People with hearing impairments need not miss out on the FIVEaa radio discussion from 14 December 2017 with David Penberthy and Will Goodings because I've prepared a transcript. Tonsley Station was mentioned on four separate occasions - in the introduction of the Breakfast program, during a preview of the topic, with me in a live phone interview and later with a talkback caller. The Breakfast program web page is here: https://www.fiveaa.com.au/fiveaa/shows/breakfast/david-penberthy-and-will-goodings A podcast of the Breakfast program of 14 December 2017 has been published on the FIVEaa web site (duration 74'31"): https://www.fiveaa.com.au/shows/david-and-will/podcast-14-Dec-2017 TRANSCRIPT FIVEaa BREAKFAST WITH DAVID PENBERTHY & WILL GOODINGS 14 DECEMBER 2017 1: PROGRAM INTRODUCTION [podcast cue 0:00] Will Goodings (WG): [06:30 a.m.] Good morning to you and welcome to Thursday on 5AA Breakfast…[introduction of program items]...We’ll talk to the people behind a movement to save the Tonsley Rail Station. They say it’s going to be one hell of an inconvenience when the station is no more. We’ll have a bit of a chat about that… 2: PREVIEW OF TONSLEY STATION ISSUE [podcast cue 12'37"] WG: After 7 o’clock this morning, the Tonsley rail station is disappearing. We’re going to be speak to some people behind a Change.org petition that would like to see it remain … David Penberthy (DP): …including me … WG: including David Penberthy who despite being a lifetime…you would…the only reason you till this day would start a Change.org petition would be to get rid of Change.org DP: {laughing} yeah, that’s right … WG: …to my knowledge of you yet somehow you’ve signed up for this one and shared it to all your friends on social media. DP: I know. I was reading it last night preparing for the show. This is the petition that’s been started by Jodie to save Tonsley and it’s an issue that’s close to my heart because that used to be my train stop down there, just off Celtic Avenue WG: Right. Okay, so you do have some skin in the game? DP: Yeah, bloody oath, this is where I grew up and obviously it was put there in the first place because -this was back in the days of Chrysler- that’s the reason the train line went there was to get workers down from the northern suburbs and the rest of the city via the CBD down south to Mitchell Park, Clovelly Park, so that they could work at Chrysler, then at Mitsubishi. Well, clearly Chrysler / Mitsubishi have long gone the way of the dodo. The question the government’s asking itself is why do we have a train line there. But yeah, anyway, I signed the petition .. WG: {sniggering or laughing under his breath} DP: …and I didn’t realise that, not only did I sign it but I somehow shared it to everyone that I’m friends with on Facebook…and I hardly ever use Facebook – I don’t even know why I’ve got a Facebook thing; I never look at it -but anyway suddenly {chuckles} I got texts from mates just laughing going “Yeah, you’re really buying this ‘Save Tonsley” thing. WG: {laughs} DP: I’m going, “What?” and then Kate said, “Why are you trying to get everyone to sign, join this Change.org thing?” Anyway, so if Tonsley is eventually saved I guess it’s all due to my advocacy WG: Yeah, you’ll all have me to thank. DP: There you go. WG: Send us a text on that issue or any other that you might be passionate about… DP: If anyone knows how Facebook works, you can text us with some tips. 3. INTERVIEW WITH JODIE PEARCE [podcast cue 30'25"] DP: Well, I might not know much about Star Wars but I can tell you pretty much everything about the Tonsley line because, as a lad growing up in Mitchell Park, catching the train in from Tonsley from, I think in fact in the 1970s one of the stops on the Tonsley line may have actually been called Chrysler Park. It was synonymous with the southern arm of the South Australian car industry which is largely no more, certainly in terms of manufacturing cars and as a result it’s sparked a bit of a rethink on the government’s part as to whether the station, the Tonsley station, is needed at all anymore. Well, the locals say it is. They rely on it and Jodie Pearce is one of those people. Jodie, good morning and thanks so much for your time. Jodie Pearce (JP): Good morning David and Will and thank you for signing the petition and supporting us in Mitchell Park and Tonsley DP: No worries at all. Now look, um, even though the factory’s gone, but geez, it’s getting on for 10 years since it went, there’s still a hell of a lot of people there and a lot of people in public housing. It’s a big Housing Trust area and a lot of those people have got disabilities haven’t they? JP: That’s right. Historically it has been a Housing Trust area and these days with competition for public housing so huge, the government has had to restrict their priorities to those who are most in need which happens to be a lot of people with disabilities but there are also a lot of disability groups that are buying into the area and providing accessible housing for their clients and they’re very disturbed that the Tonsley line,ah well the Tonsley station will be