Nicolette Di Lernia has resigned as chief executive of the National Trust of South Australia, a little over a year after taking the role. Hours after announcing her departure on Monday, she gave evidence to the state parliament’s Environment, Resources and Development Committee, which is examining the heritage organisation.
Di Lernia, who started as chief executive on 29 September 2025, described her exit as a “very carefully considered decision”. She told the committee that the trust needed a clear direction and that her relationship with its governing council was not allowing that to happen. The two sides had worked closely until she went on leave, she said, but decisions the council made in her absence showed its thinking was moving away from hers. On her return she found that some of those decisions had made her job harder, which she called very disappointing.
The main point of division was the council’s decision to reinstate the volunteer committee of the trust’s Moonta branch, according to the ABC. That committee was suspended in February, with the trust saying it was acting in a way that put the whole organisation at risk. The suspension led to the closure of several sites in the region. Di Lernia told the inquiry that local branches are extensions of the council and have no legal or financial independence. She alleged that some volunteers had ignored workplace safety rules and financial obligations and had carried out work on state heritage-listed buildings without approval.
Speaking under parliamentary privilege, she also made a series of allegations about the treatment of staff. She said employees had faced physical, verbal and written abuse from volunteers, and that three unnamed regional branches had been particularly hostile to central management. Two staff members resigned and lodged WorkCover claims, she said, and a volunteer had phoned and then emailed her with profane insults. The ABC did not independently verify the claims, and the trust declined to comment on them.
The trust said its president, Millie Nicholls, and vice president, Jo Lokan, would now oversee all operational and administrative matters while continuing an organisational review. No timetable for appointing a new chief executive has been announced. The parliamentary committee is expected to publish a report with recommendations by the end of 2026, which will shape how the volunteer-run heritage body is governed after a turbulent period at the top.
