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2024 2025 Annual ReportWe acknowledge this land that we work on is the traditional land of the Kaurna People and that we respect their spiritual relationship with their country. We also acknowledge the Kaurna people as the custodians of the Adelaide region and that their cultural and heritage beliefs are still as important to the Kaurna people today. We pay respect to the cultural authority of Aboriginal people visiting or attending from other areas of South Australia and Australia. 2annual report 2024/25Welcome4 How to use this Annual Report5 Our Highlights6 Mayor’s Message6 CEO’s Message10 Our City14 City Snapshot15 Vision16 Strategic Direction17 Our Council21 Council Members22 The Council Administration24 Volunteers28 Our Performance30 Financial Summary 30 Achievements and Highlights 32 Governance52 Council Members52 Governance 64 Financial Report80 Appendices133 Audit and Risk Committee Annual Report 134 Subsidiaries139 Table of contents 3www.burnside.sa.gov.auThe City of Burnside’s 2024/25 Annual Report provides a comprehensive account of the Council’s performance, achievements, challenges and financial management from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. Welcome The Annual Report meets the legislative requirements set out in the Local Government Act 1999 (the Act). The first section of this report outlines Council’s progress against the outcomes and objectives of Burnside 2030, the City of Burnside’s Strategic Community Plan, and the 2024/25 Annual Business Plan and Budget. The second section of the report provides the audited financial statements for the City of Burnside. The audited financial statements for the City of Burnside’s subsidiaries – Eastern Health Authority, East Waste Management Authority, Highbury Landfill Authority, ERA Water and Brown Hill Keswick Creeks Stormwater Board – are also included. An online version of the Annual Report can be viewed and downloaded at burnside.sa.gov.au. To request a printed copy, please contact: City of Burnside (Monday – Friday 8.30 am – 5 pm) 401 Greenhill Road, Tusmore T (08) 8366 4200 E burnside@burnside.sa.gov.au engage.burnside is another way you can provide feedback and ideas on Council’s priorities and projects to help shape Council’s plans for the City of Burnside. Visit engage.burnside.sa.gov.au 4annual report 2024/25How to use this Annual Report The 2024/25 Annual Report is divided into two sections: Section 1 Our Highlights 1 Provides reflections from our Mayor and CEO and outlines key capital works and highlights from 2024/25. Our City 2 Profiles the City of Burnside, outlines our vision, and details Council’s integrated planning framework. Financial Report 6 Includes financial statements which details Council’s performance for the year and fulfills reporting requirements. Appendices 7 Audit and Risk Committee Annual Report Pursuant to section 126(9) of the Local Government Act 1999, a council must ensure that the annual report of its audit and risk committee is included in its annual report. Subsidiaries The Local Government Act 1999 requires that Council’s Annual Report includes the annual report of each of its subsidiaries. The City of Burnside’s subsidiaries include East Waste Management Authority, Eastern Health Authority, Highbury Landfill Authority, ERA Water and Brown Hill Keswick Creek Stormwater Board. Our Council 3 Provides details of our Council Members, Wards and the Council Administration and organisation. Governance 5 Reports on governance procedures plus statutory required information and reporting. Our Performance 4 Identifies 2024/25 achievements relating to Burnside 2030, Council’s Strategic Community Plan, as well as Council’s performance against the commitments identified in the 2024/25 Annual Business Plan and Budget. Section 2 5www.burnside.sa.gov.auWe are fortunate to live in this wonderful City of Burnside. It is a connected, safe, confident and prosperous community, living in an environment where trees are valued and are valuable. Decisions that we make are focused on maintaining and improving the great quality of life we enjoy. Our population continues to change as we cater for the needs of every age and background represented. We do our best to manage our sustainability and provide vision for future generations. Our Strategic Plan provides us with the roadmap and we steer our way on our journey to completion. Our three pillars or themes focus on Community, Environment and Place; hence my separate headings that follow. There have been major achievements this past year in all three areas, and staff and Council Members have worked together to achieve our goals. In late 2024, we farewelled our CEO, Chris Cowley who had led the organisation for five years and in January 2025 we welcomed our first ever female CEO to this city. Julia Grant has led us through the Annual Budget and Long Term Financial Plan process and we are moving forward focusing on our Strategic Plan, ever mindful of our budget repair status. I take this opportunity to thank Martin Cooper for his leadership as Acting CEO during the interim period. Community The City of Burnside celebrated diversity and culture through Chinese New Year, Japanese Cultural Day, Reconciliation Week, Citizenship Ceremonies, Carols in the Park, Australia Day in the Regal Theatre, Citizen of the Year