Elon Musk, left, receives a chainsaw from Argentina's President Javier Milei as they arrive speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Residents of an Adelaide suburb are fighting against the prospect of a Tesla EV battery factory being parked on a disused manufacturing site, citing the company’s owner and ethics as reasons for voiding any deal.
The Marion council wants to sell a former manufacturing site known as Chestnut Court Reserve, which has been closed to the public since 2016 due to contamination, to a developer which is proposing the site be used for repurposing old Tesla lithium-ion batteries and a car servicing centre.
But the pushback has been huge.
The council received 948 responses to its community consultation process in April, it said in its May community feedback report.
Of these, 897 were against the idea, most citing Elon Musk’s weird and “offensive” behaviour since he became a vocal support of Donald Trump and for his role as head of Doge. They also cited the loss of 58 trees and open space, and the possibility of turning the contaminated site into public housing instead.
Only 51 responses were in favour of the project.
More than half of the submissions were from people living outside the council area – highlighting the now divisive impact of Musk – but locals weren’t keen either.
Of the submissions that came from people actually living in the area, 121 were against and only 11 were for the idea.
Those in favour of the idea lauded Musk’s business acumen, but also wanted something done with the fenced off, disused site.
One submission against the proposal encompassed the range of concerns expressed by locals:
“It will destroy green space in an already cramped housing area. It is important to maintain green spaces not only for the community but also for the local biodiversity,” it said.
“Further, and importantly I do not want to live in a suburb who sells out to profit a man who did a (word redacted) salute and who only has his own (word redacted) interests at heart. To me, selling green space to profit Elon Musk speaks to the values of the council and I want to live somewhere that is considerate and inclusive of all of its residents.”
Opponents of the project have launched a website called ‘Trees Not Teslas’.
The project is being proposed by a Melbourne property developer called MAB CCT Pty Ltd, which plans to develop the land with Tesla pencilled in as the long-term tenant. Doing so will also require the state government to revoke the area’s community-owned classification.
But Marion mayor Kris Hanna says planning processes don’t take into account the political views of potential leaseholders, and focused on the new jobs a battery factory might bring to the area and some $56 million in economic activity.
“The proposed factory would bring an estimated 100 new full-time jobs to our community plus the benefits of recycling electric batteries,” he said in comments sent to The Driven.
“The soil [at the Chestnut Court Reserve] is contaminated with the chemical trichloroethylene. It is safe if sealed over, such as at a factory and carpark, but not for recreation or gardening.”
State premier Peter Malinauskas told the Adelaide Advertiser that he “violently disagrees” with Musk’s politics, but said he he wanted to invest in the state, he is “fine with that.”
Tesla has a long history with South Australia, and already runs a service hub at the Tonsley Innovation District.
In March 2017, tech billionaire and now Sun Cable backer Mike Cannon-Brookes challenged Elon Musk to make good on his solving-South-Australia’s-energy-crisis-in-100-days claim, and that resulted in the original Tesla Big Battery, the world’s first grid scale battery storage project, at Hornsdale.
The battery was enlarged in 2020 and approved to provide grid-scale inertia in 2022. The Tesla-led South Australia Virtual Power Plant hasn’t met its original ambitious target of signing up 50,000, landing slightly more than 7,000 by 2023, and is now for sale. It was the first major attempt at a coordinated VPP in Australia.
The issue will be discussed at the next Marion council meeting.
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
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For once, it sounds as though the sensible comments are coming from the politicians.
Meanwhile in queensland they're going to exclude the opinions of non residents ie the fake nimbys. Excellent idea.
More public housing on contaminated land. Excellent idea! I hate Musk too but sometimes well meaning people are extremely stupid.
Yeah, like councils letting industries get away without proper land restoration.
Pity there isn't a picture of this site so we can all see how beautiful it is.
Well, scaring off any investors will ensure that the site remains in its current state for another 10 years.
