A Brumby has called Adelaide a brumby. One thing I will never personally forget is the stink of the Yarra when I was a child. You could smell it from miles away. My family moved to Adelaide from Melbourne in 1964. Much has changed since then. The Yarra no longer stinks. The Torrens is often a mud-hole. When I was a child water ski-ing competitions were regularly held on the Patawolonga. It is now clean, but for twenty years it was a sewer. The difference in development between Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide over that time almost makes you want to cry.
Remember Marineland? It closed, financially unviable. If my memory serves me correctly that site sat vacant for twelve years or more. No proposed development suited planning ideology. During the time it was vacant I stayed at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Singapore - built on reclaimed swamp! The Marineland site was finally used to build The Woolshed. It was idealogically acceptable, but it went out of business in nothing flat.
Remember Estcourt House at Tennyson? It sat vacant for many years, falling into dilapidation because the owners could not present a development proposal that could win approval. It is now in use, but what opportunities and revenue were lost to South Australia during its idle time?
Remember the buildings on the Black Diamond corner at Port Adelaide? I'm not entirely certain of the reasons why but they were an ugly, boarded-up eyesore for a very long time. Was planning ideology involved in that? Someone might like to inform me.
Remember the nineteen-eighties when new development proposals for South Australia were regularly announced. Lots of corporations spent millions of dollars undertaking feasability studies for this, that and the other development. The Bannon government made massive mileage out of each and every one of them.
However, being forced to run the gauntlet of local council planning ideology, state planning preferences, direct labour demands and incidental trade union ideology, Aboriginal sacred site surprises and the humorous but highly symbolic Land Rights For Gay Whales considerations, almost every single one of them went belly-up.
Am I being facetious when I claim that in the 'eighties South Australia had a lucrative industry in feasability studies for developments that had no hope whatsoever of going ahead.
When we are now slapped in the face, how should we defend ourselves? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Adelaide is bland. Condiments were available, but they sat on the rack, unused. That was largely because an excess of cooks couldn't agree on how to season the broth.
And that, for the benefit of Media Mike, speaks of head chefs who are too scared to make a bold decision for fear of getting a blemish on their perfect public image.
