SA Police has been working since August 2022 to relocate 15 police units – including 350 staff, 32 police horses and 27 dogs – from Thebarton barracks to allow the state government to begin work this year on the $3.2 billion Women’s and Children’s Hospital project.

In September 2023, police revealed the cost of relocating had reached $114 million and was still rising.

Today, senior police told a parliamentary committee the estimated cost was now $153 million.

Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford said police’s current budget approval for the relocation was only “about $138 (million)”.

Asked how police would make up the $15 million shortfall, Bamford said: “We’re still going through a process with Department and Treasury and Finance.”

“We are continuously reviewing the costs and packages or parcels of funding that have been provided as they go through that process,” he said.

Asked if there was a risk the relocation project could blow out beyond $200 million, Bamford said: “I don’t anticipate that, but I can’t rule out where it will go.”

“As with any major construction, there are always unforeseen outcomes.

“So I can’t guess on what that will be.”

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the $153 million cost did not include additional operating cost estimates.

Stevens said there was a “potential” that the new locations will create additional costs.

“The different nature of our locations will impact on how we perform our operations which may carry a cost impact,” he said.

New locations had been secured for 14 of the 15 police units at Thebarton barracks, Bamford said, up from nine in September 2023.

This includes the Mounted Operations Unit, which is moving to a $90 million facility at Gepps Cross after a long-running saga about it potentially being housed on a park lands site.

An impression of the proposed Gepps Cross police barracks. Image: SA Govt

The Gepps Cross facility was “on target to be finished by the end of September”, Bamford said.

Police had originally targeted vacating the Thebarton barracks in April 2024. That has now been pushed back to October.

Bamford said the six-month delay was “not causing any financial imposition” on the Women’s and Children’s Hospital project, which has begun early works.

“Their program timelines are not being held up by us remaining on Thebarton barracks at this point,” he said.

Other police units on the move include the Adelaide Road Safety Centre, which is moving to the West Beach Parks precinct on Military Road, and the South Australian Police Museum, which has secured a lease at the former AAMI state office on the corner of King William Street and Sturt Street.

The new site for the South Australian Police Museum. Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily. Inset photo: South Australian Police Historical Society/Facebook

The only unit not to have its new location finalised is the South Australian Police Band.

Bamford said SA Police were looking to co-locate the band with the horses at Gepps Cross and provide them with a specialist rehearsal hall.

Bamford said the estimated cost of the band relocation was around $8.8 million “but that’s likely to go down through the value management process”.

“One of the reasons why it’s taking so long is we explored all other opportunities to use existing facilities, converting warehouses things like that,” he said.

“But we’ve reached a conclusion that the best outcome would be to locate them (the band) on police property in a purpose-built facility and that’s what we’re working through.”

Asked if the band was safe, Bamford said: “There’s no intention of disbanding the band.”