When John Bannon formed his first government in November 1982, he inherited heritage legislation he may not have wanted because of his plan to encourage major building projects for growth in a crane-led recovery from economic recession. Moreover, he would soon learn that debates about historic buildings would not end with the enactment of heritage legislation. Debates about incentives for heritage listing, including compensation for building owners whose properties were heritage listed, were ongoing. Debates also continued about the boundaries of heritage: whether the SA Heritage Act (1978) was intended to protect only iconic buildings of significant architectural merit or whether buildings should also be protected because of their historic or cultural significance, whether historic conservation zones and local heritage registers should be added as a second tier of protection and whether local heritage listing should be voluntary. The debates extended further in the decade as suburban councils gained planning controls through conservation zones and adopted local heritage registers.

These debates began to trouble the SA Heritage Committee, in recommending entries on the Register of State Heritage Items, and the Adelaide City Council as it considered nominations for listing on its register and later during its townscape campaign. While parliament and ACC were committed to protecting the built heritage by 1986, the boundaries of heritage listing remained contested and they divided ACC into pro-heritage and pro-development factions for the remainder of the millennium and beyond.