Mount Barker

Mount Barker is a city in South Australia.

Mount Barker is a city in South Australia. Located approximately 33 kilometres (21 miles) from the Adelaide city centre, it is home to 16,629 residents. It is the seat of the District Council of Mount Barker, the largest town in the Adelaide Hills, and one of the fastest-growing areas in the state.

Mount Barker lies at the base of a local eponymous peak called the Mount Barker summit. It is 50 kilometres from the Murray River. Mount Barker was traditionally a farming area, and many of the lots just outside the town area are farming lots, although some of them have been replaced with new subdivisions in recent times.

Mount Barker, the mountain, was first sighted by Captain Charles Sturt in 1830, although he thought he was looking at the previously discovered Mount Lofty. Captain Collet Barker corrected this error when he surveyed the area in 1831. Sturt named the mountain in honour of Captain Barker after he was killed later that year by local Aboriginal people at the Murray Mouth. The mountain was officially recognised by King William IV in 1834, two years before the colonisation of South Australia in 1836.The first Europeans to ascend the mountain, on 27 November 1837, were a six-man party comprising John Barton Hack, John Morphett, Samuel Stephens, Charles Stuart (South Australian Company's stock overseer), Thomas Davis (Hack's stockman), and John Wade (a "gentleman from Hobart Town"). Four weeks later, on 25 December 1837, four colonists, Robert Cock, William Finlayson, A. Wyatt, and G. Barton, left Adelaide to examine the country south east of Adelaide toward Lake Alexandrina. Along the route, they also ascended the mount.

Mount Barker was originally home to the Peramangk Aboriginal people. The Ngarrindjeri people from the east also used the Summit for ceremonial and burial sites. The Mount Barker Summit is a significant Aboriginal area, and may be one of the most sacred sites near Adelaide. In 1984 the Ngarrindjeri people tried to prevent the building of a police communications tower, and in 1987 they also tried to stop the Telecom tower, although both attempts were not successful.

Mount Barker township was surveyed in 1839 by Duncan McFarlane, who was hoping the area could be used for wheat and grain farming. The land was divided into lots of 80 acres (320,000 m2), although farmers didn't settle until 1844, when John Dunn built the first steam flour mill outside of Adelaide. The flour mill ran for 50 years and is now a tourist attraction. All of the towns major buildings were built soon afterwards, with a post office (now replaced) in 1860 and a police station (also replaced) that was built in 1878. In 1883, the railway line from Adelaide to Strathalbyn was laid, but that line is now discontinued, with the line terminating short of Balhannah, and is used by the SteamRanger Heritage Railway.

Mount Barker has since developed into a large urban centre, which is developing very rapidly. The Mount Barker district council is the area that experienced the fourth largest growth between 1996 and 2006 in South Australia, with an increase of 3,800 new residents (3% growth per year). Mount Barker is ranked fifth for fastest growth in South Australia. During the last 10 years, many new subdivisions have been developed, such as Martin-Dale and Waterford. During this period, there has also been an economic boom in Mount Barker and a number of additional malls and shopping centres, such as the Adelaide Hills Home-maker Centre, with a Radio Rentals, a Harvey Norman and the new offices for the District Council of Mount Barker. There have also recently been lodged plans for a new shopping centre, which will feature a major department store larger than 4,000 m 2.

Mount Barker is also famous as the place where the value of subterranean clover, Trifolium subterraneum as a fodder crop was discovered, proved and first promoted by A. W. Howard. His property stood at the south-east corner of Princes Highway and Bald Hills Road. Subterranean clover had been known for a very long time in Central and Southern Europe, but was looked upon as a roadside weed. Howard proved the clover to be a valuable fodder plant in some soil types in temperate climates. Subterranean clover revolutionised farming practice, converting many struggling farms into successful livestock holdings.

The discovery spread across Australia and to many other countries, due largely to Howard's generosity in publishing articles about clover, supplying seed free of charge around the world, and advising on handling. By the time of his death (2 March 1930), thousands of hectares in South Australia were carrying subterranean clover, it was growing in all Australian States, and requests for seed and information were being received in great numbers from almost all countries in the world having a temperate climate.

Howard's work is commemorated by a roadside plaque, by the incorporation of a clover leaf into the arms of the District Council of Mount Barker, and by the Howard's End vineyard and winery on the same site.

In 2003, largely due to concerns that Adelaide's urban sprawl was encroaching onto surrounding farmlands, the then State Planning Minister Jay Weatherill made a commitment to contain the expansion of Mount Barker.In 2008 a consortium of five developers sought the rezoning of 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of prime agricultural land in order to build an additional 7,700 new homes which would increase the population of Mount Barker from 10,258 to around 35,000. The land included 40 hectares (99 acres) rezoned to light industry in order to provide jobs for the new population. The plan was rejected by the Mount Barker Council as it had just completed a 15-year development plan for the area that would retain the town's "rural character" and it could not afford the required infrastructure, a decision supported by a survey indicating that the rezoning was opposed by 98% of residents. In April 2009, the developers approached Paul Holloway, the State Planning Minister, to override the council decision, arguing that the land had "no outstanding attributes except for its suitability for urban development." In May 2009 the Minister announced that his office would go ahead and bypass the council. The following month Mark Parnell, the SA Greens representative in the South Australian Legislative Council made a request under the Freedom of Information Act 1991 for copies of documents passed between the developers and State Government. The State Government in December 2010 approved the rezoning and development and construction began without the usual council infrastructure however, the state Government agreed to a $550 million infrastructure support package. The rezoning also included amending the area's bushfire risk level from high risk to only a general risk. The council expressed concern that the reduction of the threat level would lead to a reduction of building standards compared to those standards required for homes in high risk areas and pointed out that the previous year, Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires Royal Commission had recommended that there should be less building in bushfire-prone areas.The FOI documents, released in February 2012, indicated conflict of interest and poor planning practices. One document revealed that the Minister had ignored Planning SA's request not to make any commitments to the developers before the state's own 30-year plan was completed.South Australia's Planning Minister John Rau (2010–present) said that the Government should not have approved the rezoning of land without the government and council being able to support that community with infrastructure. The Government has since announced it will reform the state's planning process, calling it "dishevelled, disjointed and inconsistent". A new interchange on the South Eastern Freeway at Bald Hills Road has been built to improve travel times and road safety for commuters travelling to the east side of Mount Barker and reduce traffic congestion in Mount Barker.In March 2013, the State Ombudsman, Richard Bingham, handed down a report into a possible conflict of interest. The report found that the property consulting firm Connor Holmes "had a clear conflict of interest" that was known to Planning SA who took no action. Bingham suggested that the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) should investigate the Mount Barker development.Connor Holmes was employed by the State Government to produce a Growth Investigations Report (GIA) as part of the state's 30-year plan. The GIA was to identify areas suitable for housing developments. At the time Connor Holmes was bidding for the GIA contract it was also acting as a consultant for the five developers and was actively lobbying the State Planning Minister Paul Holloway to support the Mount Barker development on their clients behalf. The Government has declined to release the GIA report but the Ombudsman's report noted that the urban boundaries proposed in the GIA were the same as those proposed by the five developers. On 6 March 2013, SA Greens MP Mark Parnell gave notice he would introduce a motion to the Legislative Council to refer the matter to ICAC.The matter was investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 2013 with its findings published in June 2015. ICAC found no evidence of corruption.