In essence it was an attempt to save Council approximately $103,000 by limiting access to the Kensington & Norwood Pool. No consultation with the community was undertaken in preparing the proposal.  Separate agenda items moved to offer school students and potentially all ratepayers a free pass to the Payneham Pool when it re-opens (predicted cost $144,000 minimum) (view relevant agenda pages 1-9 here).

A short fierce burst of activism ensued!  InDaily ran a good article, including an interview with Kensington resident Trish Hansen, long-time advocate for the pool, and the KRA’s President Roger Bryson.  Read the article here.  Regular pool users and other concerned locals emailed the Mayor and Councillors ahead of the Council meeting on Tuesday night, 2 June.  Residents Trish Hansen and Tim O’Loughlin, along with KRA VP Jane Godsmark each made 5 minute deputations to the Council meeting.  There were a number of concerned residents in the public gallery observing the deputations and the Council’s deliberations. Thankyou to everyone who cares enough about this precious local place to get involved.

Finally, after much discussion, the Council voted to retain the current operating hours of the Kensington & Norwood pool and committed to engaging the community in exploring how to cultivate the vitality and future of the Pool. What a relief! 

This close call has caused us to reflect on what this pool means and has meant to our community over the past 70 years, and what role we would like it to play in the lives of future generations. 

If you’re interested in shaping or contributing to the future activation of the Kensington & Norwood Pool either email the Secretary of the KRA at contact@kra.org.au or message the We Love Norwood Pool Facebook group.

It’s part of a network of some 20 sites across metro Adelaide, all owned and maintained by Green Adelaide. Data from the last 7 years show between 5 and 25 tonnes of debris is caught and removed each year from the Thornton Street rack. In the year ending June 2025, over 10 tonnes of material was removed from Adelaide’s waterways at this key location, right here in Kensington.

A site inspection occurs when 7mm of rain falls in 24 hours or 10mm of rain falls over a 7 day period. Without a rainfall trigger, sites are routinely checked every 21 days. Cleans are scheduled as needed.

The Rack Phone rings! Who answers the call? Never fear, residents of Kensington, Mechanical Vegetation Solutions will soon be here! These dedicated contractors appear from nowhere, clean up the neighbourhood, then zap off to fight trash elsewhere, a bit like the comic book super heroes of old. Check out the Tale of the Trash Rack Heroes.

To celebrate our proud Kensington community, the KRA is organising official merchandise. These items will be available for purchase, as well as being used as prizes and recognition gifts.

Let us know what you would like to see as official Kensington 5068 merch by taking our online survey – click here – ranking the suggested items from 1 (most liked) to 14 (least liked).

The survey results are anonymous.

My name is Steph Kubank. I am a counsellor, cat-lover and Kensington resident of almost four years, and I know how easy it is to feel disconnected. This is why I applied for the 2025/2026 Care for Kensington grant, which I was lucky to receive from the Kensington Residents’ Association (KRA). My Friendly Kensi initiative aims to create more community connection for people in Kensington, so our suburb feels friendly and emotionally safe.

✨One part of this is creating a directory with basic info about us, like our name, lifestyle or interests and perhaps a mobile or email contact so we can reach out to locals with similar interests more easily! Being included in this directory is optional and you can share as much or as little as you like.

✨Another idea I had for a Friendly Kensi event is a scavenger hunt in Kensington, solving clues and finding objects. It will involve prizes and chocolate!

Sign up now to participate in the Friendly Kensi Scavenger Hunt 4-10 May 2026, just email me at stephkubank11@gmail.com! Find more information here.

I would appreciate anyone’s ideas about what they think Kensington needs. Some examples include:

✨Skill swaps – help someone with a skill and get help with something in return

✨Item swaps – clothes, books etc.

✨Creating a community board for posting art, humour and ‘good news’.

It would be amazing to hear from kids, teens and young adults – these voices are often not heard as much in our neighbourhood.

Please contact me at stephkubank11@gmail.com with any ideas or questions.

Kensington Road outside Marryatville High School was one of the first locations to have new speed limit signage installed.  The 40 km/h speed limit applies on school days 8:00-9:30am and 2:00-4:00 pm, this excludes weekends, public holidays and school holidays. Look for the digital signs next time you travel along Kensington Road and familiarise yourself with the boundaries of the reduced speed zone.

Vehicle speeds are being monitored on Kensington Road. Penalties including fines and demerit points are applied if drivers exceed the 40km/h limit on school days between 8:00-9:30am and 2:00-4:00pm.

Existing ‘25 km/h when children present’ school zone speed limits will not change.  To learn more about the 40km/h School Speed Limits project, click here.

Council’s Senior Traffic Engineer, Rebecca van der Pennen, has advised the Kensington Residents’ Association that community consultation on the much-needed Thornton Street Zebra Crossing is complete, and the project is going ahead. Council is now progressing to detailed design and crossing installation is scheduled to occur March-June 2026.

KRA President Roger Bryson commenced lobbying Council for pedestrian safety improvements near McKellar Stewart Kindergarten in May 2024 after being approached by concerned kindy staff and parents. Roger queried the Mayor as to whether a pedestrian refuge could be placed in the middle of Thornton Street, however Council’s Manager Traffic & Integrated Transport, Gayle Buckby, counselled that there is insufficient width at the crossing point for installation of a median island. Ms Buckby suggested a zebra crossing as an alternative but expressed concern about sight lines and insufficient distance from the junction of Regent Street. Further investigation was scheduled into the Council’s list of traffic projects.

