This study, which originated as a PhD thesis, examines heritage issues and conflict in Adelaide from enactment of the first South Australian Heritage Act in 1978 to it successor in 1993, and also extends certain issues from that period into the twenty-first century. State legislation introduced by the Labor government of Premier Mike Rann (2002 – present) has affected the built environment significantly since I drafted this book. The Rann government has given the built heritage a low priority in it strategic plan compared to population growth, while Adelaide City Council (ACC has become more balanced in the past decade, although the council too has focussed on increasing Adelaide's population. The result has been more high-rise buildings a the expense of heritage conservation and historic precincts.

The building boom of the 1980s and early 1990s was characterised mainly by speculation in office development, as described in this book. From the late 1990s residential development, particularly high-rise apartments and hotels, has been another major growth sector of the building industry in Adelaide, largely the result of government policies, while office development has continued. Both the state and city governments planned for residential growth aimed at halting urban sprawl, with its demands on infrastructure development, by creating higher density living in the metropolitan areas. The 2004 state Government Strategic Plan, introduced before the impacts of the global financial crisis were felt, projected an unrealistic state population growth to 2 million by 2010.