not staged, it’s like a shotgun with houses popping up everywhere.
“So we have these unique challenges that are unique to the state … and we’re waiting for the state government to step up and fix some dysfunction that is going on.”
Health services
Mt Barker’s growing need for improved health services has been a hot topic across all levels of government for a number of years.
It resulted in a proposed $8.3m upgrade of Mt Barker Hospital’s emergency department – a project heavily criticised by some.
Mt Barker Mayor Ann Ferguson, a former nurse, is advocating for a new building instead of adding “a little wings here and little wings there”.
“This latest upgrade will not cater for the growth,” she said.
“What we need is new three-storey building … with a maternity floor, a surgical wing and a medical wing with all the services of chemotherapy and other treatment.”
Her sentiment is echoed by newly independent Mr Cregan who said the hospital was nothing more than a holding-pen.
He said the issue was made worse by the fact the town was serviced by only one ambulance since 1992.
“In that time the population has skyrocketed. Hills ambos are working their guts out but the level of coverage right throughout the Hills is unsafe,” he said.
Telecommunication
Mt Barker may only be a 40-minute commute from Adelaide’s CBD, but poor mobile and internet reception is still a reality for many of the council’s outlying towns, including Brukunga, Harrogate and Echunga.
Mr Stuart said immediate investment was needed to address the disadvantage suffered by residents
“This will reduce the digital divide between metropolitan Adelaide and Mt Barker, while also creating opportunities for local employment,” he said.
Public transport
This has long been the Hills’ most controversial topic in recent times. Community pressure has been mounting to see the return of passenger rail, a proposal yet to be supported by the state government which has estimated a project cost of around $12bn.
The rail idea does, however, have the support of both Mr Stuart and Mayor Ferguson who are also calling for improved bus connectivity in and around town.
This includes the expansion of Keoride, an on-demand bus service currently trialled in Mt Barker, Littlehampton and Nairne.
What the state government has to say
With both state and federal elections to be called in 2022, Mr Cregan said now was the time to act and listen.
“I believe we now have the government’s full attention politically,” he said.
“My sense is that our community is prepared to fight hard for what we need.
“We are not going to be told to sit quietly anymore.”
Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie said both state and federal governments were playing catch-up after decades of neglect.
“No government wants to spend money; and for years and years that electorate wasn’t even in the purview of state governments because it was considered a safe seat,” Ms Sharkie said.
“It wasn’t even on the radar of the federal government until 1998 when John Schumann gave Alexander Downer a scare in the election that we got the Heysen Tunnels.
“We are really addressing decades of under-investment in Mt Barker – whether that is for roads, hospitals, social infrastructure.”
A government spokesman said the Mt Barker community was benefiting from a range of “life quality boosting projects across transport, infrastructure, health, sport and recreation” – worth over $445m.
“Only a state Liberal government has a future plan for the growing community of Mount Barker to ensure the area remains an enviable place to live, work and raise a family,” he said.
They came for green space
FINDING the right balance between urban infill and parklands is critical for the future expansion of Mt Barker, according to one of the town’s newest residents.
Tree-changer Nathan Marshall said he and his wife “were called” to the Hills lifestyle a year ago as their family was expanding.
“We moved here from Hawthorndene … as we had outgrown our house but my wife was also pregnant with our third child, so it was time to upgrade and find a place where we could invest long-term for a growing family,” he said.
“Newenham Estate presented that opportunity to build a custom home with a beautiful tree in the back and there’s also plenty of space for the kids to go and enjoy parks and reserves.
“So what I would like to see in the future is that, when developers create these developments, they create more green spaces so that we don’t just fill the land with a high concentration of homes.
“Developments need to be weighed up against natural assets, which was the reason we bought here.” He said government investment into digital infrastructure was also a priority.
“We need fast internet so that people can transfer huge quantity of data, which will become important as more people work from home,” he said.
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