Development stops on 1,000 homes as SA Water hits cost roadblock
Development has stalled on at least 1,000 homes on the Yorke Peninsula because of unfinished water infrastructure upgrades.
Construction has yet to begin on two lifestyle villages in the Copper Coast and Port Wakefield regions while developers and SA Water negotiate cost-splitting for millions of dollars in upgrades.
Developer Metacap unveiled plans for the 680-home Riverbend lifestyle village in October 2023 and advised Copper Coast Council the first sod would be turned last July.
However, council chief executive Dylan Strong said the project at Port Hughes hit a roadblock which SA Water and the developer blamed on insufficient water capacity.
"The lack of capacity within the SA Water network is not unique to the Copper Coast," Mr Strong said.
"But it is compounded in the regions of SA that are experiencing the growth that most regions want, but not all of them have.
"What's happened over time is the area has continued to grow and the insufficient capacity has gotten worse.
Mr Strong said SA Water had carried out ongoing expansion work for "the past few decades" but "not all of those works occurred when scheduled" because population growth exceeded forecasts.
With retirees and young workers flocking to the region, he said the council's population of 16,000 was expected to double by 2055 if housing could be built.
Mr Strong added that SA Water had indicated there was no capital expenditure left in its 2024–28 business plan, which limited its options.
Wakefield Regional Council Mayor Rodney Reid said similar disagreements about costs had beset the Hamley Bridge development, where up to 400 homes have been earmarked by developer Robert Moore.
Neither SA Water nor Mr Moore have signalled delivery time frames yet, according to Mr Reid.
"Increased revenue through rates on developed properties has not occurred and this means less funding to spend on existing and new projects" he said.
"It also means that we continue to have a shortage of housing both owned and rented across the council district."
An SA Water spokesperson said "developers are expected to make financial contributions to any network upgrades or expansions".
"This protects affordability for our existing customers by ensuring SA Water — and our broader customer base — is not subsidising any realised profits from private development," the spokesperson said.
The developer, Robert Moore, declined to comment.
In November, the state government pledged $1.5 billion in new water and sewerage pipes as part of its Housing Roadmap, but no additional funding was set aside for the aforementioned developments.
With the aim of servicing 40,000 new homes, planning authorities have prioritised developments immediately north and south of Adelaide.
SA Water's spokesperson said planning was occurring this year for the water networks servicing Yorke Peninsula, which would "incorporate the latest growth forecasts" for 2028–32.
"As part of the state government's Housing Roadmap we are investing $1.5 billion during the current four-year regulatory period to grow and expand our water and wastewater networks in South Australia, where it's needed the most," they said.
"This investment will deliver large-scale infrastructure, such as new trunk water and wastewater mains, to unlock capacity for new homes to be built and connect to our networks, specifically across Adelaide's northern growth front.
"We currently do not have funding capacity as part of the Housing Roadmap to invest in upgrading our water and wastewater networks outside of priority areas.
"In Kadina, some development has been enabled through minor network augmentations, and since 2016 we have invested in water main upgrades, installed larger water mains and valves in Moonta, and upgraded water storages in Lower and Upper Paskeville.
"We understand the important economic benefits that developments across the state will deliver and have prioritised engaging with councils and developers in areas like this to understand the specific upgrades required to our infrastructure."
The Housing Roadmap blamed South Australia's water woes on under-investment, calling it "a major failure of previous governments at all levels".
Local Government Association SA chief executive Clinton Jury said councils were actively rezoning land and offering incentives to developers.
"Councils raised this issue at last year's LGA Annual General Meeting because they want to be part of the solution," Mr Jury said.
"The government's recent investment in water infrastructure in metropolitan Adelaide is a welcome step, and we now need to see that same level of strategic focus extended to regional areas.
"This is a complex issue that's been building over many years, it won't be fixed overnight. We need continued investment and collaboration to support more housing and growth in regional areas."
Last June the state government introduced an extra charge to water bills in order to finance new capital works, costing households on average an additional $80 per year.
Metacap and Housing Minister Nick Champion were contacted for comment.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
With a 'direct ear' to the treasurer, have police outranked paramedics as the SA government's top priority?
