Barton Tce West has been a victim of North Adelaide’s class war for 37 years | Peter Goers
This is one of the worst examples of social inequity and bloody-mindedness in SA history, writes Peter Goers.
Opinion
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They are just three little words. Three little words which appal me and thousands of other motorists. Three little words which have caused outrage, frustration, rancour and recalcitrance for 37 long years.
Barton Tce West.
Only 70m of this road which expressly connects lower North Adelaide to the western suburbs (whence a quarter of Adelaide’s population lives) was closed to traffic without consultation in 1987. This was to preserve the posh enclave of mansions along Barton Tce, Hill St and, especially, Mills Tce.
There is still doubt that the closure is actually legal.
It was and remains a battle between those of North Adelaide versus the battlers, so that the privileged few will not be bothered by traffic using their stately streets and so that they can hear a leaf fall in their expansive sylvan gardens – for their gardeners to pick up.
Despite 37 years of controversy, legal challenges, civil disobedience, police in the early 1990s watching powerless to prosecute as a fleet of cars drive through the blocked bit of road, despite the Croydon MP Michael Atkinson riding his bike along the road, despite a Supreme Court ruling in 1990 finding the traffic restriction was unlawful because the council had failed to follow the correct procedure for closing a road – this road is still blocked, except for buses.
As usual, the top end of town is triumphant.
Those thousands disadvantaged by this daily are told “let ’em eat cake”.
To avoid 70m of blocked road, motorists must detour 1.7km through three major traffic lights in three different suburbs, or drive 6km around Memorial Drive, Jeffcott St and Baron Tce East.
This is one of the worst examples of social inequity and bloody-mindedness in SA history. Easy access to North Adelaide is denied. The people of North Adelaide don’t want people from the (lower-class) western suburbs to threaten their sacred North Adelaide.
This is class warfare.
Whilst it keeps through-traffic off the apparently sacred Hill St and Mills Tce, it adds more traffic to Jeffcott St. It blocks a section of Bowden and Ovingham in, and they are trapped in inaccessible suburban triangles.
For 37 years, Barton Tce West has been a political football. The then-Rann government pledged to reopen it – then that Labor government cancelled that pledge.
Express access to St Laurence’s Catholic Church, the excellent and popular St Dominic’s Priory College and, most importantly, Calvary Hospital and Mary Potter Hospice are badly affected. I know of loved ones who have missed being with the dying because of the closure of Barton Tce East. But the privileged few of North Adelaide just don’t care.
Before 1987, about 1500 vehicles a day accessed this section of road and now thousands more each day are stymied.
There’s a huge irony here in that the revived, gentrified Bowden has become trendy and very popular and the residents of lower North Adelaide are denied easy access to the excellent Bowden shops, restaurants, pubs and art galleries. The Bowden facilities are closer to lower North Adelaide and better than the (less interesting) O’Connell St shops. So access is stopped both ways.
Something must be done. But nothing will change and I’ll probably be railing against this in another 37 years time. There are no plans for the Transport Department or the Adelaide City Council to reopen Barton Tce West. The rich and the political will continue to block the rest of us.
I’d love to see the super-duper-vroom-vroom car race moved to Hill St, Mills Tce and Memorial Drive, which would make access to those streets very difficult and then their indulged denizens would know exactly how it feels.
I’m sorely tempted to drive up and down the closed Barton Tce West, be fined and have my day in court. Watch this space.
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