awards, History Month and our very first Geekfest. With the RSL, we also remembered the fallen on Remembrance Day and Anzac Day. Our over 371 volunteers continued to provide 26,500 hours of service this past year and we take this opportunity to again thank them for their dedication. In 2024-2025, we celebrated 90 years of Burnside CFS, 60 years of Burnside Meals on Wheels, 50 Years of the Rotary Club of Burnside and 10 years of the Men’s Breakfast. The Rotary Club of Burnside’s Christmas lunch, the start of the Community Hub at Glenunga, the Lions Club of Glenside’s Art Show (over 30 years), the Lions Club of Burnside’s Memory Cafe and Digitalisation Project are some of those particularly impressive events supported by the City of Burnside. Mayor’s Message Our Highlights 1 Section 1 annual report 2024/256We are fortunate to have Probus Clubs, Burnside Rostrum, Guides, Scouts, the Burnside Historical Society, Sporting clubs and many other groups that continued to serve our community and fostered a sense of belonging for young and older residents alike. The Shed, Community Transport, Home Support, the 3Rs, Fitness in the Parks, AquaFit in the pool, Chat with a Local, Let’s Get Trivial, Fit and Fab, Strength for Life and all the activities in our Community Centres, book, painting and writing groups and the Youth Space all provided for different people’s interests and needs. Pepper Street Arts Centre continued to cater for creative people of all ages and experience. It is a place to learn skills, to share ideas and be inspired. Exhibitions, classes, demonstrations, sales of unique arts and crafts continued throughout the year after the facilities were updated. Community grants enabled many organisations to provide opportunities for residents and Quick Response Grants allowed young people to engage in activities to help them grow and learn in sport and academia. Our Disability and Inclusion Expo was also held with speakers, stalls and performances; and Wheelchair Squash began in Kensington Park. With the employment of a Youth Officer, we have been able to provide more focus on youth, with a youth study and Youth Action Plan completed. We know that we need to engage more proactively with the increasing number of young people living in our community. The lack of open space for the development of more sporting venues continues to haunt us. The Australia Day awards went to Susan Perks and Diana Croft for service to Burnside Meals on Wheels for over 30 years. The Young Citizen of the Year was awarded to Rosa Hessabi for her dedication to school leadership and social justice, and a Highly Commended Award went to Stuart Vass for his leadership and advocacy for youth empowerment. The Award for Active Citizenship went to Michael Neal from the Lions Club of Burnside for his facilitation of the Dementia Group and the Digital Imaging Project. The Community Event of the Year was won by the Rotary Club of Burnside for its Christmas Luncheon for Seniors that they provide every year with over 100 people attending. We were honoured to have three Burnside residents awarded with South Australian Citizen of the Year Awards: Amber Brock- Fabel became the SA Young Australian of the Year for her roles in youth engagement and Irfan and Sonia Hashmi, 2025 Local Heroes for SA award for their work in transforming regional health care services. 7www.burnside.sa.gov.au7www.burnside.sa.gov.au Our three pillars or themes focus on Community, Environment and Place. There have been major achievements this past year in all three areasEnvironment Once again, for a sixth year, we were awarded status as Tree City of the World. We continued to plant more trees on council land (over 1100) and encouraged plantings on private land through our Tree Giveaway Program, Annual Biodiversity Giveaway and Habitat Restoration Grants. Volunteers planted natives and removed weeds in Ferguson Park, Chambers Gully, Waterfall Gully and Cleland National Park. Grow it Local also provided online guidance to experienced and emerging gardeners who wanted to enhance their sustainability skills. Nature Festival also attracted and engaged people of all ages and backgrounds in October 2024. We held our Environment and Sustainability Expo in May, with awards being presented to local individuals and groups for their initiatives and action on climate change. The major Environment Award went to Wattle Park Kindergarten, with runners-up Gray Rowe from Friends of Cleland National Park, Environmental artist Swapna Namboodiri, Norwood International High School Environment Club and David Everett from Botanica Enviros Club at Glenside. Council also installed Water Sensitive Design projects in Penfold Park, Kensington Wama/ Kensington Gardens and Glenside to improve stormwater quality and improve planting. New solar panels were installed on the Civic Centre and Swimming Centre for efficiency. We negotiated a new Power Purchase Agreement with six other eastern councils to buy electricity from wind generation. This initiative benefits these councils involved as well as demonstrating to other councils what savings can be made through collaboration and by building on existing solar investments. All councils are trying to reduce waste going to landfill and encourage the appropriate use of green and yellow bins. Burnside completed a trial of collecting green waste on a weekly basis in