UniSA Campus Flagged for Retirement Village, Housing

About 40 per cent of the 14ha Magill campus of the former University of South Australia is to be sold for development as a retirement village, aged care and up to 100 homes.

Under a draft redevelopment plan released by the South Australian Government this week, a 2027 construction start is anticipated for the 3ha parcel of land across St Bernards Road from the main campus buildings. The 100 low-to-medium density homes, and some of the project’s aged-care facilities, are proposed for that 3ha parcel.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, who was at the campus this week, said the plan would deliver “desperately needed housing, desperately needed aged care and desperately needed open space”.

Just south of the campus, St Bernards Road becomes Penfold Road, named after the founders of the 1844-established and still-operating winery from which the revered Grange Hermitage and Magill Estate shirazes originated. The winery and its vineyard are 1.3km from the university.

Construction on an 11ha parcel at the other side of St Bernards Road, where the main buildings are, is unlikely to start until 2033-34 when the university’s lease of the campus from the government expires.

The lease was negotiated after state redevelopment agency Renewal SA bought the site for $64 million in 2023 as part of a deal that led to the university merging with The University of Adelaide to become Adelaide University in January this year.

Planned for the south portion of the 11ha parcel is aged care and retirement living up to five levels, which would rise mainly on the footprint of existing university buildings that are in the main two storeys.

▲ Under the draft plan, the SA government says 60 per cent of the open and community space of the current university campus at Magill would be retained.

Like the eucalypt-forested Griffith University in Brisbane and Armidale’s New England University, koalas inhabit the many gum trees that shade the Magill campus.

Under the plan, about 60 per cent of the campus, which is 8km east of the Adelaide CBD, would stay as either open space or dedicated for community use.

Snaking from the Adelaide Hills down through the centre of the 11ha parcel, the campus segment of river red gum-lined Third Creek would be protected.

Heritage-listed Murray House (pictured at top), which mainly accommodates university administrators, would also be protected.

An existing children’s centre would be retained on a long-term lease and further consideration will be given to reuse existing university buildings.

If the Malinauskas government is returned at the March state election, community engagement on the plan will start in April after the poll’s caretaker period.