Demolition of historic grandstand at Adelaide’s Cheltenham Racecourse began without warning.
It’s a move that has blindsided both the Charles Sturt Council and residents. The 1895-built Wyndham Hill Smith Grandstand will make way for the St Clair housing development, comprising 1,200 new homes.
Mayor Kirsten Alexander said the council thought it had more time to consider options after voting to spend $30,000 in July investigating other uses for the site. “It shows a total disregard for community values. I think it is pure arrogance,” she said. “They are definitely demolishing it. You can see they have taken sets of steps down and are really getting stuck into it.”
Alexander said there was no warning of the demolition work, which started on Saturday. “Today a letter arrived on our doorstep to change their position on the meeting, saying they were going to go forward without consultation,” she said. “Council have been blind-sided by this. We had no warnings whatsoever, not even to get legal advice.”
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