New suburb name for old West End brewery site
The former Thebarton brewery site in Adelaide’s inner-western suburbs will be renamed to mark its transformation into a $1 billion housing development.
The 8.4-hectare vacant land parcel in Thebarton will pick up its former suburb name of Southwark, the Malinauskas Government announced today, restoring a name that has existed in the area since 1881.
The government, which purchased the brewery site from global beverages company Lion in September 2023, also revealed the number of homes planned for the development has increased from 1000 to 1300.
The government said the extra 300 homes are possible because some yet-to-be-defined government services previously planned for the site will be relocated.
A render of the West End brewery site development. Image: SA Govt/supplied
Premier Peter Malinauskas said the land had been considered for Forensic Science SA’s new $349 million headquarters, but housing was deemed more important.
Civil construction on the Southwark development is now expected to begin within months with the first residents to move in by the end of 2026, the government said.
Twenty per cent of the 1300 homes (260 homes) will be offered for “affordable sale” through the government’s home loan arm, HomeSeeker.
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Malinauskas also said 6000 extra square metres of open space will be included in the development by excluding government services, with the River Torrens to be accessible from the southern side.
“One of the reasons why the state government decided to purchase and acquire this site is we wanted to do the master planning properly to get a high quality development in such a strategic location,” the Premier said.
“But more than that, (we wanted) speed to market. We didn’t want some private developer land banking it only thinking about profit, we wanted to get this product on the market ASAP.
“We will see first homes coming online by the end of next year, which is moving at a pretty quick pace in the context of where we see developments occur on strategic infill locations.”
A wider swath of Thebarton could also be renamed Southwark, with the government to go out to public consultation later this month on pushing the name further south down Port Road.
The broader name change would affect 420 homes and businesses in Thebarton between the brewery site in the north, Light Terrace in the south and Dew and Stirling Street in the west.
A map of the Southwark name change proposal.
Southwark, according to the Department of Housing, was the name given to a private subdivision in 1881. The former West End brewery was once known as the Southwark Brewery before the Thebarton name took over.
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Remnants of the Southwark name remain in Thebarton, including the state heritage listed Southwark Hotel on Port Road which has been standing since 1886.
Malinauskas said renaming the brewery site Southwark was “historically appropriate” and would give the new development “its own identity”.
Planning Minister Nick Champion will make the final decision on whether to rename the wider portion of Thebarton to Southwark.
The brewery site is one of Adelaide’s biggest inner-city housing developments and will be worth $1 billion upon completion, according to the state government. Other comparable projects include the former Forestville Le Cornu site in the inner-south and the former Glenside Hospital precinct in the inner-east.
The government purchased the brewery land for $61.5 million in 2023 intending to redevelop it in a similar manner to the former Clipsal site in Bowden, which now supports more than a thousand new residents.
Opposition planning spokesperson Michelle Lensink criticised the purchase, arguing that the government’s land agency, Renewal SA, should not be involved in the development.
“Our great disappointment with the West End site is the fact that the government upset the local development industry by coming in, overbidding on price, driving up land prices in South Australia and also undermining local developers,” she said today.
“There’s no need for it to be under Renewal SA… government projects by their nature often take a lot longer.”
An aerial shot of the former West End brewery site. Photo: SA Govt/supplied
The West End brewery closed in June 2021 when Lion shifted its local operations interstate, ending 135 years of local brewing.
The state heritage listed Walkerville Brew Tower and Colonel William Light’s Thebarton Cottage will feature as part of the new housing development.
