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Salisbury Infrastructure Projects, SA

Non-residential building approvals over the last 12 months are 0.81× this council’s own three-year average. Those approvals are $567m.

Salisbury’s economy is broad but has a clear working-industrial character. In 2021 the largest shares of employed residents were in health care and social assistance (15.82%), retail (10.39%), manufacturing (9.87%), construction (8.8%), public administration and safety (6.7%) and transport, postal and warehousing (6.19%). Business counts also point to a substantial freight, construction and industrial base, including 2,332 registered transport businesses, 2,142 in construction and 485 in manufacturing. Current named project activity is led by seven active industrial approvals in Edinburgh, Direk, Burton, Para Hills West and Parafield Gardens, alongside Defence works at Edinburgh and SA Water’s Bolivar WWTP project. Proposed headline items are large in printed value, but remain at planning stage, including the two Siviour graphite facility stages and Adelaide Northern Growth Areas planning.

Named projects

28 projects.

TypeProposedActiveCompleted
Transport1210
Industrial072
Energy200
School002
Defence010
Water010

Largest stated values

Proposed

  1. Siviour Purified Spherical Graphite Facility (Stage 1) — Planning, $395m
    Renascor. New project, purified spherical graphite, 50 kt.
  2. Siviour Purified Spherical Graphite Facility (Stage 2) — Planning, $377m
    Renascor. New project, purified spherical graphite, 50 kt.
  3. Adelaide Northern Growth Areas - Planning — Planning, $10m
    The project will deliver planning, technical and cost investigations for transport network improvements in Adelaide's northern growth areas.
    Start Late 2024 – Finish Mid 2026

Completed

  1. Winzor Street, Salisbury — Completed, $1.2m
    As part of City of Salisbury ongoing road audit process, it was identified for intervention to meet accepted service levels. This road is an access road for connection schools.
    Start Sep 2024 – Finish Feb 2025
  2. South Terrace, Pooraka — Completed, $996.5k
    The road pavement has wheel path carriageway failures and crocodiling which is a result of subsurface failures.The road pavement will be profiled and overlayed together with.
    Start Jan 2024 – Finish Apr 2024
  3. Milne Road, Para Hills — Completed, $824.9k
    The road pavement has multiple wheel path failures in the carriageway in both lanes, noting this is a bus route, and shape deformations and shoving at approaches. Crocodiling.
    Start Jan 2024 – Finish May 2024
  4. Amsterdam Crescent, Salisbury Downs — Completed, $810.6k
    As part of the works proposed in year 21/22 this road was deferred and committed to be completed once construction activity had been completed. As part of City of Salisbury.
    Start Sep 2024 – Finish Feb 2025
  5. Northbri Avenue, Salisbury East — Completed, $700.7k
    As part of City of Salisbury ongoing road audit process, it was identified for intervention to meet accepted service levels. The road condition has deteriorated due to extensive.
    Start Jul 2025 – Finish Apr 2026
  6. Woomera Avenue, Edinburgh — Completed, $686.8k
    As part of City of Salisbury ongoing road audit process, it was identified for intervention to meet accepted service levels. This road is in an industrial area that is growing and.
    Start Jul 2024 – Finish Feb 2025
  7. Wynn Vale Drive, Gulfview Heights — Completed, $669.6k
    As part of City of Salisbury ongoing road audit process, it was identified for intervention to meet accepted service levels. This road is an access road for connection between.
    Start Jul 2024 – Finish Feb 2025

Other named projects

Read full overview

Health, manufacturing, logistics and defence shape Salisbury, while current project activity is concentrated in industrial approvals, selected defence and utility works, and a long tail of completed local transport upgrades.

Economic base

Salisbury has a large outer-metropolitan workforce with a mixed service and industrial base. In 2021 it had 63,767 employed residents, with the biggest employment shares in health care and social assistance at 15.82%, retail at 10.39%, manufacturing at 9.87%, construction at 8.8%, public administration and safety at 6.7%, education and training at 6.45%, and transport, postal and warehousing at 6.19%. That mix points to a council where household-serving services sit alongside trade, logistics, production and government-linked activity rather than a single dominant sector. The labour force was 76,627 in 2026 Q1, with 4,534 unemployed and an unemployment rate of 5.9%.

