Latest news with #NorthTerrace
ABC News
24-06-2025
- ABC News
Trespasser who flooded Bragg Centre caused 'over $7 million in damages'
A man who manually set off fire hydrants, sending 63,800 litres of water gushing into the Australian Bragg Centre over half an hour, caused losses of almost $7.9 million, a court has heard. Daniel Michael Loeser, 31, of Ingle Farm, entered through a fire door and set off fire hydrants on six levels at the clinical and medical research facility on January 5 this year, causing "substantial damage" to multiple levels of the building on Adelaide's North Terrace. The District Court heard Loeser was amid a drug-induced psychosis, had recently been released from the City Watch House and was intending to seek medical help from the neighbouring Royal Adelaide Hospital at the time. Prosecutor Lauren Docking told the court the $7,896,462 damage bill included about $6 million for the loss of rent, because tenants had been unable to use the building due to the flooding. "Although the financial loss is to be predominantly covered by insurance, there was also a disruption to the extremely important work and service provided by the tenants of the Bragg Centre." Ms Docking told the court the centre "includes a research and therapy centre specialising in proton radiation treatment to paediatric, adolescent and adult patients who are battling rare forms of cancer". She said Loeser, who "unlawfully" entered the building via a fire door, "manually opened the fire hydrant valves on levels eight, nine, 10, 12, 13 and 14, causing severe flooding". The court heard a firefighter found Loeser in a kitchen area holding "large kitchen knives". He was "not threatening anyone with them, but he wasn't initially letting go of them", Ms Docking said. Loeser was arrested and later pleaded guilty to a basic count of serious criminal trespass and a charge of damaging a building, on the basis that he was reckless. Ms Docking said the only appropriate penalty was a prison term, to which Loeser's defence lawyer, Andrew Ey, agreed. Mr Ey said his client was "suffering some sort of drug-induced psychosis" at the time, and had been intending to seek help from the Royal Adelaide Hospital. "His instructions are that he was wishing to attend and obtain medical treatment of some sort. "In his confused and dis-regulated state, he was unable to make the connection that he was in the wrong place. He said his client had been arrested the day before, on January 4, for being unlawfully on premises after refusing to leave an acquaintance's home. Mr Ey said Loeser was arrested, taken to the City Watch House and "somewhat surprisingly given his state", released on bail. "He wanders through the city and then finds himself at the Bragg Centre shortly thereafter," he said. He said his client had been "up for a number of days" after consuming GHB and methamphetamine and was coming off the drugs when he entered the building. He asked Judge Geraldine Davison to be as lenient as possible when sentencing Loeser, and asked her to impose a longer-than-usual non-parole period to allow Loeser to be supervised and drug tested when released from custody. Judge Davison said Loeser, who will be sentenced next month, was "quite literally caught in the act".
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Adelaide's first skyscraper criticised as ‘profound mistake' and ‘hugely questionable' by opponents
Adelaide's first skyscraper will be a 'phallic' construction overshadowing the birthplace of women's suffrage, critics say. The Walker Corporation has begun work on a 38-storey commercial building next to Parliament House on North Terrace, which is known as the city's cultural boulevard. The planned building will be 160m high – the threshold for a skyscraper is 150m. Adelaide's tallest building is 138m, although there are also plans under way for a 183m building. Walker Tower 2 will span almost 50,000 sq m, accommodate up to 5,000 office workers and 100 retail workers, and will include a rooftop bar and restaurant. The Walker Corporation has already built a tower in the Festival Plaza precinct. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Adelaide resident Robert Farnan, who has convened a working party composed of planners, architects, lawyers, residents' groups, the Greens and others to raise awareness of the issues and lobby state and federal governments to intervene, said it was a 'hugely questionable' development and a 'state-supported skyscraper on public land'. 'The word is spreading about the significance of the site [as] the place where full democracy first occurred,' he said. In 1894, the parliament passed world-first laws allowing women to both vote and stand for election. Aboriginal women were also enfranchised – although they faced multiple barriers. Both old and new parliament houses are on the national heritage list because of 'a series of radical reforms to political laws and processes that Australians now take for granted'. 'It was here that the democratic ideals of all men and women having the right to vote, secret ballots, and one person/one vote were first introduced,' its listing reads. Stewart Sweeney, a retired academic and public policy advocate who worked with SA's famously reformist premier Don Dunstan, described the proposal as a 'phallic logo-ridden tower of exclusion'. 'It's the wrong building in the wrong place,' he said. 'It's next to the parliament, but that's not just any old parliament, it's a special parliament in a global sense. 'It's the parliament where the breakthrough on women's suffrage, for the right to vote and to stand for parliament was first legislated, and it's hard to think of a place where erecting a tower whose main claim to fame is the highest tower in Adelaide is the right place to do that.' Loine Sweeney – daughter of Stewart and former executive officer of the Women's Suffrage Centenary – said the tower would be a 'profound mistake' that would not just overshadow a building but a legacy. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Adelaide city council is opposed to the development because of its impact on Parliament House and because the site is part of the Adelaide Park Lands. The Adelaide Park Lands Association called it a 'monster', a private high-rise development that undermined what the Park Lands represent – being 'free, green, and public'. Historian Samuel Doering said on social media that the space was 'hallowed' and agreed it should be used for 'suffrage storytelling'. The outgoing History Trust of SA chief executive officer, Greg Mackie, responded to Doering, saying it was a 'shameful grab of priceless public Adelaide park land for private profit that destroys the deserved sense of place of SA's parliament and our proud democracy'. Work has already started on the site, although the current design does not yet have formal approval from the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP). The planning minister, Nick Champion, said it would be up to the SCAP to assess the development application. 'It's important the SCAP remains an independent authority to assess and determine major development proposals in South Australia and not be influenced by politics,' he said. Announcing its design, the state government said it would be set back a minimum of 9m from Parliament House to 'preserve its visual integrity, heritage value and to preserve view lines to Parliament House'. The premier, Peter Malinauskas, has said the development showed the 'state's economy is growing, and our city is growing up', and would bring in $1bn a year in economic activity. 'This will be an iconic building that will define Adelaide's skyline,' he said when the building designs were revealed. Guardian Australia has approached Walker Corporation for comment.
