Northern suburbs communities face loss of 800 families as 7RAR moves on
Adelaide’s northern suburbs are used to seismic changes and neighbours leaving. But the next blow could hurt more than most.
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Residents in Adelaide’s northern suburbs are used to their neighbours only sticking around for the short term.
When the Holden factory rolled its final car off the production line in 2017, hundreds of workers and their families were forced to leave but the community remained resilient.
Now, after the confirmation that 800 Defence Force personnel, and their families, will leave RAAF Base Edinburgh to travel north, the community will once again watch hundreds of families pack up and move out.
While politicians and some community leaders have downplayed the impact the loss of 800 will have on the northern suburbs, many residents are already concerned personnel numbers will be slashed from 2025.
Defence Minister Richard Marles confirmed on Thursday that under a sweeping army repositioning, Adelaide’s 1700-strong force will be cut by about 800 from 2025 as units move north to Brisbane, Townsville and Darwin.
City of Salisbury deputy mayor Chad Buchanan said the loss of 800 families would be keenly felt.
“7RAR and their families are valued community members who not only participate in local sports and our community, but have contributed greatly to our local economy,” he said.
Mr Buchanan, who is also a past president of the North Pines Sports and Social Club in Parafield Gardens, said members of the battalion held sports games at the grounds and were great supporters of the canteen.
“Through our local sports club, we hosted 7RAR’s annual cricket match, with battalion leaders and soldiers helping out as volunteers,” he said.
“Their support for the club – and financial contribution – will be missed, but we eagerly anticipate building similar relationships with the 10th Brigade.
“The challenge has been set for the 10th Battalion to beat 7RAR’s record at the club of more than $4000 worth of hot chips in six hours and clearing out our local Woolworths and Coles of frozen chips.”
Small business Mobara Japanese and Ipho Vietnamese restaurant in Salisbury is a favourite for uniformed personnel.
Restaurant owner Kim Ta said that the uncertainty around personnel leaving could be very bad for business.
“It will be bad for business because they come in big groups, they come for lunch and spend quite a lot, maybe once or twice a week,” Ms Ta said.
“They could go all together and we don’t know. At the moment we are hoping that they don’t leave because it’s really good support, them coming in here and supporting the restaurant.”
Salisbury Downs hospitality worker Tanya Heffernan, a former Holden factory worker, said the latest departure of jobs was a real shame for the community.
“They are just taking everything from around us,” Ms Heffernan said.
“I think it’s rough. Really, really rough, I heard that the family had to be relocated too and it’s sad.
“It’s not going to be the same … and I really don’t think it should happen.”
Salisbury florist Vipul Patel said the area needed more people coming in to support the economy, not less.
“I am worried,” Mr Patel said. “We need more people over here to support small businesses … if we lose people obviously it will be less opportunity to get more customers.”
A testament to the importance of the 7th Battalion in the local area are young couple Brianna Geeves and Hamish Bell.
Mr Bell, originally from Sydney, was a former member of 7RAR and became stationed out of Edinburgh in 2014.
A few years later he met his now fiance Ms Geeves as they both took the same train back to the northern suburbs to return to base and home respectively.
Now a cyber security graduate, the move means that his fellow infantry officers will leave without him.
“I like having them all down here, it feels like home,” Mr Bell said.
“I think it will be a pretty big hit to the community when they all move off.”
Gawler mother Victoria Bisset said the impact on families could be devastating, after seeing how her best friend’s relocation to Queensland had impacted her own children.
“My best friend is a military spouse and my younger two are best friends with her younger two, so the effect it’s had on my family as well … it’s really disruptive,” Ms Bisset said.
“(My friend) has special needs children, so she has had to start that progress all over again after moving.
“I think it’s going to have a bigger impact than they expect.”
Jake Shepperd and his family from Munno Para West said the potential loss to the area was really worrying.
“We are going to lose a lot of businesses around SA, we will be worse off. It sounds like it will be similar to Holden closing,” Mr Shepperd said.
“Is it going to take away jobs? Like people who want to get in the army in SA that want to be located here might get carted off somewhere else.”
City of Playford mayor Glenn Docherty said the movement of Defence personnel didn’t necessarily come as a surprise to those in the area.
“As a growing Defence city adjacent to the RAAF Edinburgh Base, we are proud to have Defence personnel and their families as part of our community,” Mr Docherty said.
“Equally, we expect troop movement in and out of the northern suburbs in line with government decision-making that is in the best interests of defending the country and meeting Australia‘s strategic defence needs.
“Over the last five years we have averaged seven people moving into Playford every day.
“While the government’s decision may reduce Defence personnel in South Australia in the short term, our city will continue to be a place where Defence families – and people from all walks of life – will build their homes and lifestyles well into the future.”
Taylor MLA Nick Champion said the transition to a new and highly skilled workforce would create more work for the Defence industry, resulting in more local jobs and economic growth.
“We will support the commonwealth to bring those numbers into our state as quickly as possible, while working with Defence Housing Australia on the management of homes for personnel,” Mr Champion said.
“The significant pipeline of Defence projects coming our way and new homes being built are signs of growing investor confidence and further demonstrate why business is better in South Australia.”
A spokesman from the Department of Education said the relocation of ADF personnel would have no “material impact” on enrolments in the northern suburbs.
“Any loss in enrolments will be more than offset by increased school-age population growth driven by new housing developments and demographic changes,” he said.
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