Tonsley Innovation District celebrates 10 years of success.
Tonsley Innovation District has surged into its second decade of operation, continuing its laser-focused commitment to driving innovation and energising South Australia’s economy.
This industry district is located 12km south of Adelaide and has made dramatic strides since opening in 2012. From its initial remit to re-ignite a stalling manufacturing sector in Adelaide’s southern suburbs following the closure of the Mitsubishi plant in 2008, to now solving some of the world’s most complex problems through creative innovation.
As a hub for cutting-edge research and development, Tonsley has driven Adelaide’s transition from traditional to high-value manufacturing and with it, built out the state’s sovereign capability.
Around 2,000 people across 140 companies are now employed at Tonsley – more than double that when Mitsubishi closed. 8,500 students study alongside this highly skilled and specialised workforce each year at anchor academic institution Flinders University, and TAFE SA. And more than 500 residents call Tonsley home as part of its growing community.
These statistics reflect the substantial increase in scale, productivity, output, and economic impact of Tonsley in its first ten years. What was once a 61-hectare industrial wasteland has become Australia’s most awarded innovation district, and a global leader in the effective co-location of industry, academia, and SMEs around high-value manufacturing.
Leadership
From the outset, Tonsley called for world-class ambition. The Government of South Australia went about creating an environment whereby its unique product offering – namely its scalable facilities, networked community, and ready access to research and technology – set it apart from traditional science and technology parks.
Deconstruction of traditional silos between government, higher education, and industry was identified as critical to fast-track commercial success and transition to a knowledge economy. Supportive policies and institutions within the robust Tonsley ecosystem quickly encouraged the creation and dissemination of knowledge and leading-edge research between established businesses, start-ups, education providers, business incubators and accelerators, and the wider community in a single location.
This was a key catalyst in reviving the state’s manufacturing industry and in turn, future-proofing the state’s economy, because it not only created jobs of the future but generated a diverse and highly skilled workforce that was capable of operating at the highest level.
Collaboration
Tonsley’s tenant suitability matrix, whereby incoming businesses are curated to ensure they enhance the overall impact of the District, has cultivated an unrivalled environment for intentional collaboration. The creation of these strong trust-based networks has provided greater opportunities for knowledge sharing and given rise to collaborative partnerships via “open workshop policies”, where co-located businesses can utilise each other’s state-of-the-art facilities and draw on each other’s expertise.
As an incubator, Tonsley has actively sought to deliver “collision spaces” which encourage tenants to interact, whether that be shared lunch tables within one of the Main Assembly Building’s (MAB) urban forests or exercise activations such as the professional-grade squash court, jettisoned in from the 2006 Commonwealth Games. This deliberate placemaking offers unique opportunities for, and emphasis on, daily cross-sector collaboration at all levels.
Tonsley’s collaborative mindset has created an inclusive culture impervious to hierarchy. Knowledge is not exclusively held at the highest levels. Tonsley’s success comes largely from a willingness to share ideas, knowledge, and know-how. Specialists from companies such as SAGE Automation, Micro-X, and BAE Systems make the time to mentor and promote careers in STEM and can be found weekly in the basement of Tonsley’s Admin Building assisting budding young engineers at RoboRoos – South Australia’s Student Robotics Club.
Co-location has also established a platform for business growth and talent attraction. Having academic campuses on-site provides direct access to a pool of trained, job-ready workers, enabling small businesses to rapidly upscale and push their solutions to the market. Similarly, young jobseekers have a direct pathway to employment, stemming the historic ‘brain drain’ that has crippled the state in the past.
Competitive advantage
Much of Tonsley’s competitive advantage and its positioning as a global leader in innovation comes from the strategic identification of four focus sectors – health, medical devices, and assistive technologies; cleantech and renewable energy; automation, software, and simulation; and mining and energy services.
During its inception, these sectors were seen as strengths for SA and areas of comparative advantage. Tonsley has now reached an age of maturity where the pursuit of these areas has paid off. A wealth of highly skilled, highly trained and highly paid full-time jobs now exist within the District, something that would never have occurred if the site had been repurposed solely for large-scale residential development or big-box retail. Strong levels of commercialisation are being achieved particularly in areas such as cleantech, med-tech, robotics, and defence, leading to a more resilient and prosperous state economy.
