Adelaide City Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith collapses at Christmas lunch

New Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith has revealed what caused her to collapse in front of hundreds of people at a property industry Christmas lunch.

Newly-elected Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith with paramedics outside the Adelaide Convention Centre. Picture: 7NEWS

Newly-elected Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith is back on deck after collapsing during a Christmas function at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Dr Lomax-Smith, 72, was at Adelaide Town Hall early on Friday morning to join a bus tour with other councillors elected at last month’s local government elections.

The former Labor state minister blamed dehydration for a dizzy spell which saw her faint in front of hundreds of guests attending the annual Property Council of SA luncheon on Thursday.

“It is embarrassing to faint at a business luncheon but out of an abundance of caution I chose to have a full check up,” she said during the bus tour.

“Fortunately, this was entirely reassuring.”

Dr Lomax-Smith, a highly-qualified clinical pathologist, said it was “in retrospect unwise on a busy day to have had no fluids or breakfast”.

“Hopefully it may remind others to keep fluid intake up as the temperature rises,” she said.

“I wish to thank the community for the many messages of concern and best wishes.”

The former Labor state cabinet minister had been seated at a table with newly appointed Property Council state executive director Bruce Djite, his predecessor, former Liberal state government adviser Daniel Gannon and Premier Peter Malinauskas.

Other guests on the table included Opposition leader David Speirs, Planning Minister Nick Champion, Property Council student accommodation director Torie Brown, property developer Ross Pelligra and Property Council state president Adrian Esplin.

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Newly-elected Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

The ambulance carrying Dr Lomax-Smith leaves the Adelaide Convention Centre. Picture: The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

A witness said Dr Lomax-Smith was seen leaving the function with three people during a performance by comedian Merrick Watts before she collapsed near an exit.

“She got to about the second-to-last row near the doors and just fell down,” he said.

“I thought she was having a stroke or a seizure but it turned out she fainted.

“People went over to check on her and someone called an ambulance.”

Paramedics attended to Dr Lomax-Smith before she was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital

A council spokesman later said Dr Lomax-Smith became “dizzy and, out of an abundance of caution, chose to have a full check-up”.

The annual Property Council event is South Australia’s biggest Christmas business social gathering.

Hundreds of guests attended previous luncheons in an aircraft hangar at Adelaide Airport and Adelaide Oval at the height of the pandemic.

British-born Dr Lomax-Smith last month was voted in by 52 votes for the second time as Adelaide’s new Lord Mayor after previously holding the position from 1997 to 2000.

In 2002, she was elected as the Labor MP for Adelaide and served in the government of former Labor premier Mike Rann as education, tourism and City of Adelaide minister.

Dr Lomax-Smith is the current Teachers Registration Board of SA chairwoman, former SA Musuem chairwoman and a clinical pathologist, medical researcher and teacher.

On Tuesday, she presided over the first meeting of the new Adelaide City Council voted in last month, which saw North Adelaide councillor Phil Martin elected as deputy lord mayor.

The tour of major council development sites in the Adelaide CBD and North Adelaide was part of the new council’s induction, which began immediately after they were sworn in on Tuesday.

Elected members were taken to the Franklin St bus depot, former Le Cornu site on O’Connell St, Adelaide Aquatic Centre and the city beach volleyball site on Pirie St.

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