"Having the direct ear of the treasurer certainly is an advantage for me as a chief executive and it's my job to make sure I exploit that." One day after the South Australian government handed down a budget with law and order as its centrepiece, SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens smiled as he summed up the fortuitous position he finds himself in, just nine months out from the next state election. "It's one of those few occasions where we have a senior cabinet minister as the minister for police," he told reporters. "I'm grateful for that level of focus that the government is putting on law and order and policing in South Australia." Mr Stevens was referring to Stephen Mullighan — a long-serving Labor cabinet minister who happens to not only be police minister, but treasurer too. Having a cabinet boss who is also in charge of government spending gives Mr Stevens a unique opportunity to wield influence, and the latest state budget could be seen as a case in point. Hundreds of millions of dollars for more police officers, firearms and infrastructure formed part of what Mr Mullighan described as "the largest boost to police funding in the state's history". As ABC News previously noted, there was no mistaking the budget message the government was trying to send, with photos of police officers splashed across the budget papers and projected onto screens around the budget lock-up room. But turn the clock back three years, and the government was keen to spruik a different kind of frontline worker, whose presence was keenly felt at the last state election, and whose absence from the latest budget front-page raises questions about the government's priorities going forward. "Labor will fix the ramping crisis." It was an election mandate that brought the party to government in March 2022, and which has since become an annoying itch for MPs forced to defend the government's progress. When the Malinauskas government handed down its first budget in June 2022, a photo of a nurse, paramedic and doctor graced the front-page — a nod to the $2.4 billion in health spending budgeted that year. But in 2025, ramping remains high. Ambulances spent 3,700 hours waiting outside emergency departments in April, a decrease on the month before but still much higher than the worst month under the previous government. Despite the government's latest budget tipping an additional $1.9 billion into the health system over the next five years — $1.7 billion of which is just to address increasing demand — health unions were not too pleased. "This budget is strong on crime but soft on health," Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation CEO Elizabeth Dabars said. "We know that they've put additional investment into health, but the reality is that the demands in the system on nurses and midwives are far too great to endure." Paramedics were equally scathing. "It is inconceivable that we are nine months out from the next election, and the government that promised our community that it would fix the ramping crisis, has not budgeted for any additional ambulance resourcing, or to address ramping and response times," Ambulance Employees Association general secretary Paul Ekkelboom said. "The best this government can do is reframe the narrative away from ramping, and abandon on its commitments to the people of South Australia." But Premier Peter Malinauskas said health remained one of the government's top priorities, and budgeted spending on health eclipsed spending on police. "Let's take nurses for instance: We committed at the last election that we would employ an extra 300 nurses. We've smashed those numbers out of the park by the tune of many, many hundreds," he told ABC News Stateline. "Similarly with doctors, we said we'd employ an extra 100 doctors into our system over the life of our time in government. Last year alone, we increased it by over 300 over and above attrition." When questioned on his progress on "fixing the ramping crisis", Mr Malinauskas pointed to ambulance response times. "They're rolling up to triple-0 calls on time and that is the difference between life and death," he said. "We have made inroads (in fixing the ramping crisis), notwithstanding the fact that clearly, we still would like to see ramping improve. "As those new beds come online that we've invested in so heavily and quite dramatically — and there are hundreds coming online over the next couple of years — we hope it improves." So, if health is still a priority for the government, what has prompted it to deliver a budget so heavily focused on law and order — especially when overall crime rates have dropped across the state? According to Mr Malinauskas, SA Police has a "genuine need" for more resources. "They've seen demand grow not in crime in the traditional sense and how we might think of it, but more through the burden of increasing demands around domestic violence responses … also with call-outs to mental health cases," he said. "We've seen that demand grow and we've also got a growing population. "We haven't had that big uplift in police numbers in our state now for quite a long period of time." "Tough on crime" policies are considered politically popular, but Mr Malinauskas denied crime would become an election focus for his government. "I'd much rather have elections focused on other matters — education for instance, rather than crime — but that doesn't mean there isn't a need that we have a responsibility to address." But that is also the case for the health system, which continues to struggle through ambulance ramping and bed block. Without a "direct ear" to the treasurer, it is yet to be seen whether doctors, nurses and paramedics will receive the same level of attention from Labor in the months leading up to March 2026, as they did ahead of the last state election.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Tiny SA town buys disused primary school for $1.10, transforms it into op shop
