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No plans to sell ABC Adelaide base

"We have no intention of selling that property, rather using it better," says David Anderson.

ABC has reaffirmed its intention to remain at its historic Collinswood base in Adelaide but has vacant floor space it wants to address.

“We’ve just leased another floor there, which is good news,” managing director David Anderson told Senate Estimates this week.

“But there are still some empty floors. I have been in discussion with South Australian Government -the Premier and some of his staff- with regard to what we might be able to do that could be quite exciting. But it would need to have a funding arrangement that would encourage production there.

“We spend on average, in a pre COVID way before disruption of the pandemic, about $95m to $100m with the independent production sector, commissioning production all around the country.

“So I think there are opportunities in South Australia with that vacant space. We have no intention of selling that property, rather using it better. Of course we have a decentralisation plan as part of our Five Year Plan.”

Anderson noted that if a job disappears at Ultimo it may need to be replicated elsewhere. In South Australia, comedy series AfterTaste will return to production in 2022, produced by Closer Productions.

On hearing the news, SA Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told Anderson, “Showcasing South Australia’s great food and wine is fine by me. That’s good to hear.”

2 Responses

  1. … I remember a taxi journey from the old HQ in Hindmarsh Square to Collinswood just after Gough had opened the new building in 1974 … as we approached it, the driver asked me what I thought of the new place and I answered “See the single storey building at the back? that’s television; the three storey building in the middle? that’s radio; the eight storey building at the front? that’s administration!!!”

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