Becker v City of Onkaparinga

The appeal concerned the display of messages on signs visible from Commercial Road by the appellants, Mr Becker and Ms Inglis, who jointly owned residential land within the City of Onkaparinga. The appellants had been displaying these messages on blackboards, cardboard, and shade cloth on their property since 2002. The Environment, Resources and Development Court had previously found that the appellants had breached section 32 of the Development Act 1993 by displaying these signs without development approval and had ordered their removal under section 85 of the Act.

The central legal issues before the Full Court of the Supreme Court of South Australia were whether the display of the signs constituted development requiring consent under the Development Act 1993, specifically whether the signs were reasonably incidental to the residential use of the land, whether their display amounted to a change of use of the land, and whether the signs constituted the display of an advertisement.

The Court reasoned that the display of the signs was not reasonably incidental to the residential use of the land. It held that the nature and visibility of the signs, positioned to be seen by road users on a busy thoroughfare, went beyond what would ordinarily be expected for a residential property. Consequently, the Court concluded that the display of the signs constituted a change of use of the land and that the signs themselves were advertisements requiring development approval. The appeal was dismissed.