SA Police and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport officials appeared before parliament’s Public Works Committee today to give an update on the relocation of the Mounted Operations Unit from Thebarton barracks.

The Malinauskas Government is moving the police horses and Dog Operations Unit to a new facility on government-owned land near the State Sports Park in Gepps Cross, around 9km north of the CBD, despite police concerns about longer response times.

It was revealed earlier this month that the new Gepps Cross facility costs $90m.

SA Police Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford said the $90m does not cover the cost of building a new CBD “staging post” for the horses on Wright Street, behind the SA Supreme Court building.

It also does not cover any extra costs that could emerge from needing to float the horses into the city from Gepps Cross “almost every day”, Bamford said.

“We’re still working on the additional operational costs, which will be a separate submission to government if we need to request additional funding,” Bamford told the committee.

“I don’t anticipate there’ll be additional training costs, it’s more likely to be additional vehicles, floats and possibly staff as well.

“Because we’ll be bringing horses in almost every day to the city staging point, and we’re working through the operational changes that will be required to do that.”

Asked if a cost had been finalised for the CBD staging post, Bamford said: “That’s still being worked on.”

Later asked how many horses he anticipated being at the staging post at any point in time, Bamford said: “Probably two to four horses would be on average, but we’re looking for a capacity of 12 horses.”

An impression of the proposed Gepps Cross police barracks. Image: SA Govt

Moving the police horses has been a fraught political process for the Malinauskas Government since it decided in August 2022 to raze the heritage listed Thebarton barracks for a $3.2 billion Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Renewal SA advised SA Police in November 2022 that the West End Brewery site in Thebarton was the ideal spot for a new barracks, but this site was not made available to police, according to Police Commissioner Grant Stevens.

The government then vetoed SA Police’s preference for an 8ha site on Park 21W in the southern park lands near Greenhill Road – a plan vociferously opposed by Adelaide City Council and park lands and environmental groups.

Two potential sites on land near Adelaide Airport were then nominated but later scrapped due to concerns about PFAS contamination. The government then settled on its backup option at Gepps Cross despite frustration from the Police Commissioner and fury from the police union.

The $90m Gepps Cross funding will go towards 32 stables, an undercover arena, a separate area for kennels, training facilities for the Dog Operations Unit and upgrades to access roads.

“Our preferred approach was always to be based within between three and five kilometres from the city,” Bamford said today, adding that around 85 per cent of police horse work is within the CBD.

“That has not come to fruition. We believe we can make a Gepps Cross alternative work, but there will be some operational impacts.”

Bamford said moving the horses from Gepps Cross to the CBD could take “anywhere from 20 minutes to 50 minutes” depending on the time of day.

That’s compared to a current response of around 10 minutes from the Thebarton barracks, but Bamford stressed that the majority of events the police horses respond to are pre-planned.

“There’s definitely going to be an impact on any sort of immediate response,” he said.

“We need to couch that in terms though that generally Mounted don’t respond to emergencies with lights and sirens on, other police do that.

“If we already have horses at the staging point, we’ll have a very comparable response time than we have today.

The proposed police horse “staging post” site on the corner of Wright Street and King William Street was flagged as part of the initial plan to house the police horses at Adelaide Airport. Photo: Matt Turner/InDaily

“However, if there are no horses in the city at the time, there will be a delay on them attending.”

As of June 30, 2023, SA Police had spent $1.6m on investigating Thebarton barracks relocation options, according to an answer on notice provided by the Police Commissioner to a separate parliamentary inquiry earlier this year.