Ex-Footy Star’s Barossa Golf Getaway Rejected Second Time

Downsized plans by a South Australian football champion for a luxury Barossa Valley golf resort have been refused by the state’s planning gatekeeper with a decision-maker saying the design of the two-storey project is still “incredibly intense”.

Neville “Rocky” Roberts (pictured above) became a property developer 40 years ago, towards the end of a football career that included 44 games for Richmond in the VFL and one for the Victorian state team. He played 230 games in the SANFL and five as captain of South Australia.

This week at a State Commission Assessment Panel hearing in Adelaide, Roberts floated a two-level, 73-unit resort for Williamstown Road at Sandy Creek in the famed Barossa Valley wine region.

In 2024, he had withdrawn plans for a three-level, 102-key resort at the site, which adjoins the 18-hole Sandy Creek golf course, after a planner for the panel recommended refusal.

After this week’s panel hearing that lasted 90 minutes and which Roberts attended, the panel went behind closed doors and decided to refuse his latest application.

The panel reasoned that the planned resort was not compatible with and would not complement the “secluded semi-rural or semi-natural” residential character of the area.

At the hearing, occasional panel member John Eckert said he had not been privy to the approvals process to date but understood Roberts’ project had now been “simplified”.

“It had to be pretty intense to start with because it’s still relatively intense; in terms of the forms [and] colours it’s quite heavily modelled and there’s quite a few things going on there in terms of the front bit,” he said.

“To me ... it’s not necessarily ‘Australian shed’ but more almost Nordic buildings because of the sharp-nosed edges etcetera, so that’s quite distinct in its own character.

“Next to it is almost Kent Town townhouses and then at the end there’s something else.”

Eckert said that he did not “find the building offensive in any way”.

“I think it’s quite nicely detailed, sort of refined, but I do think it’s incredibly intense,” he said.

▲ A rendering of Roberts’ refused golfing getaway, the design of which a decision-maker said was “incredibly intense”.

Set on a 6000sq m block, the resort would have included 51 rooms in the main building and 22 separate villas.

Three outdoor spa baths landscaped as billabongs would have accompanied the project’s two main swimming pools.

Before the meeting, Roberts told The Urban Developer his golfing getaway would have had a five-star restaurant and a stormwater holding pond to hydrate the golf course.

“We’ve been intimately engaged with the golf course for 10 years on achieving synergies with our plans,” the SANFL hall-of-famer said.

“We’re integrating the hotel reception into the way the golf club operates.

“Patrons will be able to book a round of golf, jump straight into their buggies and head out for a game.”

He said the resort would have cost between $25 million and $30 million to build.

▲ A rendering of the latest version of the resort planned for Sandy Creek in the Barossa Valley.

Roberts also operates the BoxMod modular building company and said the construction cost would have fallen to about $20 million if the villas were modular, an option he had kept open.

The golf club’s sale of the block to Roberts had been conditional on the development application being approved.

After the panel revealed its decision, Roberts told The Urban Developer he would go on to “do something somewhere else”.

“It’s only a million dollars and 10 years,” he said, ironically, of the expense and time that had gone into the rejected resort project.

“We have [the AFL’s] Gather Round in the Barossa now and [SA] Premier [Peter Malinauskas] is creating a lot of major events to attract visitors to Adelaide and surrounding areas and there’s nowhere for them to stay.”