Tonsley has garnered a reputation as a District that can legitimately solve the world’s problems, substantiated by its recent induction as an inaugural member of the Global Network of Innovation Districts – a handpicked group of advanced 21st-century innovation precincts seen as exemplars globally.
- SAGE Automation manufactures the control panels used in self-service bag drop at Singapore’s Changi Airport. Its technology controls the electronic lane change sequencing on the Sydney Harbor Bridge, assisting the traffic flow of some 160,000 vehicles per day, and its automation helps make the cult Aussie biscuit, the Tim Tam;
- the power consumption of the MCG is managed by AZZO;
- micro-x’s lightweight x-ray machines are supporting doctors on the front line of the war in Ukraine;
- Zeiss developed the globally recognised UV-Protect – a coating for optical lenses providing sunglass-level protection;
- robots created by Accurate Dosing Systems assist in the formulation of some of the world’s top-selling fragrances and flavours;
- Link Assistive’s eye gaze technology devices allow non-verbal people, or those with severe physical challenges such as MND or Cerebral Palsy to communicate simply by looking at an iPad;
- BAE Systems and Flinders University’s Factory of the Future acts as an advanced manufacturing test bed, using innovation, Industry 4.0 technologies, research, and training to find ways to make Osborne the safest and most productive shipyard in the world;
- X-Frame’s modular wall framing system, commercialised and manufactured at Tonsley, is being used in the custom fit-out of ANZ bank branches across the country;
- Hydrogen Park South Australia kicked off the nation’s hydrogen economy with Australia’s first green hydrogen production facility; and
- Ziptrak’s patented blinds are utilised at Roland Garros, home of the French Open.
Infrastructure + sustainability + amenity
Renewal SA has so far unlocked 48.5 hectares of Tonsley’s 61-hectare footprint, including the award-winning MAB, which has set a new benchmark for sustainable urban regeneration projects nationally.
On the MAB roofline, 13,000 solar panels have been linked up to a District-wide energy scheme, capable of producing up to 80% of Tonsley’s current energy needs.
Throughout the last decade, Tonsley has advanced sustainable transport endeavours by hosting autonomous bus trials. It has welcomed Tesla’s service and maintenance hub, which is responsible for optimising the capabilities of Tesla Powerwalls used in some of the world’s largest battery storage facilities. And it’s demonstrated its continued environmental commitment through the planting of some 42,513 plants and trees sitewide.
At a grassroots level, Tonsley continues to evolve as a true live, work, play precinct. More than 500 residents have already moved into terrace homes and apartments at PEET Limited’s residential development, Tonsley Village. This number is expected to grow to around 1,800 at project completion.
Accessible and walkable, Tonsley bedded down its world-class reputation with the opening of the four-star, 88-room boutique hotel, La Loft, in 2023. And it will soon experience an explosion of retail activity with a $47m lifestyle and hospitality precinct contributing to its realisation as a vibrant, mixed-use district. The Mitsubishi car plant’s old Boiler House will also be repurposed into a microbrewery.
What’s next?
Renewal SA aims to complete its capital works program by early next year, including the milestone project of completing the ring road around the MAB. The last allotments outside of the MAB are earmarked for market sale by 2028, three years shy of Tonsley’s 20th year.
A 10-megawatt battery, managed by CleanPeak Energy, will shortly be installed in the District in a further boost to Tonsley’s environmental credentials. The battery will capture, store and release excess energy created from the large-scale solar array on the MAB roof.
Employment pathways for Year 10 to 12 students will become clearer from 2025 with the addition of a new technical college operating in collaboration with Flinders University. The college, which will have a focus on innovation and support students to complete their SACE while getting a vocational education and training (VET) qualification, is intended to deliver a pipeline of skilled staff to Tonsley businesses and beyond, that are well-equipped to take on jobs of the future.