The state government on Friday revealed it would backtrack on its plan announced in June to build a new police horse barracks on land near Adelaide Airport, with PFAS contamination forcing the government to consider a backup option at Gepps Cross.

The Gepps Cross site – a portion of government-owned land near the State Sports Park – is around 9km north of the CBD and has already prompted calls from the police union to reconsider housing the horses on city park lands.

SA Police and the state government have been planning since at least August 2022 on where to relocate the police horses once the state heritage listed Thebarton barracks are razed for the new $3.2 billion Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Commissioner Stevens said SA Police had “clearly articulated” to the state government that they wanted to keep the Mounted Operations Unit (MOU) in the CBD.

“This has taken a lot longer than we would have liked to identify a location for the horses,” he told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning.

“And our preference was clearly articulated in terms of remaining in the CBD because of the way we deploy the horses.

“When it was made clear that a CBD location was no longer on the table, we started to expand our scope in terms of where we might be able to go.”

He said the Gepps Cross land, which is around 2km further from the CBD than Adelaide Airport, was the “third, less preferred option” and would require the horses to be driven to and from a new city staging post behind the Supreme Court building.

“That’s not optimal but the advice I have from our Mounted Operations people is that we will be able to make it work,” he said.

“It’s important to remember that by and large the horses are not like a rapid response police service.

“The other thing for me obviously is that we have police officers and other staff who work in Mounted down at barracks.

“There is going to be a significant imposition for some of those staff members with the location of the new facility well outside of the CBD.”

A portion of land near the State Sports Park in Gepps Cross is now the government’s first preference for a new police horse barracks. Image: Google Maps

In March, SA Police 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 for a new barracks.

The Malinauskas Government took months to weigh up whether to accept police’s first choice amid significant opposition to the park lands move from Adelaide and Unley councils and environmental groups.

The government eventually settled on the Adelaide Airport option on June 8.

Asked today whether police would push for a park lands site again, Stevens said: “We made it clear that within three to five kilometres of the CBD, in order to replicate our current operational process, that’s what’s required.

“So, if we were able to identify a site that was within three to five kilometres of the CBD, that would be our preferred way forward.”

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

SA Police has 15 different business units located at Thebarton barracks and is aiming to vacate the site by March 2024.

The deadline comes with the government in a hurry to start work on the new hospital – Attorney-General Kyam Maher told parliament in October that every three months of delay on the project will cost $25 million.

“Time is definitely running out,” Stevens said.

“I think it’s fair to say that the plans are to start construction works for the new hospital during 2024 and any delays associated with police decanting from Thebarton barracks will impact on commencement of those works.”

Stevens also confirmed that Renewal SA had advised police last year that the former West End Brewery site in Thebarton was the ideal spot for a new barracks, as revealed by InDaily on Friday.

SA Police would not comment last week about why Park 21W was nominated if Renewal SA had advised pursuing the brewery site – but the Police Commissioner said today that the government has “other plans for the brewery site so it’s not something that was available to us”.

The 8.43 hectare former West End Brewery site in Thebarton. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily

“If the government has other plans for that site, then that’s a matter for the government and I need to understand and respect that,” Stevens said.

“I would assume that some of its going to be for affordable housing, or inner-city housing, so with plans to increase population in South Australia that’s a matter for the government.”

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.

Urban planning firm Ekistics, on behalf of Lion, is advocating the code amendment as a “once in a generation opportunity to transform a former industrial site into a unique world-class lifestyle precinct”.

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

InDaily asked Police Minister Joe Szakacs last week why the government chose the house the police horses at Adelaide Airport if Renewal SA advised the brewery site was the ideal location.

In response, a government spokesperson did not mention the brewery site specifically but said the Gepps Cross location “does not require the kind of demolition, rehabilitation and other preparatory works that could be required at other sites”.

“The government conducted a comprehensive review of possible sites for the future home of the MOU, which included assessments of location, availability and operational suitability for SAPOL,” the spokesperson said.

“The site now under close investigation at Gepps Cross provides adequate open space to construct modern and fit-for-purpose facilities for staff and the MOU greys.

“The government’s ambition is to relocate the MOU as soon as possible and make way for construction of a brand-new Women’s and Children’s Hospital.”