Page 378 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 February 2020
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Canberra because we are, comparatively speaking, a young community. Fairly recently we celebrated 100 years of Canberra, so when our limited heritage is destroyed it can have a really concerning, negative effect.
The instance that I want to talk most about is that in 2017 two scar trees were cut down in Wanniassa. Both of these trees were heritage listed. It is not at all clear exactly what happened. One of them that was cut down was on primary school land; the other was close by. The one that was cut down outside was reported to the heritage unit by a member of the public. The one that was cut down on the primary school site, I understand, was self-reported. It is totally unclear why this happened, but what is clear is that the Indigenous custodians of this land, who we acknowledge every morning, felt that they were not told about it. Wally Bell said:
Every part of the landscape has a different story to tell and by removing those things from the landscape, we’re taking away those cultural stories …
That is what Mr Bell was quoted in the Canberra Times as saying. He went on to say:
There’s a lot of that total disregard.
That is certainly very true for the Indigenous community. One of the things that made this particular instance worse was the lack of communication with the community about what happened.
I also point out that this is an issue for newcomers to Canberra, such as the people in this chamber. We are living here now, and I think most of us are really concerned about the heritage of the place in which we live; so this is really important. There are also instances of total disregard for and destruction of European heritage. I am aware of some things that have happened in the inner south which have been basically described as such. I am very pleased that there will be more enforcement options available for when heritage is destroyed.
As an aside, what is probably more of a danger to heritage in the ACT is not so much total destruction, as happened with the scar trees—I should note that one of the trunks has been preserved, but I am not sure what has happened to it—but it is more likely to be death by a thousand cuts, with heritage items just not being maintained. In that vein, I am pleased to see that the ACT government is trying to take steps to ensure that the Sydney and Melbourne buildings get back to something closer to their former glory. I can remember the days when they were new and contained the only shops in Civic. It will be good to see them going back to that state.
As Ms Cheyne talked about at length, the current law has great limitations to it. There is no power at present to ensure that whatever damage is done is repaired. I guess the people who wrote the law in the first place did not think that people would do damage. Unfortunately, we are not so optimistic anymore, and the legislation will now enable orders to be made to fix the problem, which is a great step forward. It is unfortunate that it is needed but it is a great step forward.
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