Tough councillor Anne Moran, defender of North Adelaide, shows her private side
Anne Moran has developed a hide that’s thicker than the animal skin rugs that adorn her North Adelaide home.
City
Don't miss out on the headlines from City. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Anne Moran has developed a hide that’s thicker than the animal skin rugs that adorn her North Adelaide home.
Long branded the suburb’s chief nimby, naysayer and media tart, she hasn’t had much choice.
Her attack on Adelaide City Council staff this month for failing to defend the reputation of North Adelaide residents was typical of her no holds barred approach to local politics.
And after almost 20 years, the councillor she has no intention of changing her ways.
“People expect their councillors to be frank and fearless and say stuff,” Mrs Moran says.
“They can call me a media whore all they want but I think it’s important.
“Walking down the shops it’s like a blowtorch of opinion.
READ MORE: We’re no snobs — residents back Anne Moran
READ MORE: Exerpts of Anne Moran’s email exchange with Council staff
“I still get a lot of feedback from people who say I’m reflecting a strong middle opinion of what people want. As long as that happens I’ll keep going.”
But Mrs Moran, 59, is not completely immune to the barrage of criticism she provokes from beyond the parklands.
Stung by a radio interview a couple of years back when she was accused of never venturing beyond Prospect, she and husband Pat made a series of weekend trips to places she had driven through but never explored, including parts of the north and northeast suburbs.
“I thought I am on the City Council and I do need to know what’s out there beyond dropping the kids off everywhere at sport when they were younger.
“Apart from the way people dress or subtle differences, they are all just the same out there, people out with their kids.”
So Mrs Moran decided to get to know Adelaide, but rarely has Adelaide got to know much about her — her childhood illness, her failings as a teacher, her remorse at not running for lord mayor.
In a way the “anti-everything” stereotyping that has dogged her as a politician has also protected her privacy.
At first glance the double-storey, heritage-listed Mrs Moran pile, overlooking the North Adelaide Golf Coursee and lawn tennis courts of the parklands and complete with piano room, artworks and sun lounge, seems to play perfectly to the stereotype of the North Adelaide toffs.
Yet the pretensions largely stop at the front gate, beyond which the patchy lawn is strewn with rotting palm fruit on which rosellas like to get drunk.
Inside, where two poodle-crosses run riot, there is a homely clutter to the place that shows until recently it was a house full of adult children.
Ms Moran and Dr Moran, an anaesthetist, have only ever lived downstairs because the upstairs was converted to flats long before they bought it and they never bothered to rebuild the staircase.
And the zebra, tiger and leopard rugs, gifts to Ms Moran from her husband, are all fake.
“My kids say it is like the killing fields, but no zebras died,” she says.
Mrs Moran does her husband’s bookkeeping in their shared office, where a few framed newspaper articles of her council exploits are displayed.
There are more recent clippings stuck in a pile to the fridge in the surprisingly modest kitchen, where Ms Moran recounts her upbringing while sipping Coke and proudly demonstrating her electronic cigarette.
“I haven’t had a real one for four months. I tried hypnotherapy, patches, everything, but I have the willpower of a gnat,” she says.
Born in Barmera where her father was a GP and schooled at Rose Park Primary and St Peter’s Girls, Mrs Moran’s childhood was one of relative privilege interrupted by a year spent in and out of the Children’s Hospital with rheumatic fever.
She studied English and history and became a teacher, refusing to go to the country because she had her eye on Dr Moran, and worked at Adelaide, Henley, and Norwood Morialta high schools.
For someone so confident in her views it is unexpected when she admits she was “absolutely shocking” as a teacher, which she gave up to start a family.
“I couldn’t keep them in their seats. I was just hopeless at discipline. I was a big yeller, they just weren’t listening,” she says.
“I kept meaning to go back but never did.”
Her three children came along two years apart and it was when her youngest, Nicholas, was a toddler, that she began on her path to local politics by joining the doomed fight to save the old bluestone House of Chow on Hutt St. It was bulldozed in 1991.
“We manned our table outside for 24 hours a day for 78 days. We went totally nuts. The heritage stuff really fired me up,” she says.
Two years later she ran for council, finished in a dead heat with Bob Angove and lost when his name was drawn from a hat.
She immersed herself in local issues by attending council meetings, doorknocked relentlessly and was elected in 1995.
Though it seems unbelievable now, she says she was “so shy I couldn’t stand up” in her first term, but gradually grew in confidence and hasn’t been knocked off her council perch since.
“I’ve got a good corporate memory which comes in handy when we start to do things we’ve done before,” she says.
“I still feel quite passionate about the city and North Adelaide.
“It’s a really privileged position to be in.”
But she lives with the regret of not challenging Michael Harbison when he won his second term as lord mayor in 2007.