If you have travelled along South Australia's Mallee Highway, there is a good chance you have driven past the tiny township of Geranium. Standing on the sleepy main street, there are remnants of what used to be a vibrant and bustling primary school. But beyond the bitumen road and through weathered school gates, a resident is putting smiles on people's faces one clothing rack at a time through her new opportunity shop. Set to the sound of a crackly Neil Diamond record, local of 40 years Marg Smith has made it her mission to turn sadness into spirit and help Geranium blossom once again. When Geranium Primary School closed its doors three years ago due to dwindling enrolment numbers, it shut a century-old chapter for the region. What was once a busy country town with one of the state's largest area schools now has a population of just over 80 residents. "My husband and our five children all went to school here, and I was [working] here when it closed, so it was tough." But through the hardships, Ms Smith has reinvigorated the space and turned an old design and tech room into a welcoming place for all. "The primary school was transferred to the community for $1.10 as an in-kind gesture from the state government … I think the 10 cents was for GST," Ms Smith chuckled. Since opening its doors just over a month ago, the store has welcomed people from far and wide. Interstate traveller Annette Swaby stumbled across the store accidentally. "We were travelling from Murray Bridge back home to Bairnsdale, Victoria when we came across the Geranium Op Shop," she said. "The people here are so friendly and nice, and it has been so delightful." Pinnaroo local Rita Francis travelled to Geranium for a special visit. After chatting with Ms Smith, the two women soon realised they had both grown up in the same village in Papua New Guinea. "How's that!" Ms Smith gasped. "I always used to love going to op shops because you just never knew what you might find, and now here in Geranium, you don't know who's going to walk through the door. While most of the money raised for the store will go towards facility maintenance and helping grow the community hub, Ms Smith hopes she can also donate funds to causes close to her heart. Ms Smith hopes the op shop will continue to lift up the community even as the town's numbers dwindle. "[The] primary school was once the focal place for Geranium, and now it's coming around full circle," she said. "I think we're a gem and a treasure. "We are small and we're getting smaller but just like Dr Seuss says, 'A person's a person, no matter how small' and so I think a community is a community, no matter how small."
ABC News
17 hours ago
- ABC News
Queensland treasurer flags extra $1.4b in state budget for CopperString
Queensland's treasurer has vowed the government will not pay for further cost increases to the multi-billion-dollar CopperString 2032 energy project, after allocating more money in this year's budget. Treasurer David Janetzki revealed in Townsville that $2.4 billion had been committed to the project, an increase of $1.4 billion from the previous Labor government's budget. The 1,100 kilometres of power line network from Townsville to Mount Isa would connect towns and mines to the national electricity market for the first time. In April, the government announced private investment would be sought after costs blew out to $13.9 billion, a figure contested by government-owned corporation Powerlink, which costed the project at $9 billion late last year. Mr Janetzki said CopperString 2032 would go ahead, but stressed its details were still under review. "I want to make sure CopperString doesn't cost $13.9 billion dollars," he said. Earlier this year, the state government announced a major change to the scope of the project — that Powerlink would begin construction on the Hughenden-to-Townsville section of the project, while private investment was being sought to construct the Hughenden-to-Mount Isa section through the Queensland Investment Commission. "There will be additional investment into CopperString in the years ahead," Mr Janetzki said. "There will need to be, but I'm very clear we will be delivering that for less than $13.9 billion. "What I want to see is QIC do its work." Flinders Shire Mayor Kate Peddle said her community — centred on the western Queensland town of Hughenden — was tired of announcements and wanted action. "I joke with our councillors that we have one bottle of champagne left in the fridge and we'll be leaving that until we see one tower go up," she said. Deputy Opposition Leader Cameron Dick said the government was being deliberately misleading about whether it would deliver the project in its entirety. "We're going to hold this government to its promises to deliver CopperString all the way from Townsville to Mount Isa, and we see the government moving away from that promise," he said. Construction work on the transmission line is expected to start in Hughenden by the end of the year.