Business counts reinforce that profile. As at June 2025 Salisbury had 10,583 registered businesses and 2,894 employing businesses. The largest registered business counts were in transport, postal and warehousing (2,332), construction (2,142), rental, hiring and real estate services (840), administrative and support services (771), health care and social assistance (643), other services (622), professional, scientific and technical services (601), retail (537) and manufacturing (485). Employing business counts were notable in construction (573), retail (267), other services (264), health care and social assistance (259), manufacturing (251), accommodation and food services (228), professional services (208), transport, postal and warehousing (202) and wholesale trade (189). Population was 151,019 in 2025, up 0.3%, with growth supported by natural increase and net overseas migration while net internal migration was negative.

Current project program

The current named program is concentrated in industrial enablement rather than major civic works. Salisbury has 29 named projects in total, comprising 3 proposed, 11 active and 15 completed. Active work is led by seven industrial approvals: warehouse and light industrial projects in Edinburgh, Direk, Burton, Para Hills West and Parafield Gardens, plus a staged industrial building in Edinburgh with injection moulding, rainwater tanks and access works. Separate active works include Defence facilities at Edinburgh to support Short Range Ground Based Air Defence, the Kings Road pedestrian and bicycle upgrade in Salisbury Downs, and the Bolivar WWTP project at Bolivar. This pattern aligns with a council where current development activity is focused on industrial floor space, estate functionality and selected enabling infrastructure.

Completed work is dominated by local transport upgrades, with 11 completed transport projects across Pooraka, Para Hills, Salisbury Downs, Salisbury East, Edinburgh and Gulfview Heights. These are separate works and include duplicate listings for Clayson Road that should not be combined. Completed non-transport items include two industrial developments in Salisbury Plain and Direk, a childcare-retail alteration in Ingle Farm, and school additions in Paralowie. The proposed list is short but large in printed value: Siviour Purified Spherical Graphite Facility Stage 1 at $395m, Stage 2 at $377m, and Adelaide Northern Growth Areas planning at $10m. Those items remain in planning, so they are best treated as prospective rather than current delivery.

Economic connections

The strongest supported connection between Salisbury’s economy and its project list is industrial capacity. The council already has large registered business counts in transport, construction, manufacturing and wholesale trade, and the active schedule is heavily weighted to warehouse and light industrial approvals in Edinburgh, Direk, Burton, Para Hills West and Parafield Gardens. Those projects could improve the stock of industrial premises and support business accommodation, storage and operating space in locations already tied to logistics and production activity. The Edinburgh industrial approval with injection moulding is particularly consistent with the area’s manufacturing base because it combines warehouse space with an identified light industrial use and dedicated vehicle access.

A second connection is service and utility support. Defence construction at Edinburgh aligns with Salisbury’s existing public administration and safety employment share and may add specialised estate capacity within that defence precinct. The Bolivar WWTP project is also relevant because water and wastewater infrastructure supports industrial land and urban service capacity, although the evidence here does not quantify the local effect. Local transport works are mostly completed street upgrades, while Kings Road adds safer walking and cycling access in Salisbury Downs; that is best understood as local access infrastructure rather than freight expansion. Non-residential building approvals reached $567m in the latest 12 months, which indicates a large volume of approved non-residential work, though approvals are not the same as construction or completion.

Outlook

Near-term, Salisbury’s practical outlook depends less on headline planning values and more on whether approved industrial projects move into construction and occupation. The current program suggests continued emphasis on warehouses, estate-style industrial buildings and site works rather than a broad spread of civic or visitor projects. That aligns with the council’s established freight, construction and manufacturing presence, and with a labour market that remains sizeable but not tight. For buyers’ agents, the key issue is whether industrial land and premises keep expanding in the Edinburgh-Direk-Burton corridor and whether supporting utility works keep pace.

The main watch points are straightforward. First, monitor progression of the two Siviour graphite facility stages and Adelaide Northern Growth Areas planning, because they are currently only planning-stage items despite their large printed values. Second, watch whether the recent $567m in non-residential approvals converts into a sustained construction program. Third, track delivery milestones for the Kings Road Stage 2 shared path, Defence works at Edinburgh and the Bolivar WWTP project, because these are the clearest named pieces of current enabling infrastructure. Population growth of 0.3% in 2025 was modest and relied on overseas migration offsetting internal outflows, so service demand and labour availability should be read with that mixed demographic signal in mind.

Key takeaways

Sources

HtAG Projects · as at 23 September 2026