“He wasn’t very popular at the time and I was. He was a friend of mine and treated me very well so I didn’t run,” she says.
“That time I think I would have won definitely but after that I thought people wouldn’t see me as lord mayoral enough.
“Stephen (Yarwood) would have beaten me (in 2010), a young man, enthusiastic.
“I’d never do it now.”
Mr Yarwood marshals the progressive side of council and Ms Moran the conservatives, their mutual loathing often erupting into slanging matches in meetings.
Yarwood says she can be “quite aggressive” but acknowledges she is “a very good councillor” who “knows a tremendous amount of corporate history and understands how the city is run”.
He says Ms Moran would have struggled with the constraints of being lord mayor and always having to defend the official positions of council.
While that seems a fair assessment, Ms Moran is not as conservative as she comes across when she leads the chorus of council and resident outrage at State Government decisions.
She says she respects the right of the Government to override the council but insists local government has an important moderating role.
“Adelaide is a very livable city and one of the reasons for that is active outspoken councillors who stand up to the government,” she says.
Moran says she will play that role for as long as her constituents want her and it chews up much of her time.
Yet she admits she is also “a bad couch potato”.
“I love the Real Housewives and all the cooking programs,” she says.
ANNE MORAN — A NICE CV
■ Age: 59
■ Lives in Mills Tce, North Adelaide
■ Born in Barmera, moved to Adelaide when she was eight.
■ Spent a year in and out of hospital with rheumatic fever, then two years in the UK where her father, a doctor, was training.
■ Educated at St Peter’s Girls.
■ Studied English and history at Flinders and Adelaide universities.
■ Became a teacher and taught at Adelaide, Henley and Norwood Morialta high schools. Admits she was a “shocking” teacher.
■ Became involved in local politics through the heritage movement, particularly the fight to save the former House of Chow building on Hutt St.
■ First ran for Adelaide City Council in 1993 and lost but was elected in 1995. Has never lost an election since.
■ An “area” councillor representing all of the Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide. Has her stronghold of support in North Adelaide.
■ Regrets not running for lord mayor against Michael Harbison in 2007.
■ Has served as deputy lord mayor and has chaired the city’s development assessment panel.
■ Also ran the council’s Central Market committee before the independent Central Market Authority was created in 2012.
ANNE MORANS KEY CAUSES
Retractable Adelaide Oval Lights
Some North Adelaide residents railed against permanent light towers at Adelaide Oval, fearing disturbance from the lights and the interruption of city views from Light’s Vision.
After numerous delays retractable lights were turned on for a day-night cricket match in December, 1997.
A tower crashed down three months later, injuring workers, prompting fixed lights to be built in 2000.
Cr Moran first backed the retractable lights and initially voted against plans for fixed replacements.
Barton Tce West Closure
Western suburbs residents have argued the closure of Barton Tce West in 1987 typifies the silvertail mentality of North Adelaide and has prevented them from easily accessing the suburb for decades.
Croydon MP Michael Atkinson has waged a relentless war on behalf of his constituents to have the road reopened.
Some doctors have even argued it is vital for ambulance access, but Adelaide City Council and Cr Moran have stood firm against the change, arguing commuter traffic should stay on main roads.
The Exclusive Tennis Club
A group of North Adelaide residents were accused of exclusive use of a lawn tennis court in the parklands for 20 years.
The court, opposite Cr Moran’s home, was supposed to be for publicly accessible but the residents kept it locked and falsely claimed it was in regular use.
The council cracked down on the “club” in 2009 and the court and two neighbouring ones are all now open to the public.
At the time, Cr Moran said she and her family had never been members but accused the council of being “heavy handed” with the residents.
Le Cornu Site
Adelaide City Council has copped much of the blame for the long vacant eyesore on O’Connell St.
In truth, it has sat idle since 1989 because developers who have won council approvals for new shopping and residential complexes have failed to go through with their plans or proposed developments way over height limits.
Cr Moran argues the council and North Adelaide residents have been unfairly scapegoated.
Developer Con Makris bought the site in 2001 from Wallis Cinemas and has since announced three different plans. His partnership with billionaire Lang Walker for a $200 million development fell apart last year.
House of Chow
The old bluestone House of Chow was demolished in 1991, but not without a concerted campaign to save it involving union picket lines.
It came as a surprise to many that it was not heritage listed.
The case sparked Anne Moran’s interest in heritage issues and was a catalyst for her first run for council.
She and the council later fought battles with residents who didn’t want to have their homes listed.
Adelaide identities reveal plan for luxury city housing block
Two well-known Adelaide business partners are planning luxury living near one of the city’s most popular foodie strips.
Bonner makes call on SA footy rumours ahead of 2025
Former Port Adelaide and St Kilda defender Riley Bonner has addressed rumours of a return to SA footy as well as his hopes for the future after being delisted by the Saints.