Michelle Daw, Yorke Peninsula Country Times
Member for Grey Tom Venning has called for a truce in the dispute between the National Trust of South Australia and members of the suspended Moonta branch committee, who are backed by more than 100 locked-out volunteers and many concerned locals.
“In the background, certainly we’ve been talking to all parties involved to show support in terms of de-escalating the situation,” Mr Venning said yesterday (Tuesday, June 9).
NTSA chief executive Nicolette di Lernia announced on February 23 that the committee had been suspended.
Its bank accounts were frozen and volunteers have been locked out of the attractions they developed and maintained ever since, including the Moonta Mines Museum, tourist railway, Sweet Shop, Miner’s Cottage, and Moonta Family History and Resource Centre.
Apart from a brief Easter reopening of the museum and Sweet Shop, the attractions have remained closed. Suspended committee chair Sharron Ward estimates the closures have cost at least $100,000 in lost revenue.
Mr Venning said he supported a move by Member of the Legislative Council Dr Nicola Centofanti to establish a state parliamentary inquiry into NTSA’s governance, management of heritage assets and treatment of volunteers.
The Legislative Council will vote on the motion on June 17.
“There’s clearly a problem here and so something needs to change,” Mr Venning said.
“I think that (an inquiry) is probably one of the simplest ways and more effective ways to get to the bottom of this.”
Dr Centofanti said yesterday there were mounting concerns about NTSA’s operations.
“Over recent months, serious concerns have been raised by volunteers, former members, branch representatives and community stakeholders regarding the National Trust of South Australia,” she said.
“These concerns are not going away.
“In fact, they continue to grow, and in the absence of the government initiating its own independent inquiry, parliament has a responsibility to ensure these matters are properly examined.”
Both sides in the NTSA/Moonta dispute are preparing for the first hearing of the committee’s civil case against NTSA, to be heard in the Supreme Court on Friday, June 12.
The committee is seeking a judicial review of the trust’s decision to suspend them and take over branch operations and bank accounts.
Venning calls for truce in National Trust dispute
Mr Venning said he was disappointed legal action was being taken. “I’m concerned that the tensions have forced people down the legal avenues,” he said.
“Dealing with lawyers and a volunteer-run organisation is not a sound way to approach this.”
Mr Venning said legal costs would further drain trust funds.
“Not only are we losing that (revenue), it’s a double-edged sword because people are fighting over essentially the money that is in the accounts, and so we are spending more,” he said.
“We are not bringing in revenue, so it’s actually getting twice as bad over a short period of time.
“That’s why we need to reinstate the branch as quickly as possible and put this matter behind us.”
Mr Venning said communities such as Moonta relied on volunteers and the NTSA should be “bending over backwards” to support them.
“There’s been mistakes made on both sides, but at the end of the day, it’s a volunteer-run organisation and we need to be supporting them,” he said.
Mr Venning also criticised comments attributed to NTSA chief executive Nicolette di Lernia in the Australian Financial Review on June 6.
Ms di Lernia was quoted describing the suspended Moonta committee as “misguided”, “old” and “rejecting new ideas”, among others.
“Those remarks were unfair and are uncalled for,” Mr Venning said.
YPCT contacted Ms Di Lernia and NTSA about the veracity of the comments but had not received a response at the time of going to press.
This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 10 June 2026.
Related stories: Fragile buildings, precious items locked away, Moonta Mines shutdown sparks local outcry – Dis-trust, Heritage hijacked – Moonta National Trust volunteers “locked out”
