AU$96M MotoGP Adelaide Street Circuit Confirmed, 400 Trees and Phillip Island Has to Go

The official Adelaide circuit set to host the Australian Grand Prix from 2027 has been unveiled today by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, marking a major milestone on the road to bringing the world's first city-centre MotoGP race to life.

Adelaide is the capital of South Australia, one of the country's six states, sitting on the southern coast roughly midway between Melbourne and Perth. It's a mid-sized city of about 1.4 million people, better known internationally for wine regions like the Barossa Valley nearby than for motorsport, though it hosted Formula 1's Australian Grand Prix from 1985 to 1995 before that race moved to Melbourne.

South Australia has released the design for the street circuit that will host MotoGP's Australian Grand Prix from 2027, confirming a AU$96 million build (roughly US$63 million) and the removal of nearly 400 trees from Adelaide's eastern parklands.

Premier Peter Malinauskas unveiled the layout, which runs 4.13 km through Victoria Park, a parkland precinct just southeast of the city centre (not to be confused with the state of Victoria, where the old venue is located), and reuses sections of the original Adelaide Street Circuit, including the old Brabham main straight from the track's Formula 1 era (1985–1995).

The circuit replaces Phillip Island, a separate circuit near Melbourne, on the other side of the country from Adelaide, as host of the Australian round, ending that venue's run after this year's event in October, its 28th time hosting the race since 1997.

MotoGP's six-year agreement with Adelaide runs through 2032, with the inaugural round set for three days in November 2027. The Tour Down Under cycling race will also move onto the track from January 2028.

Of the trees affected, the government says 42 are classified as significant and will be felled, along with 335 more categorised as regulated, unregulated, invasive, dead, or in poor health. A further 88 will be relocated and 22 remain under review. The government has committed to a 10:1 replacement ratio, meaning roughly 3,770 new trees planted.

The AU$96 million figure settles months of dispute over cost. In May, Bob Barnard, the engineer who designed the original 1985 F1 circuit, estimated a remodel could run past AU$100 million, citing the added complexity of building for riders without the enclosed safety of a car. Malinauskas said at the time no such figure had been put to him.

In late May, South Australian Motor Sport Board CEO Mark Warren called Barnard's estimate "excessive," arguing the project is a remodel of existing road infrastructure rather than a ground-up build, and that no final number had been settled while design work was ongoing.

Local opposition has also grown alongside the design work. Adelaide Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said in mid-August that the parklands would be changed "irrevocably and permanently," and community advocate Doug McEvoy argued that replacing mature trees with saplings understates the impact on the area's ecology and bird breeding cycles.

MotoGP's Chief Sporting Officer, Carlos Ezpeleta, has said the street layout can meet the series' safety requirements through temporary gravel traps and barriers, similar to methods already used for Adelaide's Supercars events. The government points to economic precedent to justify the spend: it cites the Adelaide Grand Final (Supercars), run partly on the same circuit, as delivering more than AU$100 million in economic benefit over four days in 2025, and Phillip Island's 2025 MotoGP round as generating an average AU$217 million in economic impact.

Construction is expected to begin around the end of this year.

Sources:

• ABC News, "Design for MotoGP street circuit in Adelaide released," Aug 2026
• ABC News, "Adelaide track designer estimates MotoGP remodel could cost more than $100m," May 2026
• Speedcafe, "Claims of $100 million Adelaide track build rejected," May 2026
• ABC News, "MotoGP track design's imminent release prompts warning about Adelaide parklands impact," Aug 2026
• MotoGP.com, "MotoGP to roar into the city streets of Adelaide from 2027," Feb 2026