The website’s gone but developer says it still intends to go ahead with plans for $2b satellite city, Riverlea project

A HIGH profile developer says a long-planned vision to create a $2billion satellite city in Adelaide’s north is still alive, despite a website on the project having been pulled down.

Long-awaited project: These artist’s impressions of the Walker Corporation’s $2 billion Riverlea housing development at Buckland Park are from three years ago.

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DEVELOPER Walker Corporation has confirmed its mooted $2 billion housing development at Buckland Park is still going ahead despite scrapping a website dedicated to the project.

As reported in the Northern Messenger last week, the company removed its website for the planned Riverlea estate, which would include 12,000 houses for 30,000 people over the next 25 years.

Planning Minister John Rau said at the time that he believed the development would go ahead when Walker Corporation considered it viable.

A spokesman for the company last week could not provide a firm explanation for the removal of the website.

This week, he confirmed Walker Corporation dropped the Riverlea page when it created a new company website.

The spokesman said “there is definitely no change to the status of the Riverlea project”.

The company has not committed to a time frame for the project.

Buckland Park is about 35km from the Adelaide CBD, just north of St Kilda.

In July 2014 the State Government approved the first stage of the proposed satellite city but a start date wasn’t set.

In a statement released at the time Walker Corporation said it welcomed the government’s decision to approve Stage One of the development, named Riverlea.

“We are working closely with (the department) and the Playford Council on critical elements of the project including the intersection on Port Wakefield Rd,” it said.

“Significant capital works, (such as) moving 600,000 tonnes of soil, must get underway before construction gets underway on Stage One.”

The State Government granted Riverlea major development status in 2007, meaning it would be responsible for development approvals for the project.