South Australia's property investment opportunities far from finished: Terry Ryder

Journalists with a 24-hour news cycle and a 30-minute attention span declared the end of life as we know it in South Australia when BHP Billiton had its recent panic attack over falling prices for some commodities. 

Those with a simplistic mindset and the analysis skills of a Footy Show star reasoned that the Olympic Dam expansion was the biggest thing – no, wait, the only thing – happening the SA economy, therefore the BHP decision to delay – hang on, let’s change that to “scrap” – the project meant that SA was basically finished. 

We even heard that a range of property developments planned for the Adelaide CBD would die because everything depended on Olympic Dam. 

You have to wonder – is your average journalist really that dumb, or do they simply not give a damn? 

To paraphrase Shakespeare: The first thing we do, let’s kill all the journalists. Then most of the economists. 

South Australia, let me tell you, is far from finished. It’s our most under-rated state. It leads the nation in several important industries and it’s now our third big resources state, though few people appear to realise it. 

Let’s not dwell too long on SA’s status as the leading state for Defence contracts (including the current $8 billion AWD project and the upcoming $20 billion submarine project) and also for alternative energy facilities, particularly wind farms. Nor on the fact that Adelaide has more infrastructure projects under construction than Sydney, although that’s more an indictment on New South Wales than a credit for SA. 

Let’s focus on resources. Anyone who thinks Olympic Dam is the only show in town for SA hasn’t been paying attention. It’s not even the biggest show. 

By far the biggest single factor likely to impact the SA economy is the decision to open up the Woomera Prohibited Area for mining. The potential outcome from this decision, first announced a year ago, will make Olympic Dam look puny.