Push to rename section of Clovelly Park to Tonsley after water contamination scandal

A NEW suburb with a name dating back 140 years might be created out of a section of Clovelly Park in a bid to change the area’s perception and help business.

Dis-used Mitsubishi manufacturing plant at Tonsley, South Australia.

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A NEW suburb with a name dating back 140 years might be created out of a section of Clovelly Park.

Renewal SA and Marion Council agreed to start community consultation into renaming part of Clovelly Park – including the Mitsubishi site and contaminated residential area – Tonsley.

The area would include the Tonsley Park technology centre, including the TAFE and Flinders University campuses, Monroe Shock Absorbers, and a handful of streets bounded by the Tonsley railway line and South Rd.

The name has a 140-year history in the area after the Ragless family bought the farmland established by Benjamin Babbage in 1876, and renamed it Tonsley, after Tonsley Hall in England.

The family grew wheat, oats and lucerne, kept sheep, pigs and horses and had a 8ha vineyard and a 2.8ha orchard with apricot, plum, apple and orange trees.

The area that could be renamed

Real Estate Institute of SA chief executive Greg Troughton supported the change, saying Tonsley was “irrevocably” connected to the area’s history.

The area to be renamed includes a section of properties evacuated in 2014 following groundwater contamination.

Mr Troughton said the new suburb name would help shake the stigma attached to Clovelly Park, and in time, Tonsley would grow in popularity.

“Initially my reaction was that there is a stigma attached to Clovelly Park with issues more recently,” Mr Troughton said.

“The name’s being changed, and that would be the primary reason from my perspective.”

He said changing the name of a suburb is a long process that has pros and cons for both sides of the boundary.

“There was a time when part of Henley Beach South was being changed to Henley Beach, and one of those suburbs was quite a blue ribbon suburb,” he said.

“Clovelly Park and Tonsley will not only improve that stigma but eventually Tonsley would be further up the rank.

“There are big plans for that area, which was prime industrial land and is now being transformed as a place to be.”

The Tonsley rail line ends at Tonsley station in Clovelly Park.

Marion councillor Luke Hutchinson spoke for the change at the council’s January meeting, ahead of a unanimous vote to support creating the new suburb.

“This is something that will shed a new light into the community and put Tonsley at the forefront,” Cr Hutchinson said.

Cr Raelene Telfer was pleased the small residential section was included so the Tonsley train station, at the end of the Tonsley line, would not need to be changed.

Mitsubishi’s Tonsley Park factory in 1999.

Renewal SA could not provide details on when the community consultation would begin, or when the suburb name change would be finalised.

“Consultation with the community is a first step, and will take place in coming months, following the submission of the proposed name change to the Surveyor-General,” Renewal SA acting chief executive Mark Devine said.

“The consultation would be jointly undertaken by Renewal SA and the Department of State Development, in liaison with the city of Marion.”