Adelaide City Council wants to reduce number of police horses kept in Adelaide Gaol olive grove

The number of SA Police horses now grazing in a historic city olive grove has arborists scared for the health of the 160-year-old trees.

Adelaide City Council wants to reduce the number of police horses kept within a historic olive grove beside the old Adelaide Gaol.

A report for the Adelaide Park Lands Authority has detailed how the horses are damaging trees in the 2.4ha grove, one of the first planted to be in South Australia in 1862.

The SA Police Mounted Cadre Unit has been agisting its horses in the olive grove and another smaller one opposite the Thebarton Police Barracks since the 1970s.

The council has suggested the number of horses kept within the larger grove on Kate Cocks Park should be cut in half from 24 to 12, with the others to be agisted at a police property at Echunga, in the Adelaide Hills.

The report also has called for the removal of internal electric fencing installed by SAPOL without council permission in 2018 to create 22 separate pens.

SA Police horses in the olive grove near Adelaide Gaol. Picture: Colin James

Police horses in their paddocks behind the Old Adelaide Goal. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

“This concentration of horses around particular trees, together with an increased stocking rate, has led to a serious decline in the health of many trees,” it said.

The council was working with SAPOL on a management plan for the grove to minimise the damage being caused by the horses.

An arborist and an external consultant had confirmed branch and stem damage, sparse foliage, structural defects, exposure of surface roots, soil compaction and dead trees.

“With the current number of horses agisted being between 20 and 25, the arborist’s assessment indicates stocking densities more than 17 times the recommended level for the 2.1ha site,” said the report.

The report said SAPOL had recently introduced feeding bins “which require the horses to spend time extracting food, consequently allowing less time to graze on the trees”.

“However, through observation, this measure has been deemed by the independent arborist to be largely ineffective in reducing damage to the trees,” it said.

The council had suggested two alternative agistment sites but SAPOL had deemed them unsuitable because they lacked shade, had artificial surfaces and were too far away from the Thebarton Police Barracks, where the SA Police Mounted Cadre was based.

SA Police horses in the olive grove near Adelaide Gaol. Picture: Colin James.

The other olive grove on Gaol Rd previously used by SAPOL is destined to be used for a multistorey carpark for the new Women’s and Children’s Hospital, which is being built next to the Royal Adelaide Hospital on North Tce.

“SAPOL has confirmed it has no intention of vacating the barracks site and values the proximity of this facility and the horses to the city very highly,” said the report.

“SAPOL argues it is not feasible to remove the internal fencing because of the health and safety needs of the horses or, for operational requirements, reduce the number of horses on-site.”

SA Police instead was seeking permission to erect a 2.4m-high black steel mesh fence around the perimeter of the main olive grove to block access by the public.

The olive grove is currently fenced with 0.9m-high post and wire fence, with signs warning the public not to enter the area, feed or pat the horses because they might get bitten.

Adelaide Gaol Sheriff William Boothby used prisoners to produce olive oil in the 1850s. Picture: State Library of South Australia