Redfern/Waterloo: Land grab plan announced - 8 March 2006
The Plan intends to authorise 440,000m² of development in Redfern, with
five 18-storey towers, and 2,000 new dwellings, with no more than 30 on
the Block. The Block, as it is known, is an Aboriginal housing complex
in Redfern. It was returned to Aboriginal ownership by the Whitlam
Labor Government in the 1970s. The proposal for the Block halves
residential capacity as formerly planned by Aboriginal leaders, and
nearly trebles the commercial yield.
The Plan would rezone the Block from residential to mixed use,
including commercial, cultural, educational, retail as well as some
residential use. This would effectively eliminate the possibility of
Aboriginal families finding affordable housing in Redfern, and would
put unceasing financial pressure on the Block’s owners, the Aboriginal
Housing Company, to sell out. The proposal is a ruthless attempt to
eject the residents of the Block which has been continuously occupied
by Aboriginal people, longer than any other site in Sydney’s history.
The Aboriginal Housing Company was not invited to the launch.
That other plan
The government has overridden the Aboriginal Housing Company’s own
proposal, the Pemulwuy Plan, which envisaged a four-storey
redevelopment of The Block. This would have provided new housing for
low to middle income Aboriginal families, as well as a public space,
commercial area, artist markets, student hostel, sporting facilities
and an Indigenous business college.
The Pemulwuy Plan was developed over six years by a team of architects,
urban planners, Aboriginal community leaders and local business owners,
all chaired by former Federal Minister for Housing, Tom Uren.
The 62 new homes proposed under the Pemulwuy Plan is equal in number to
the local Aboriginal groups wiped out by smallpox after European
settlers arrived in the Sydney area.
However, this did not impress the Minister for Planning and
Waterloo/Redfern, Frank Sartor, who sneered: "Symbolism is laudable,
but it can never be a substitute for sustainable planning".
For the government, "sustainable" means commercial with a vengeance. Of
the eight precincts envisaged under its plan, six are commercial. Only
the former Rachel Forster Hospital site would be rezoned as
residential, but in practice this means that the government would sell
it off to the private sector, which will not be interested in providing
housing for underprivileged people.
Priceless real estate
The Redfern/Waterloo land grab has many historical precedents,
including the attempt to demolish the historic suburbs of the Rocks and
Waterloo, in the 1970s. These initiatives were eventually defeated by
the action of local community groups, with the support of unions and
heritage organisations, as well as left and progressive political
parties.
However, Redfern and its adjacent neighbour Waterloo are of potentially
huge real estate value. This latest land-grab attempt was foreshadowed
after the 2004 Redfern riots. Liberal leader John Brogden immediately
advocated "bringing in the bulldozers". Not long afterwards, the
super-powerful Redfern-Waterloo Authority was created, to be run by
Frank Sartor.
Sartor has used vandalism and the demolition of houses in the Block as
an argument for taking it over, rather than dealing with the area’s
severe social problems of chronic unemployment and poverty, lack of
affordable housing, health care and other essential services.
Other victims
Under the government’s plan, heritage sites within the Redfern/Waterloo
area would lose protection from redevelopment. Even the historic 19th
Century North Eveleigh railway yards could be demolished. The Sydney
Electric Train Society, which has struggled for years there on a shoe
string to preserve Sydney’s oldest electric train carriages, is likely
to have to find other premises. One of the magnificent siding sheds is
already being converted into a contemporary arts centre at the
government’s behest.
The scoundrel’s second-last refuge
Jobs and Opportunity! The government has claimed that redevelopment
will boost employment in the area. After the launch, the Minister
trumpeted: "Only jobs and opportunity can make a lasting difference to
all the residents and allow true self-reliance and self-determination."
The government declares that developers would be required to provide a
certain percentage of the employment on the site for local people — a
promise described by one commentator as "unachievable and
unenforceable".
The coming storm
Relations between the government and the Aboriginal community have been
frozen for a year, because of the government’s arrogance and lack of
concern for the Aboriginal community. The situation was not helped last
year by Sartor’s unforgivable comment that Mick Mundine, the manager of
the Aboriginal Housing Company, should get his "black arse" over to see
him.
The message that the poor have no right to live on potentially valuable
real estate is most evident in the proposals for Redfern, formerly
described by The Guardian as "a place where greed, racism, callousness
and philistinism all intersect in the interest of developer megabucks".
Moreover, the saga of the Block reflects the ruthless historic drive of
conservative Australian governments to dispossess Aboriginal people of
their land.
But this is not 1788. The Aboriginal people of Redfern, and their
supporters among the Australian community, will prove a match for the
land thieves of Macquarie Street.
http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve06/1264redfern.html