going as well. DP: So, just to clarify, where will the line now end, under the government’s plans? JP: Okay. When they build Flinders Link, they’re going to end the line at the Clovelly Park station. That’s the one that used to be called Chrysler Park. That’s the one near Alawoona Avenue in Mitchell Park that will access the Flinders University and TAFE at Tonsley. DP: So what it means is that the old, the farthest stop on the line, the one down near the St John’s on Sturt Road, that’s the one that’s gonna go? JP: Yep, that’s the one that’s gonna go and then when Flinders Link is finally built, the train will run directly from Clovelly Park station up to Flinders Medical Centre and it won’t stop anywhere inbetween; and the neighbourhood inbetween is not just people with disabilities. We have a higher than normal number of people with disabilities in this suburb but also the suburb was gentrified back in 1997-98 and a lot of people bought into the suburb in private dwellings and they’re all ageing now too and they can’t walk the distance to get to either Clovelly Park or to get up the hill to Flinders. DP: Yeah, it’s a hike up that hill. JP: It really is and now the government says they’re going to have a elevated walkway, yet for me as a wheelchair user, I’m expected to use a very long ramp that goes up and around and up high to the bridge, and I know myself that it’s already uphill to get from where I live in Mitchell Park to the train line. Then I have to go up this big long curved ramp which is supposed to be shared with cyclists - so I have a big fear of being skittled by a cyclist freewheeling down the other side – but when I get up the top, how much energy are you going to have left to actually walk 900 metres one way or 600 metres the other? DP: So as a wheelchair user, you won’t even consider the train when these changes happen, if they happen as planned? JP: Well, I can’t get to Clovelly Park station. I tried to wheel it last week and it exhausted me. I wouldn’t have the energy to go on my journey. It took me a day and a half to recover. I can’t do it. It’s just not an option. DP: Hmm. Hmm. Have you had any feedback from the government yet, Jodie? JP: Look. This all started back in August last year…um…in May…um …I’ll start again. Morning’s not my best time, sorry {embarrassed laugh} DP: I know what you’re saying! {laughs} WG: {laughs} JP: Yeah, so it started in August last year, when the government released a concept design about the new Flinders Link and at the same time they released a video; and the concept design photograph labelled Tonsley Station on there but the video took it out; so I said, “Well, what’s happening here?” and tried to chase it and I got nothing but, “It’s not finalised, it’s not finalised, we’ll let you know, we’ll get back to you,” and they wouldn’t tell me. Then eventually they said, um, you know, “We’ve got issues with Tonsley because there’ll be an incline there,” and I’m trying to get out the figure, “Well, where will the incline start?” because I’m trying to work out how it will look in my community. I figure that’s a reasonable answ..question to ask, and they keep evading the answer; so they keep giving me figures that they’d already quoted on their public things before. DP: Hmmm. JP:..and then in May this year, Stephen Mullighan, the Minister, made a big announcement about Flinders Link and nowhere in that announcement did they mention Tonsley was going. So the whole neighbourhood was of the assumption that we’ll get a lovely extension, we’ll be able to get to Flinders for our appointments and use Tonsley station and then it’s not until the end of October that their engagement people told me, after I’d been chasing them, that “No, Tonsley station is going. Clovelly Park is not being upgraded. Clovelly Park will not bemoving and that’s the way it’s gonna be and we can’t do anything about it.” DP: Yeah, that sounds a little bit reminiscent of the manner in which they really cover themselves in glory with their total lack of consultation with people of Mitchell Park over the TCE scandal that had a relationship-ending blow-up with our good friend Ian Hunter who hasn’t been on the show since about that issue. Jodie, good luck with your campaign and we speak to the Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan on the show very regularly. We’ve got a direct line to his office so we’ll be asking him for a response to the petition so, yeah, good luck with your campaign. Thanks for talking to us this morning. JP: Well, thank you very much and can I just say to you that we’ve had over 700 signatures on the petition because we also have a paper version going at the same time because not everybody can use the internet and it’s not just inconvenience for people here. It’s actually the difference between independence or not. There are a lot of wheelchair users who can’t use the bus and the bus service isn’t even adequate for a lot of able-bodied users as well. WG: Good on you Jodie. Jodie Pearce whose heading up theSave the Tonsley Station petition. DP: I tell you what, if they do end up ripping up the old Chrysler