Pemulwuy - towards Excavation

Now that the DA is been lodged “people are realizing it’s going to happen” said Mr Mundine. We are now working on the next stage of making sure that the company has the structures in place so that we can become a registered Community Housing Provider and employ the staff that will be needed. We will be employing security and maintenance staff as well as running the student housing.

The AHC has decided against the earlier option of having some of the housing in the Pemulwuy Project available for sale. Mick Mundine said it had not been possible to find a way to sell any of the housing units or town houses without it affecting the AHC’s freehold ownership of the land.  To sell off any of The Block isn’t an option. “It’s a modern sacred site and it has to stay. We are the first people of the land and we aren’t going anywhere….. It’s time to work together with all the community. We want people to get off the train and see what’s happening on The Block and our urban community.’

One thing that has saddened Lani Tuitavake, the AHC’s administrator is that often when media and other visitors come to the office to discuss the Pemulwuy Project they don’t ask about what housing is going to be built, but instead exclaim how you can knock down the flag that is painted on the side of the gym at the bottom of The Block. Alex, Lani’s husband, painted the flag with the help of some of the local children around 10 years ago when he promised Mick that he would give him “the biggest flag you can see on The Block”.  So a reproduction of the flag wall will be etched into a glass wall fronting the plaza, where people will be able to gather to watch special performance events.

The AHC hopes that the gallery along the railway line will become a magnet for tourists who come to Australia wanting to explore indigenous culture and that people will then walk across the plaza to the Tribal Warrior offices to book an Aboriginal harbour cruise on their new vessel Mari Nawi (meaning Big Canoe).

You can view other images of the Pemulwuy Project and the exhibition documents on the Department of Planning’s website at

http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=4338

Source: South Sydney Herald February 2012 www.southsydneyherald.com.au