The Burnside saga

Adelaide businessman Rick Powers is accused of being the unelected influence behind the strife-torn Burnside City Council. With a ministerial inquiry underway, Melissa Mack and Farrin Foster investigate the man and his methods. Leafy eastern suburbs are the home of Adelaide’s rich and would-be famous. From the Adelaide foothills to the plains below, the Burnside Council administers one of the state’s highest income areas, with high ratepayer expectations. Now those expectations are shattered, along with reputations. Internal disputes have wracked the council to such an extent that the State Government may be forced to intervene – and if necessary, replace a democratically elected mayor and councillors with a government-appointed administrator.

In the midst of all this, a high-profile but only semi-public battle is waging over the role and influence of one seemingly ordinary ratepayer, Adelaide businessman Rick Powers. Powers first came to public notice last century, when he was named in a National Crime Authority investigation into Operation Hydra and the sex industry and vice trade in Adelaide. “There was an unfortunate incident that did occur 30 years ago,” Powers told The Independent Weekly. “I’m not going to talk about anything to do with 30 years ago.”

In 1983, Powers was convicted on a charge of keeping a “common bawdy house”. This followed a raid on a premises known as Caesars, described by Powers himself as a high-class swingers club, in Pulteney Street in the city. “I did own a building,” Powers said this week when asked about the episode. “Maybe I knew things were going on but it seemed like a good investment to me. I’m just not interested in talking about it. It comes back to bite you on the arse 30 years later.”