How Mt Barker’s urban sprawl torpedoed the Liberals’ Jamie Briggs in Mayo

THE Liberals’ shock loss of the Adelaide Hills electorate of Mayo to the NXT party wasn’t just about the popularity of Nick Xenophon. It was about thousands of new homes, too.

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THE once-rural area that spawned Liberal luminaries Alexander Downer, Sir Thomas Playford, and Julie Bishop is rapidly transforming into Adelaide’s outer suburbs, prising away their former Mayo stronghold.

Population growth in Mt Barker and Strathalbyn, in particular, is turning farms into semi-suburban enclaves.

Property firm Axiom on Monday announced development approval to transform 50ha of rural land at Mt Barker into a residential estate subdivision containing more than 500 lots.

Axiom’s general manager, former Adelaide Crow Paul Rouvray, listed Mt Barker’s selling points as the Adelaide Hills’ largest town and its 25-minute drive to Adelaide’s CBD.

Incumbent Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie. Pic: Tricia Watkinson

This illustrates the changing face of Mayo, which stretches through the Adelaide Hills from Springton in the north to Victor Harbor, also including Kangaroo Island.

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics regional population figures, released in March, list Mt Barker, Victor Harbor, Strathalbyn, Victor Harbor, Goolwa — Port Elliot and the Fleurieu-Kangaroo Island area as among the fastest growing regions in the state.

New Mayo MP Rebekha Sharkie trounced outgoing Liberal Jamie Briggs in all of these large booths at Saturday’s federal election.

At the Mt Barker booth, Ms Sharkie won 59.54 per cent of the two-party preferred vote. In Strathalbyn, she won 58.61 per cent, Victor Harbor 56.09 per cent, Goolwa 55 per cent and in Kingscote 52.42 per cent. Apart from the latter, these are landslide figures.

The electorate’s increasingly urban demographics mean the Liberal bulwarks of rural areas and supporting businesses are being outweighed by voters more aligned to the NXT’s populist approach.

It’s a far cry from the Adelaide Hills apple and cherry orchard, near Basket Range, where Ms Bishop grew up, or the grazing estate near Bridgewater owned by Mr Downer’s father, Sir Alick, who represented the seat of Angas (including much of Mayo).

SA farmer brussels sprouts grower Leigh Samwell feels that food producers are under increasing pressure due to urban sprawl, pictured with fresh produce on his farm at Mt Barker.

South Australia’s longest-serving Premier, Sir Thomas Playford, was an orchardist at Norton Summit, on Mayo’s north-western boundary with metropolitan Adelaide.

Former state Liberal leader and Heysen MP Isobel Redmond, for whom Ms Sharkie worked as a researcher, moved to Stirling from Sydney in the late 1970s.

Mayo has changed significantly since the seat was created in 1984 and first held by Mr Downer.

This change complicates the Liberals’ task of winning back their formerly blue-ribbon seat at the 2019 election.

Originally published as How Mt Barker’s urban sprawl torpedoed the Liberals’ Jamie Briggs in Mayo