parts of the city. This trial was extended to other parts of Burnside and by increasing the use of green bins, we saved money on cost to landfill and reduced this impact on rates. Our diversion rate leapt to 75 per cent during this project. We created a new Re-use and Recycling Hub in the Civic Centre, installed some more doggy dunnies and created some new dogs-on-leash areas in Michael Perry Reserve, Kensington Wama/Kensington Gardens near the Kindy-in- the-Park and the wetlands, Heatherbank Reserve, Chambers Gully Reserve. This is to protect wildlife that is prolific (and contains threatened species) in these areas and to ensure they are not stressed, or preyed upon. The George Bolton Swimming Centre pool heaters were replaced with an electric system, which supports our journey to carbon neutrality by 2030, and a successful winter season supported by State Government appeared in 2025. A new shade cover was also installed over the playground inside the centre. Our Environmental Sustainability Manager, Dr Philip Roetman was awarded the 2025 Green Adelaide Pelzer Prize at the SA Environment Awards, hosted by Conservation SA. One of our biodiversity volunteers, Christine Baillie won the runner-up National Award for Women in Local Government at the Australian Local Government Association’s annual conference in June for over 30 years as a biodiversity volunteer. Place We continued to lobby the State Government to support the Commonwealth Government to get the Greater Freight Bypass built to enable interstate transport to bypass suburban Adelaide and particularly get it off Portrush Road. We will continue this advocacy improve the safety and liveability for our residents and all those traversing our city. The first Bicycle Network Plan interactive map was launched to help make cycling safer and more enjoyable for everyone. There is also an interactive map that shows everyone where all the Capital Works Projects are happening each year. In December, we remembered 70 years of the Burnside Ballroom that was built in 1954 to cater for the growing needs of our city, and is still a very popular venue today for many different dinners, musical events, dances and displays. These include the Burnside Symphony Orchestra (70 years old in 2026) and our Burnside Youth Concert Band that celebrated 20 years in 2024. annual report 2024/258ANNE MONCEAUX MAYOR The Regal Theatre continued to be a place of film and live performances, catering for diverse audiences. We were pleased to receive a grant of $2.43 million from the Thriving Suburbs Program through the Commonwealth Government and we will be using these funds for the redevelopment of the Regal Precinct under the Regal Precinct Plan that was created through much consultation. We will be lobbying the State Government to provide further financial assistance to make this dream a reality. In the next financial year, the theatre that was born as The Princess, then became The Ozone, then The Chelsea and now The Regal, will turn 100 years old. In December 2024 the Governor of South Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Frances Adamson AC came to Rose Park to celebrate 100 years since the installation of the Charles Web Gilbert’s Helping Hand statue and to unveil a plaque and introduce the interpretative signage. She visited us again in March 2025 to celebrate Kaurna acknowledgement with the unveiling of Allan Sumner’s sculpture that is located in the Civic Centre courtyard. The Library provided a place for learning, reading and belonging, as well as for book launches, Writers’ Week, The History Room, Tech Help, Library in the Park and story-telling. It also attracted 224,222 visitors (about 610 per day) and as such is the second busiest library in South Australia. The Toy Library celebrated 30 years and is the largest one in Australia by membership and last year 41,816 resources were borrowed. This is fully funded by the City of Burnside. The Home Library service has been operating for 50 years and welcomes a friendly voice and delivery with a smile and a chat for many isolated residents. Our first Sports Library was also installed at Langman Reserve as a new initiative to support physical activity and a feasibility study for a wheel park in Burnside was also approved. We await the start of the Kensington Wama/ Kensington Gardens Cricket and Rugby Club redevelopment. This construction will also provide better disability access, better facilities for the clubs, an additional community venue and a boost to women’s sport. To achieve all of this has been a great team effort. The one-team approach of the staff in so many different areas, both indoors and outdoors, all contributed to these successes. Council Members made decisions in the best interests of the majority of ratepayers and residents. All organisations have their challenges, but we have achieved much, in spite of budgetary restraints and increased costs of construction. It was a great return to Carols in the Park, with good weather, great entertainment and fantastic audience participation. It was also an example of all the teams in Burnside working together to achieve a great result, and that was a very memorable night for the community. I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has worked for and with the City of Burnside over the past year to achieve our objectives. 9www.burnside.sa.gov.auNext >