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Gillman is a predominantly industrial north-western suburb of
Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
, in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield. It is located within the federal
Division of Hindmarsh The Division of Hindmarsh is an Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives, Australian Electoral Division in South Australia covering the north western and western coastal suburbs of Adelaide. The division was one of the seven establ ...
and the state
electoral district of Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a single-member electoral district for the South Australian House of Assembly. Named after Port Adelaide, which it surrounds, it is a 118.8 km2 suburban and industrial electorate on Adelaide's Lefevre Peninsula, and stretc ...
.


Railway yards

Gillman had been the site of railway marshalling yards on the Dry Creek–Port Adelaide railway line. The line was constructed through the area in 1868, leading in to Port Dock railway station. Connections were created from the yard to the industrial and port sidings on the eastern side of the
Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...
. In 1915, a junction to the south was added called the ''Rosewater Loop'', which connected the Dry Creek line to a new alignment of the Outer Harbor railway line through a new
Port Adelaide railway station A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manche ...
and bridge over the Port River. The tracks in the area were converted from broad gauge to dual broad and standard gauge in 1982 as part of the works to convert the Adelaide to Crystal Brook railway to standard gauge. The Gillman marshalling yards were closed and removed in the early 1990s, leaving the Rosewater Loop as the main line, and a northern branch to sidings on the Port Flats. In 2008, the Rosewater Loop was closed and the main line branched from the Port Flats branch over the new Mary MacKillop Bridge.


Multifunction Polis

Gillman was intended to be the site of the Multifunction Polis (MFP), a joint project by the Australian and Japanese Governments in the late 1980s and 1990s. Started in 1987 by the
Hawke government The Hawke government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1983 to 1991. The government followed the Liberal-National Coalition Fraser government and was su ...
, the MFP was intended to be a high-tech industry and technology hub with local laws similar to those found in
special economic zone A special economic zone (SEZ) is an area in which the business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country. SEZs are located within a country's national borders, and their aims include increasing trade balance, employment, increas ...
s around the world today. Protests from the local community and controversy over the proposed partnership with Japan led to the collapse of the project, which later was re-purposed into Technology Park and Mawson Lakes nearby.


Motorsport

Gillman has been the home of
Motorcycle Speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...
in Adelaide since 1981 when the North Arm Speedway opened. The speedway, located on the Grand Trunkway, operated from 1981 until its forced closure in 1997. Since 1998 it has been the home of a larger motorcycle speedway venue, the Gillman Speedway located on Wilkins Road.


Explosives

The North Arm Powder Magazine in Gillman was from 1858 to 1906 a secure storage facility for
dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...
and
gelignite Gelignite (), also known as blasting gelatin or simply "jelly", is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton (a type of nitrocellulose or guncotton) dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and Potassi ...
.''Explosives storage in Magazine Creek, Port Adelaide district, 1857-1906.'' Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, Nr. 35, 2007.


Gillman controversy

In June 2013, the Weatherill state government received a proposal from Adelaide Capital Partners (ACP) to purchase of Gillman land for $135 million over three instalments, which was approved in December 2013 and supposed to create 6000 jobs. However, the process was later criticised by the state Opposition and subsequently the
Supreme Court of South Australia The Supreme Court of South Australia is the superior court of the Australian state of South Australia. The Supreme Court is the highest South Australian court in the Australian court hierarchy. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in ...
who ruled the deal "unlawful, irrational and in disregard of commercial principles", but said the contract was valid despite criticising the government's failure to put the land to public tender. A potential High Court action was resolved in an out-of-court deal, with
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
n Attorney General
John Rau John Robert Rau SC (born 20 March 1959) is an Australian barrister and politician. He was the 12th Deputy Premier of South Australia from 2011 to 2018 and 48th Attorney-General of South Australia from 2010 to 2018 for the South Australian Bra ...
confirming the parties settled, with the government paying legal costs incurred by all parties, estimated to be no more than $2.2 million. In November 2016, ACP failed to make payment, and the government was forced to pay the Adelaide City Council $20 million for land it purchased as part of the original deal. The government has since sold part of the property to
Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. In ...
for use as a
waste-to-energy plant A waste-to-energy plant is a waste management facility that combusts wastes to produce electricity. This type of power plant is sometimes called a trash-to-energy, municipal waste incineration, energy recovery, or resource recovery plant. Moder ...
, although the vast majority remains in government hands.


References

Suburbs of Adelaide {{Adelaide-geo-stub