About the Barossa Region Residents’ Association

The Association aims to preserve the Barossa’s unique character and enhance its international value.

We do this as a proactive lobby group representing an independent community voice that engages
with local government, state government and industry on issues that affect the Barossa’s future.
We monitor development proposals, planning codes and legislation, and we facilitate discussion
through leadership and representation.

The Barossa Valley story

The Barossa Valley is Australia’s global wine and food region.

It has an unbroken grape-growing and winemaking heritage dating back to the arrival of Silesian and English settlers in 1842. It is home to some of the oldest pre-phylloxera grape vines and is Australia’s foremost producer of rich, textural red table wines that continue to win international accolades.

The Barossa has a multi-generational food tradition based on the fermentation and preservation of produce including meats, vegetables and fruits and artisanal bread baking that has roots in medieval Europe. It also has a distinctive culture influenced by Lutheran traditions including frugality, community collaboration, the quest for quality and respect of the past. This culture has been proudly protected and celebrated by subsequent generations.

It is these “old world” characteristics that make the Barossa comparable to the greatest wine regions in the world including Tuscany, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo and Mendoza; whilst retaining a uniqueness amongst new world producers.

The Barossa Valley has an attractive and harmonious rural character that is distinctive from metropolitan Adelaide. It combines the historic pattern of settlement, open countryside and a rich and diverse palette of fields, vines, orchards and settlements; a unique village feel that blends into the rural setting.

The Barossa Valley Character Preservation district

Development in the Barossa Valley is protected by the Character Preservation (Barossa Valley) Act 2012 which limits housing and tourism development on agricultural lands in the Barossa. The Act was created in recognition of the threats that the Barossa faced including expansion of the Adelaide metro area, potential over-development and loss of agricultural lands. The Act was modelled on a similar preservation initiative for the Nappa Valley in 1968.

The Act is regularly challenged and the Light Regional Council includes it as a “threat”.
We strongly support the Act and recognise that Barossa’s scenic vistas have a unique economic value attracting visitation to the Barossa.

The Act was influenced by the experience of the 1985-1987 vine bounty provided by the State Government for growers to remove their vines. This was a short-sighted response to a downturn in the red wine industry in the 1980’s when the Barossa Valley was seen as having little value. The consequences of the bounty were (i) many of the worlds oldest pre-phylloxera Shiraz and Grenache vines (many over 100 years old) were removed and (ii) growers were encouraged to sell their agricultural land for housing development.

This prompted the establishment of the Barossa Region Residents’ Association.

The Barossa Region Residents’ Association story

The Barossa Region Residents’ Association was established in 1987 by a group of local agriculturalists. They recognised the significant threat the bounty created to the Barossa including the loss of vineyards and agricultural land to housing with the Barossa potentially becoming a regional city or suburb of Adelaide.
At the same time, they saw the opportunity to create small wineries, adopt traditional winemaking methods, utilise old vine fruit and produce premium wines. These new wineries included Peter Lehmann, St Hallett, Rockford, Bethany, Grant Burge, Charles Melton, Heritage, Willows Vineyard and Elderton. The new wines were highly regarded in a short time and demand for Barossa grapes increased.
The Association quickly grew to over 1,500 members. The visionary winemakers and their promotion of the Barossa and their lobbying of the SA Government to cease the subdivisions, combined to take the Barossa from impending non-existence in the 1980’s to a globally recognised winemaking region in the 1990’s.

The Association has been active since 1987 but it has been reinvigorated over the past 10 years during which time a plethora of significant developments have been proposed for the Barossa. The majority of these proposals did not comply with the Character Preservation Act and/or the SA Planning code.
The Association has made representations on all of these non-complying proposals and continues to monitor development proposals, council strategies and legislative proposals.

The Association has built relationships with the Light Regional Council and the Barossa Council and has helped improve engagement and visibility of the councils strategies. The Association remains vigilant in monitoring and lobbying against short-term thinking, especially any suggestion of amendments by developers, lobbyists government to diminish the Character Preservation Act.

By remaining alert to challenges that could damage the Barossa but supporting positive opportunities and balanced growth, the Association continues to play a critical role in the Barossa’s future protection and prosperity.

Our Vision

A prosperous Barossa with a rich vibrant community, a place that is respected and admired for its carefully preserved agrarian landscape, its historic cultural traditions, its vineyards, and the quality of its winemaking and food production.

Our Purpose

We pursue issues that shape the future of the Barossa region and its community and we aim to leave the Barossa with a strong foundation for our future generations. We seek a balanced future, enhancing the Barossa community’s economic needs, whilst ensuring the sustainability of the Barossa region and protecting its heritage, agriscapes and landscapes.

Our Objectives

  • Defend the Character Preservation Act and SA Planning Code
    We will defend the Act and Planning Code to ensure they are retained and we will lobby for compliance and the
    strengthening of the Act and Code

  • Lobby for residential and major tourism development to comply with the Act and Code and be within town
    boundaries. We will support the development of medium density living and major tourism development within town
    boundaries that stimulate town economies and protect the agrarian landscape.

  • Advocate for small scale winery and wine tourism development on rural land (as envisaged by the Act and Planning
    Code) that provides experiential visitation and value adds primary production.

  • We will support and lobby for the establishment of one council for the Barossa that aligns with the Barossa Valley
    Character Preservation District to provide more strategic and consistent planning and support for the protection
    of the Barossa character.

  • Advocate for community services

  • Engage with the Barossa community to seek their collective input and build a strong community allegiance that
    has a significant voice and influence in determining the future of the Barossa.

Our role

The Association is the voice of the community.
We make representations to Local Councils, Planning SA and the State Government on behalf of our members.
We are fully funded by the community and independent of any government or corporate interests.
We are a member of the Community Alliance of South Australia Incorporated.

Our position on tourist accommodation within the Barossa

We support the development of premium, luxury tourist accommodation with the Barossa; appropriately designed and appropriately located.

We value the important economic benefit and job opportunities that increased tourism brings to our region. We advocate for large scale premium tourist accommodation to be located within the Barossa townships so that the economic benefit is shared with local cafes, restaurants, retailers and traders.

Tourist accommodation that does not comply with the Character Preservation Act and SA State Planning Code; and is typically on agricultural land or of a scale that exceeds the code, will diminish the unique character of the Barossa that makes it so appealing for tourism. We will not support such proposed developments.

Our position on the SA Planning Code

We support the current SA State Planning Code that provides for small-scale tourist accommodation on rural land to ensure the preservation of the Barossa’s vital agricultural land and valuable rural landscapes. We will promote strengthening of the planning code the removal of inconsistencies, ambiguities and flexibility within the code.

Acknowledgement of Country

The Barossa region is the spiritual and physical home of the Peramangk, Ngadjuri and Kaurna people and the Barossa Region Residents’ Association acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.