Park station and they find my grandfather’s watch – have I ever told you that story? WG: No DP: My dad’s dad, when he died, I got given his watch. It was an Omega Deville. Beautifulold.. which is what I’m wearing now. I went and bought one, especially for my….actually my ex-wifebought it for me for my 30th birthday. It’s the same brand that grandpa had. One day I was walking across the tracks; and I felt this weird thing brushing on my wrist and I looked down and my watch had come loose as I was crossing the railway tracks and it fell down between the tracks … WG: Oh no! Unrecoverable? DP: … and it’s still there … WG: Unrecoverable? DP: …way down below the water and oil and gravel and stuff WG: You need to turn up the day they start … DP: I went down there for about a month after school with a handline when there were no trains and just throw a little sinkered hook in, a big hook, and just drag whatever I could find up. WG: Oh, man. DP: Never found it. It’s still there. 4. TALKBACK CALLER [podcast cue 41'27"] DP: Ian from Morphett Vale has called in on Tonsley station. Good morning to you. IAN: Good morning. I’m very concerned about that station because I went to a couple of open days at Tonsley whenthe government was first planning to develop the site and those plans showed a residential component so a station is needed for those people unless those plans have now been abandoned. DP: It sounds like they might have been, Ian. IAN: and when the government announced that they were extending the line to Flinders, I thought that, well, the shortest distance is from Tonsley to Flinders rather than go all the way back to Clovelly Park…so I don’t know. Trust the government to work out what would be the most expensive bit of infrastructure to build. DP: Well, Ian, I tell you, there’s a petition that you might want to put your name on that Jodie Pearce,who we spoke to a little bit earlier, is running. It’s some 700 names on it at the moment. Thank you for your call. 82230000 is our number. WG: The issue is it sounds like it’s going to be a crackerjack service if you happen to be a hipster with your little portable coffee cup working over at the new whizzbang Tonsley ideas factory designing apps but if you happen to be a working class person in a wheelchair just living in the southern end of Mitchell Park not that good a service for you anymore. DP: Because, let’s be honest, people often are dependent on the accessibility to public transport, Will, they’ve built their lives around it and moved there specifically for that service … WG: Yeah, totally. DP: …to some degree WG:Oh, people would buy…what Jodie said was true: a lot of those big old public housing blocks down there, the old Housing Trust ended up with three modern maisonette homes on them. DP: There’s a lot of people that are now in their 70s who bought up there in the mid-90s when the area was being gentrified and a lot of them would have done so because of the train line. END OF TRANSCRIPT I know for certain that people have bought into the area with the intention of retiring on the assumption that the Tonsley Station near Sturt Rd will provide transport when they are no longer able or wanting to drive. Regarding residential development, the north-west corner of the Tonsley Innovation District (the former Chrysler/Mitsubishi site) will have a residential development by land developmer Peet Ltd (www.peet.com.au) and the South Australian Government (Renewal SA: https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au). Here are some media mentions and links about that: Etheridge,Michelle, “Tonsley homes set to take off”, p1, continued p. 4, “Housing plan is brewing” CoastCity Weekly, Messenger Press Adelaide, 13 December 2017. Australian Financial Review, “Peet win $265m Tonsley ex Mitsubishi Motors housing project in Adelaide” Fairfax Media, 30 May 2016: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/sa/peet-win-265m-tonsley-ex-mitsubishi-motors-housing-project-in-adelaide-20160530-gp704w Mullighan, Stephen, “Peet Group wins contract for 11-hectare residential and mixed use precinct” [news release], Jay Weatherill, Premier of South Australia web page, 29 May 2016: https://www.premier.sa.gov.au/index.php/stephen-mullighan-news-releases/611-peet-group-wins-contract-for-11-hectare-residential-and-mixed-use-precinct Peet Ltd’s announcement: “Major new South Australian project for Peet Group” 29 May 2016: https://www.peet.com.au/about-us/news-and-events/tonsley-announcement Australian Financial Review, “Peet win $265m Tonsley ex Mitsubishi Motors housing project in Adelaide” Fairfax Media, 30 May 2016: http://www.afr.com/real-estate/residential/sa/peet-win-265m-tonsley-ex-mitsubishi-motors-housing-project-in-adelaide-20160530-gp704w Renewal SA, “Peet Group Wins Contract for Residential and Mixed-use Precinct at Tonsley”, Government of South Australia, accessed 23 December 2017: https://renewalsa.sa.gov.au/peet-group-wins-contract-for-residential-and-mixed-use-precinct-at-tonsley/ City of Marion, “Tonsley Innovation District”, accessed 23 December 2017: https://www.marion.sa.gov.au/tonsley