Greener growth that’s right for Gawler
- Gawler, South Australia
- Town of Gawler
- 2024
- <$100,000
Gawler, north of Adelaide, was established in 1839 and has grown into a town of 25,000 residents.
Responding to population growth and housing demand, and the South Australian Government’s new Greater Adelaide Regional Plan, Jensen PLUS and SMEC were engaged by Town of Gawler to prepare a land use strategy and transport plan that caters for future growth over the long term.
A key aspect of our approach was a series of co-design workshops with stakeholders to collaboratively identify growth scenarios for the town. These were tested against the project vision and principles and have led to a draft Gawler Growth Framework delivered in July 2024. Importantly, input gathered from several workshops with Council's elected members has been captured in the draft Framework.
Rather than being guided solely by population projections, our planning approach has been to analyse growth opportunities and create a long-term or ‘ultimate’ land use plan that is ‘right for Gawler’.
The draft plan builds on known urban growth areas and proposes additional urban development to the south of the town, on flat and publicly owned land with rail and other infrastructure adjacent.
About 10,000 additional homes are planned for, which could see the town’s population grow to 50,000 over time.
A revised inter-urban break or ‘green-belt’ is planned to maintain a separation between Playford and Gawler. This can be a mix of open spaces and very low density housing in a treed setting.
A new 20ha sports precinct is also planned, along with new east-west street connections, community infrastructure, and a mixed use local centre with new housing choices around a new railway station proposed in the heart of the growth area.
The draft Growth Framework is on public consultation until late August 2024.
"Jensen PLUS has strong strategic planning skills with experience across metropolitan and regional Australia. We were impressed with their ability to work through a wide range of background information, engage with the community and develop a clear vision for future planning in Gawler. They approached the project with a fine level of detail on questions that need to be answered. Staff have excellent urban design and drafting skills and the visuals and place making thinking set Jensen apart from many in this field."
Andrew Goodsell
Acting Chief Executive Officer
Town of Gawler
