Lefevre Peninsula hi-tech overhaul floated by ex-navy chief

The region could be transformed from the ground up to boost the state’s shipbuilding abilities, he says.

A former navy chief and senior defence industry figures have sparked calls to radically transform the Lefevre Peninsula into a bustling, hi-tech precinct to attract young workers to shipbuilding.

It would involve boosting modern housing availability, building new recreational infrastructure and increasing the number of schooling and tertiary education options – with a heavy focus on STEM – near the Osborne shipyard to help plug a looming skills crisis.

Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, who served as chief of navy from 2014 to 2018, said transforming the peninsula would help attract young people to a career in shipbuilding.

He said there were opportunities to establish a precinct for an “educated, highly skilled workforce to service a modern and innovative shipbuilding industry”.

Former chief of navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett said transforming the Lefevre Peninsula would help make shipbuilding careers more attractive.

“There are opportunities for the peninsula, where people can live, work and thrive with impressive residential facilities, specialist education sites and supporting recreational infrastructure,” Vice Admiral Barrett told The Advertiser.

“The outcome through the output of the dockyard would be for the benefit of the nation.”

The head of the Australian Sovereign Capability Alliance, Martin Hamilton-Smith, said creating such a precinct would require more modern housing and STEM-leading schools.

“Some of these workers at Osborne are going to be highly paid, technical people and the housing and schooling and amenity arrangements are going to need to cater for a sophisticated mix of residents,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.

“This is South Australia’s opportunity to finally get it right at Port Adelaide and to make sure that it is a precinct to rival Fremantle.”

Australian Sovereign Capability Alliance boss Martin Hamilton-Smith said it was SA’s opportunity to make Port Adelaide “a precinct to rival Fremantle”.

Australian Industry and Defence Network boss Brent Clark said “this kind of innovative thinking is exactly the kind of thinking that we need”.

“We have a problem, which is a skills shortage, and we have to be innovative in how we solve that problem,” he said.

Defence Industry Minister and Port Adelaide MP Susan Close said the new joint workforce with the federal government would address critical defence workforce and skills shortages.

“This will include examining all aspects – across education, skilling, employment and career development – to ensure we can provide the workforce needed in and around the shipyard and across the defence industry supply chain to deliver future naval shipbuilding projects,” Ms Close said.

Flinders University employment expert John Spoehr said a statewide approach was needed.

“It is important that we don’t limit the pool of available young people geographically. A strategy of drawing from schools across metro Adelaide is necessary to meet demand being generated from shipbuilding,” Professor Spoehr said.

It’s expected the Osborne shipyard’s required workforce numbers will grow from 2800 now to 9000 by 2037. There are fears of a skills shortage in the defence industry, with particular concerns around how Australia can develop a workforce capable of building highly advanced nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS security pact.

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