You can get a glimpse of the place on street view. These locals arent the brightest, maybe they have been eating the soil?
Given that the site is fenced off, they'd have to be really hungry. The contaminated stuff has public land on 3 sides.
Yahoo ran this story, with a map. Pity the driven didn't do the same.
Yeah I read the Yahoo article and the City of Marion consultation. Also read the EPA audits.The entire area (not just the proposed factory area) is covered by a Groundwater Prohibition Area (GPA). From Sturt Rd to the south, all the way up to the Hamilton Secondary College to the north. From South Rd in the east and all the way out past the Marion Primary School to the west.
The protesters weren't wrong when they said "The ground contamination, which was exacerbated by previous manufacturing (including car manufacturing) in the area, is larger and more widespread than most realise."
Building factory and losing a few trees is the least of their problems. They are basically living on top of the solvent/hexavalent chromium contaminated areas, so if they want it cleaned up they might want to move out.
So all I see coming from these protests is nothing, no clean up, no factory, no jobs, no progress at all. Well done, at least you stuck it Musky! /facepalm
Until the epa, instead of just being limited to monitoring, gets authority to demand restoration, nothing will change.
The dilution of epa powers is a national disgrace. Might as well be renamed the ema.
58 mostly non-native trees sitting on a poisoned wasteland.
These anti-Tesla voices are useful idiots, like the people opposing wind turbines and solar farms. If you dig a little deeper, you'll discover payments from certain mining bodies and car organizations to loud activists, cynically riling people up.
People need to understand and accept that, like most countries, Australia is in the grip of pernicious, persistent, intractable and deeply embedded corruption, at all levels of government, and I include the current federal government. The evidence for this has emerged repeatedly, so this is not news to many.
Take your evidence to NACC.
Wait, what, you don’t have any evidence?
Said the albo-licker.
RUOK mate? I'm sorry that the world hasn't recognised your talents. Perhaps your time is just around the corner.
RU waiting for him?
So you have zero evidence, as I suspected.
"None so blind as those who will not see." Check multiple sources for proof of govt-industry links. Get off your duff and do your due diligence, ya lazy muppet.
Firstly, so glad to hear the mayor bring some actual facts and due process to the process! Sometimes you really have to wonder about the keyboard warriors to put in stupid public submissions.
"But Marion mayor Kris Hanna says planning processes don’t take into account the political views of potential leaseholders, and focused on the new jobs a battery factory might bring to the area and some $56 million in economic activity."
“The soil [at the Chestnut Court Reserve] is contaminated with the chemical trichloroethylene. It is safe if sealed over, such as at a factory and carpark, but not for recreation or gardening.”
Secondly, very disappointing choice of words from the SA premier to say he "violently disagrees" with Musk's politics. What's he going to do, punch Musk in the face next time he sees him? No politician should be encouraging violence, let alone because of political differences!
It needs pointing out that the contamination is about ⅙th of the proposed acquisition. The rest is currently land for public use and some allocated for public housing.
Non-nimby concern should be thrown out the door, & the proposal considered on its own merits. Seems like an excellent plan.
Btw, I'm a lefty from way back, and proudly drive a Tesla due to its engineering & sustainability, own PW3 & no Musk didn't do any silly salutes, but did support an idiot become president.
Too sensible for thedriven. Get woke or get walking. 😉
Forget about Adelaide then if they are so "woke" that they are passing up the FEW manufacturing investments of this scale that countries are fighting each other for. But then again, as per usual the people who make the most noise don't actually WORK for a living.
Come to Sydney - we love Teslas here.
With the new Govt discounts on home batteries, this Tesla battery factory is needed urgently to supply all the upcoming demand of Power Wall 3s.
While I understand people being annoyed with Elon Musk, I think it’s worth remembering that he holds 12% of Telsa’s shares. The other 88% of the shareholders are probably decent people, many of whom will have bought into Tesla when it represented Climate Action and good things like recycling car batteries. Let;s not loose sight of the forest for the trees.