Councillor Column - Cr Brett Ireland

Published on 27 May 2022

One of the biggest challenges of being in council is evolving with changing times. As councillors, we now do courses and seminars on gender equality, domestic violence and the fight against homophobia.

Housing demands in our shire have been highlighted lately, especially during COVID with the trend of people wanting to move to the country. The biggest problem we face as a shire, we have no extra housing, and do we meet the expectations to attract new residents, families and business professionals?

In the day, we lived in a 9sqm house on a 1000sqm block and guests were invited into the front sitting room and your wealth was measured by how good a tea set you had on display. Roll forward to 2020, we are seeing many 35sqm houses on a 500sqm block where the guests walk past 5 bedrooms with 8 pillows on each bed into a huge entertaining area at the back with no room for kids to play (but hey, we have a theatre room).

Hindmarsh shire has an average of 2.18 residents per household, so given families, a lot of people are living on their own. Does this beckon that there is a need for a self sufficient retirement village on a big scale with a games room, reading / activities room and pool, etc, to assimilate these often lonely people? This would open up housing availability as well.

Obviously land close to amenities is a main issue. We have also identified a need for easily maintainable housing/units for professionals in the health sector, etc, which is a large part of our economic demographic in the country areas. Oh well, all food for thought, I am up to my article limit, until next time... and remember my golden rule... never believe a thing you hear and only half of what you see.

Kind regards.

Cr Brett Ireland
Deputy Mayor