Renewal SA prepared a list of site options for SA Police in September 2022, outlining where the police horses could be located once the Thebarton barracks are razed for the new $3.2 billion Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

The full list of site options has not been released publicly, with SA Police currently in a legal battle with former senator Rex Patrick to keep that document – and several others related to the police horse relocation – under wraps.

But SA Police this week backed down on its refusal to release all documents in the scope of a freedom of information (FOI) request lodged by Patrick in October 2022.

Eight documents have now been released that shed some light on the land advice provided by Renewal SA.

One of the documents is a SAPOL briefing paper prepared for Police Commissioner Grant Stevens on November 8, 2022, which outlines some of the investigative work done to find a new barracks site.

“SAPOL has engaged Renewal SA and MRS Property Advisory to carry out government owned and private owned land and property searches,” the briefing paper states.

“They have advised SAPOL that the former West End Brewery (8.43ha) was the single available landholding opportunity identified that fits the size, location, access and security constraints required, with the benefit of being in process of demolition and clearing which would support expedited timeframes for delivering a new Barracks.”

The River Torrens frontage of the Thebarton Brewery site. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily

Despite this advice, SA Police in March 2023 controversially nominated Park 21 West – an eight-hectare plot of city park land on the corner of Greenhill Road and Sir Lewis Cohen Avenue – as its first preference to build a new barracks.

InDaily asked SA Police why the park lands site was nominated if Renewal SA had recommended the Thebarton Brewery. A police spokesperson replied: “SA Police are not in a position to comment on this.”

The former West End Brewery site on Port Road is roughly 1km northwest of the Thebarton barracks. The now vacant land is being sold by global beverage company Lion, which closed the brewery in 2021.

Planning Minister Nick Champion in September 2022 allowed Lion to investigate rezoning the site for medium and high-rise apartment buildings via a planning code amendment.

Police Association of SA CEO Mark Carroll today suggested on ABC Radio that the Thebarton Brewery “was put off limits by the government (for the police horses) because of the value of that land”.

InDaily asked Renewal SA if it could name the other sites it identified in its barracks relocation document prepared for SA Police.

In response, a Renewal SA spokesperson said: “The initial scope provided by SAPOL that prompted the creation of the ‘SAPOL barracks relocation options’ document, dated September 1, 2022, was broader than just the activities of the Mounted Operations Unit.

“None of the sites identified by Renewal SA in this document met the full criteria of the Police Barracks activities requiring relocation, including the Mounted Operations Unit.

“The criteria outlined by SAPOL included requirements such as land size, proximity to CBD and timing for relocation of the activities at the police barracks. No land meeting the full criteria was available to the market at that time.”

It comes as the Malinauskas Government today announced it would be backtracking on its plan to house the police horses on land near Adelaide Airport.

The government will instead pursue its backup option in Gepps Cross on a portion of government-owned land near the State Sports Park – around 9km north of the CBD.

The airport plan, announced in June, had to be abandoned due to contamination from per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) – a “forever chemical” once used in firefighting foam which has been linked with cancers, birth defects and diseases.

SA Police publicly flagged concerns about PFAS contamination within two weeks of the government announcing it had selected the airport.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan today said the issue came up after the government conducted “detailed investigations” of the airport site.

“As we’ve gone through some of the detailed investigations, one of the issues that cropped up is that PFAS contamination which is unfortunately a bit of a recurring theme in airport land across the country,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning.

“So that’s why we’ve settled on Gepps Cross.”

The Police Association is pushing the state government to reconsider building a barracks on a park lands site, nominating Park 27A/John E Brown Park – located between Port Road and War Memorial Drive – as a potential option.

Park 27A/John E. Brown Park has been highlighted by the police union as a potential location for the police horses. Image: Adelaide Park Lands Association

Mullighan, asked whether the park lands were off the table for the police horses, said: “I think we made that clear when we said we weren’t proceeding with the southern park lands.

“That southern park lands site was selected because it was deemed to be the only feasible solution from SAPOL’s perspective.

“Now that that’s not proceeding, we are not proceeding with a park lands site, we are proceeding with a Gepps Cross site.”

InDaily asked Police Minister Joe Szakacs’ office why the state government chose to house the police barracks on airport land if Renewal SA had recommended the former West End Brewery but did not receive a response before publication.

In a statement released earlier this morning, a government spokesperson said: “The State Government has listened to community feedback about the relocation of the Mounted Operations Unit and is currently conducting feasibility and design work on the non-parklands sites previously identified.

“Significant investigation is now being undertaken into the Gepps Cross site previously identified by the State Government, as the most viable future home for the Mounted Operations Unit.

“Early feasibility work has demonstrated several advantages over the West Beach locations, including site condition and availability.”

Meanwhile, SA Police continues its bid to keep other documents about the police horse relocation secret in the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

SA Police is seeking to overturn a State Ombudsman ruling on June 5 which ordered SAPOL to release 19 of 21 documents found within the scope of former senator Patrick’s FOI request.

SA Police cited cabinet confidentiality to prevent the documents from public release.

“SAPOL has referred the ombudsman’s June 5 determination to the SACAT for review,” a police spokesperson said on Thursday.

“The Commissioner of Police has an obligation to Cabinet, as the Chief Executive of SAPOL, and a decision to refer the matter is in line with fulfilling that obligation.

“The matter has been referred to SACAT as a matter of principle.”

Patrick, upon SA Police’s release of the initial eight documents this week, said it was “beyond comprehension how the documents that have been released could have ever been considered to be cabinet documents”.

“They are internal documents and a minute to the police minister. SAPOL’s Commissioner and the Government have acted in a manner that has frustrated public debate and scrutiny in relation to an issue of considerable public interest.”