Elon Musk wants to build a Tesla factory that will create 100 jobs in Australia – and NIMBYs are furious

By MATT JONES FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

Published: 04:26 BST, 28 May 2025 | Updated: 04:41 BST, 28 May 2025

The world’s richest person Elon Musk is trying to build a Tesla factory in Adelaide despite local opposition. 

The City of Marion Council recommended it sell a 2,600 square-metre plot of contaminated land to Musk’s company before a council meeting on Tuesday night.

But council obtained almost 1,000 submissions from the public and more than 90 per cent of responses opposed Musk’s planned battery factory.

More than half of the submissions were from people living outside the council area, which showed how passionate some South Australians were about rejecting Musk.

The sale of Chestnut Court Reserve, in southern Adelaide, would’ve generated about $56million in economic output and created about 100 jobs, according to the council.

There were concerns from locals about environmental damage, loss of green space, and Tesla’s reputation.

Adelaide residents said the plan was ‘a noisy, ugly, planet-destroying temple to billionaires’.

Musk’s popularity in Australia has waned since he teamed up with Donald Trump ahead of his election win last year.

Elon Musk has been told that a new Telsa factory was not welcome in southern Adelaide 

Chestnut Court Reserve, in southern Adelaide, is contaminated with trichloroethylene

City of Marion mayor Kris Hanna said: ‘There’s certainly a core group that has very strong anti-fascist sentiment and they are directing that to Elon Musk and anything related to him.’

Vandals have targeted Tesla vehicles in many counties while many ex-fans started selling their cars.

‘Tesla is a horrible business for the City of Marion to even consider providing this land to,’ one Marion resident said on social media.

Members of a website ‘Trees Not Teslas’ said the proposed factory would be ‘bringing protests to the area’ and give the region a bad image.

Mayor Hanna said before council was contemplating to sell off the land, that the billionaire would simply find another location to build if Adelaide residents didn’t want his business.

‘If the decision is not to allow the factory to proceed, it won’t harm Elon Musk’s interests because Tesla will just set up somewhere else in Australia that’s more welcoming,’ he said.

Mayor Hanna also said that the ‘green space’ could not be used by the public anyway.

Telsa’s popularity in Australia is waning and some blame its owner Elon Musk

Elon Musk has had a lot of negative feedback after he teamed up with Donald Trump

‘The soil (at the Chestnut Court Reserve) is contaminated with the chemical trichloroethylene. It is safe if sealed over, such as at a factory and carpark, but not for recreation or gardening,’ he said.

State premier Peter Malinauskas told the Adelaide Advertiser that he ‘violently disagrees’ with Musk’s politics but said if he wanted to put cash into his state, he was ‘fine with that’.

City of Marion as well as councillor Sarah Luscombe were contacted for comment.

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Elon Musk wants to build a Tesla factory that will create 100 jobs in Australia – and NIMBYs are furious

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