New emergency department for Clare Hospital | January 8

A total of $22 million has been earmarked for a new emergency department for Clare Hospital.

The 101-year-old hospital’s current ED is old and no longer fit for purpose, with cramped spaces, limited privacy and no dedicated waiting area.

The new ED will enable medical and nursing staff to provide emergency care in a modern environment and ensure the Mid North community can access high-quality care when they need it.

Demand for emergency care at Clare Hospital continues to grow with presentations increasing by 27 per cent over the past five years – from 2372 in 2019/20 to 3006 in 2024/25.

Narváez to defend TDU title | January 2

Reigning Santos Tour Down Under (TDU) champion Jhonatan Narváez is returning to defend the Ochre Jersey with a star-studded UAE Team Emirates-XRG roster heading to South Australia this month.

The 28-year-old is one of two former TDU winners on the team’s seven-man squad for the season-opening UCI WorldTour race, alongside Australian Jay Vine who won the title in 2023.

Vine is coming off a stellar 2025 season in which he won the mountains classification at the Vuelta a Espana for the second year in a row, a silver medal in the individual time trial and gold in the mixed relay at the UCI World Championships.

Vine and Narváez will also be joined by British star Adam Yates who is a Grand Tour stage winner and has won the Tour de Suisse, Tour of Romandie and Volta a Catalunya, as UAE Team Emirates-XRG look to go back-to-back.

The full men’s and women’s start lists for the race, which kicks off on January 16, are available here.

Stansbury oysters back on the menu | January 1

The New Year has brought good news for the Stansbury Harvesting Area with the oyster growing region now reopened after being closed for seven months due to the detection of brevetoxins.

Routine testing by the South Australian Shellfish Quality Assurance Program (SASQAP) – a joint initiative of the State Government and the shellfish industry – has confirmed brevetoxin levels have returned to safe levels.

Located on eastern Yorke Peninsula, the Stansbury Harvesting Area was one of the first of the shellfish harvesting areas to be closed to protect public health after elevated brevetoxin levels were detected, for the first time in South Australian waters, linked to the algal bloom.

For more information click here.

More homes up for grabs at Playford Alive | January 2

New figures show 2025 was a record-breaking sales year at Playford Alive in Adelaide's north, with hundreds of blocks of land snapped up by homebuyers looking for affordable family living.

Around 360 land contracts were exchanged at the development precinct in 2025, about 8 per cent more than 2024’s record, made possible by a massive eastern expansion earlier this year.

Another 200 residential allotments will be made available over summer 25/26, the biggest number ever released in such a short period by Renewal SA, spread across three separate sales releases.

The first 75 went on sale in December, offering sizes of up to 662sq m and prices starting from $222,500.  Another 60 are anticipated to be released this month, with the third release to follow in February. For more information click here .

Warning on quad bike safety after deaths rise | January 1

SafeWork SA is warning people thinking about riding quad bikes and side-by-side vehicles over the summer holidays about the dangers following a spike in deaths over the past two years.

Since 2011, 234 Australians have died in incidents involving quad bikes and side-by-side vehicles, with men accounting for more than 80 per cent of fatalities, figures from Safe Work Australia show.

In South Australia, there have been a total of seven deaths in 2024 and 2025, the first in the state since 2021. Most of the deaths in the past two years were farmers.

Quad bikes are one of the leading causes of injury and death on Australian farms with deaths occurring equally during work and recreational activities.