Ex-Footy Star Relaunches Golf Resort Plans for Barossa
A South Australian football champion has downsized plans for a luxury Barossa Valley golf resort after it hit the rough last year.
Neville “Rocky” Roberts became a property developer 40 years ago toward the end of a football career that saw him play 44 games for Richmond in the VFL, one for the Victorian state teams, 230 games in the SANFL and five as captain of South Australia.
Roberts has refloated a two-level, 73-unit resort after withdrawing plans for a three-level, 102-key resort in October last year when a State Commission Assessment Panel planner recommended refusal.
Roberts said the resort would have a five-star restaurant and a stormwater holding pond that would be used to help water the neighbouring 18-hole Sandy Creek golf course.
“Tourism is the likely economic pathway for the Barossa and the missing link in the tourism chain at present is the lack of keys,” he said.
“We’re less than a 10-minute drive from the AFL’s Gather Round at Lyndoch where we could get 30,000 people coming up for a couple of days, but they have very limited accommodation options.”
Set on a 6000sq m block on Williamstown Road at Sandy Creek, the resort would include 51 rooms in the main building and 22 separate villas.
Three outdoor spa baths landscaped as billabongs would accompany the resort’s two main swimming pools.
The SANFL hall-of-famer said the resort would cost between $25 million and $30 million to build.
Roberts also operates the BoxMod modular building company and said the construction cost would fall to about $20 million if the villas were modular, an option he has kept open.
He said he was talking to several prominent companies about involvement in the project, with discussions most advanced with Coopers Brewery and Wyndham Garden hotels.
Sandy Creek Golf Club, which owns the block on which the resort is planned, has agreed to sell it to Roberts if his development application is approved.
Club treasurer David Weatherley said the resort would complement the club’s operations.
“I would anticipate there would be a number of people who would visit to play the course and stay there,” he said.
Weatherley said the course’s existing clubrooms could see an upswing in patronage and the resort could at times be used by the club for special functions.
He said another developer had planned a 142-room, three-floor resort for the site “seven or eight years ago” that did not proceed.
Public comment on the latest plans closes on January 2.
Roberts said he planned to file the plans with the State Commission Assessment Panel in February 2026
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