By December 2024, Rebecca van der Pennen had taken over as project lead and advised KRA that development of a concept design was underway. In January 2025 Ms van der Pennen met with KRA and McKellar Stewart Kindergarten representatives to discuss the developed concept.

Consultation letters were sent to directly impacted properties in late August 2025. On 27 November 2025 the KRA committee were informed that the surveyed community members supported the crossing concept design and Council is progressing to detailed design.

Project updates and information will continue to be available on the Council website located here: https://www.npsp.sa.gov.au/projects/thornton-street-zebra-crossing

From their former location in Franklin Street in the city, the Bikes for Refugees charity provided more than 17,000 bikes to refugees and other people in need. Cr Christel Mex of the City of Norwood Payneham & St Peters and Bishop Tim Harris of St Matthew’s Church officially opened the new workshop on Friday 14th November. The Hon. Mira el Dannawi MLC also spoke during the formalities, praising the efforts of Bikes For Refugees in providing refugees with a means of transport and a sense of inclusion in Adelaide.

Opening Hours*
Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday 11am-5 pm
Most Saturdays 10am-1pm

*If possible, please call or SMS before visiting.

Please contact the workshop (phone or email) if you wish to donate bikes or bike parts. The team will be able to quickly determine with a few questions whether they can use the items you wish to donate. If they can’t use your unwanted bikes/parts they will be able to direct you to alternative options for recycling.

Skilled volunteers are needed to assist with bike repairs – contact Mike Brisco at the workshop if you can help.

 Renovated bikes and second-hand bike parts are also sold to the public to raise funds for running costs and donations to aligned charities. Check Facebook Marketplace to view available bikes by clicking here. Most Saturdays the team holds a Bike Market where you can purchase a checked and serviced bike for a reasonable price or browse their collection of second hand bike parts and accessories. Note, Saturdays can be very busy, so customising of purchased bikes is not possible.

Contact via:
Email: acbwsa@gmail.com
Mobile Ph: 0406 918 787

View the workshop’s website here and for further information on the charity, click here.

! UPDATE ! The Council Assessment Panel refused to approve demolition of 69 High St Kensington during their meeting on 20th October!! A WIN but the old Kensington elementary school building is NOT SAFE YET, as the applicants (owners) could appeal to the Environment Resources and Development Court to overturn or alter the CAP’s decision.
The Kensington Residents’ Association is continuing to pursue State Heritage listing for 69 High St. We have lodged a very detailed and extensively researched nomination with Heritage SA seeking State Heritage status for this neglected Kensington gem that dates from 1847.
To ensure neglected historic properties are better protected in the future, you can write to the Minister for Planning, the Hon Nick Champion (pictured below outside 69 High St), requesting that the recommendation from the Expert Panel for the Planning System Implementation Review (2023) regarding demolition by neglect is fully implemented as a matter of urgency. See page 225 of this report.
The Council Assessment Panel is obliged to follow the rules of the State Government’s Planning and Design Code, so this change to the code is crucial.
Write to the Minister at MinisterChampion@sa.gov.au .

Why is the building at 69 High Street so important? It is one of the oldest elementary school buildings in South Australia and one of the oldest single-room adaptive colonial buildings in existence. Built in 1847 it is the oldest still-standing example of a school associated with the Congregationalist movement championed by John William Roberts (1794-1875), who also built the 1848 Congregationalist Chapel, located in Maesbury Street beside Pioneer Park. The school at 69 High Street was specifically linked to Roberts’ ‘dissenter’ views and his desire to create Kensington Village as a model community based on the ‘Voluntary Principle’.

From the Book of Assessment for the Town of Kensington and Norwood 1849, the building was described as a ‘School Room’ and the occupier was Septimus Webster, a school master. An advertisement from the SA Register on 18 August 1856 shows that Mr Septimus Webster advertised for students for the Kensington Elementary School at the site.

Sandy Wilkinson, Heritage Consultant, in conjunction with Urathane Solutions, provided a report to the Council Assessment Panel at its May 2025 meeting when the Panel first considered the demolition application. The report outlined the heritage value of the building and argued that the building is not irredeemably beyond repair and should not be subject to demolition approval under the Planning and Design Code. The owners of 69 High Street have apparently has ignored this advice and are proceeding with the demolition application.

The Kensington Residents’ Association calls on the State Government to implement the 2023 recommendations from the Expert Panel for Planning Implementation Review, by changing the Planning and Design Code immediately to address “demolition by neglect”. The Expert Panel recommended that Councils be given the power to issue maintenance orders for Local Heritage Places and also to allow Council Assessment Panels to consider the cause of deterioration in demolition assessments (Reform 15: “To exclude deterioration due to neglect as a supporting factor for demolition”).

“The Panel heard that there is a penchant for local heritage places to be neglected and left to deteriorate to enable ease of their demolition in accordance with Performance Outcome 6.1 of the Code. The Panel considers this needs review to ensure the local heritage places are not being neglected and left dilapidated.” (Final Report and Recommendations: Expert Panel for the Planning System Implementation Review, page 225)

The South Australian Government may support this recommendation, but it has yet to be implemented.

If we lose the historic elementary school building, an important part of the story of South Australia will be lost forever. SOS! Save Our Schoolhouse!

Our Association hosts and manages 3 street libraries within Kensington:

• Don’s Deli, corner Bridge Street and The Parade – see the library’s Street Library Australia page here.

• High Street Cafe, Mary McKillop Precinct, Phillips Street – see the library’s Street Library Australia page here.

• Borthwick Park shelter, access via Thornton, Richmond or Bridge Streets – see the library’s Street Library Australia page here.