The District Council of Ceduna and the Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement opposed the closure, while it is believed the police did too.

The future of the Department of Primary Industries and Resources of South Australia’s (PIRSA) office in Streaky Bay is also in doubt, after the Fisheries part of it closed this year.

Aboriginal Legal Rights Movement criminal practice manager Bernie Beston said the organisation had been told “nothing official” about the court closure despite asking numerous times.

“The effect will be (clients) will spend longer in custody,” he said.

“…People are in custody for a month more than they should be … It’s working that way now and it’s going to get worse.”

He said the closure would create a lack of service in Ceduna and decrease efficiency.

“No matter how well intentioned things are going to go missing when you ferry files place to place. Anyone that says that’s not going to happen is not being true,” he said.

Courts Administration Authority spokesman Terry Anderson only released a media release he had previously prepared when asked by the West Coast Sentinel.

“The decision has been taken as part of a strategy to meet savings requirements of $3.7 million set by the Department of Treasury and Finance for the CAA,” he said.

“The courts in question will continue to operate but on a circuit-only basis and registry staff will be deployed from regional centres while these courts are sitting.”

In a statement, PIRSA deputy chief executive officer Dr Don Plowman said PIRSA was continuing to review how services might be consolidated, but no decision had been made on the Streaky Bay, Jamestown, Nuriootpa, Kadina or Keith offices.

“The background to this is that for some time now we’ve been looking at how the traditional delivery of information services to primary producers has changed,” he said.

“What we have found across the state is that the calls and visits to our regional offices — either by phone or through the front door of offices — have been declining significantly. This decline has been steady at around 2 per cent per year.”

Dr Plowman also commented only 30 per cent of the inquiries were from farmers.

“The way farmers wish to receive their information and the types of services they’re looking for has changed, so we are looking at the nature of that change,” he said.