When MotoGP announced that the Australian Grand Prix would leave Phillip Island for a street circuit in the heart of Adelaide from 2027, South Australia billed it as a coup. Five months on, the plan is mired in a fight over trees, cost and consultation — and some of the state's own motorsport figures are among the loudest critics.
The flashpoint is the Adelaide Park Lands, where the proposed track would run. The state government's early figure was 45 trees to be removed. An Adelaide City Council report put it higher — 83 trees, made up of 14 street trees and 69 in the park lands — and warned the real total could climb much further.
"A conservative estimate when factoring in potential gravel pit safety areas for MotoGP riders could result in at least a further 100 trees to be removed," the council stated, raising the prospect of up to 200 in all.
Premier Peter Malinauskas has dismissed the numbers as politics. "Whether it's one tree or 20 or 45, the council's opposed to this, so they're running around doing all this," he said, insisting a city circuit was the whole point of the move. The event, he argued, came to Adelaide because the state had the capability of hosting it in the city.
Not everyone at the council is convinced the trade is worth it. Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith kept her assessment simple: "My comment has always been, is the pain worth the gain." Councillor Keiran Snape warned the damage could run deeper than advertised, pointing to fears that the corner around Wakefield Road and East Terrace could push tree losses higher still.
The sharpest words have come from Bob Barnard, the veteran designer behind Adelaide's original grand prix street circuit. He has little time for the new plan or the rationale behind it, contrasting the environmental restrictions placed on his own era with what he expects this time.
"When I built Adelaide's circuit I wasn't allowed to take even one tree out," Barnard said. He put the likely bill at "$100 million or more" and doubts the project will be delivered at all, citing public opposition and the scale of the rebuild. "Who's paying?" he asked, questioning whether the state needed another major event at that price and dismissing the sustainability case being made for it.
There is a further grievance. Kaurna native title holders have said they were left out of consultation over preliminary groundwork, which included 141 drill holes sunk into the park lands.
For now the government is holding firm, and MotoGP's promoters have their marquee city race. But with the tree count still contested, native title holders aggrieved and the state's own circuit pioneer predicting it will never be built, the road from announcement to grid looks anything but smooth.
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*Originally published on [motorsports.global](https://motorsports.global/article/adelaides-motogp-street-race-plan-digs-in-as-tree-fight-escalates). Visit for full coverage.*