Newsletter of the Community Consultative Committe for the Pyrton Site
THE PYRTON SITE
Eden Hill | Contact Details
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A PRISON ON THE SWAN?
The Ministry of Justice is prepared to take a punt on proposing to locate a prison on a registered site of significance to Nyungah people, a proposal that has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Nyungah Circle of Elders and other surrounding communities. The Justice Ministry's own research reflects the rejection of the proposal but they are determined to continue with their efforts to locate a minimum security prison for women using existing buildings on the Pyrton site. Community representatives say that the Ministry has been highly manipulative in their dealings with the public, tying the community up in debates about property prices, and the height of fences whilst ignoring the real issues that concern the community. The community is united in its concerns about the effect a prison would have on Aboriginal relationship to the land and the general sense of community and harmony that has been built up over many decades. The Ministry is engaging in a community consultation process which up until now has been seen by the community as a sham, with the Ministry blatantly trying to get the result that it wants. It appears as though the MinistryÕs aim has been to let the members of the community feel as though they have been seriously consulted about whether they are happy about a prison being located at Pyrton when in fact all they are being asked about is the height of the fences. Every community should have a say in the way it defines itself . A genuine unbiased consultative process would not have resulted in such an inappropriate proposal to incarcerate women, especially Aboriginal women, on a registered site of spiritual significance. |
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CONSERVATION VALUE
The Pryton site is located on the edge of the Bennett Brook wetland which was recommended for conservation as ealy as 1976 in the System Six report. Its significance was reaffirmed in the Eastern Corridor Plan. The area was classified as being of regional environmental significance in the Conservation Reserves Study of 1983. In 1987 the Bennett Brook wetland was zoned a Parks and Recreation Reservation and was proposed to be part of a Linear Park linking Whiteman Park to the Swan River. This concept was again strongly supported at an Urban Greenways seminar in 1996. CULTURAL VALUE This Land has strong cultural values and is imbued with Sacredness of the Nyungah People of the Swan River and the Swan Coastal Plains. The protection and reservation and the passing on of the Living Culture is vital. COMMUNITY VISION In contrast to the Ministry of Justice's proposal for a prison on the Pyrton site, an alternative community initiative has been put forward for the betterment of the community as a whole. The Ministry's plan for a prison on the site is essentially "the end of the line", whereas the community's proposal will provide resources for the community thereby helping to address the source of many social problems. The community's vision is that the old Pyrton site should be a Cultural and Environment Centre for the maintenance and enhancement of environmental and cultural values. |
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BASSENDEAN COUNCIL OPPOSED TO PRISON
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The Town of Bassendean was the first to be prosecuted by the Sites Department
in 1987 under the Aboriginal Heritage Act (1972) for constructing paths and revegitating
Success Hill without the proper approvals.
Since that time relations between Council and the Swan Valley Nyungah Community is such that we are trying to formalise consultation proceedures and Council has generally recognised the importance of the area to Aboriginal people. When the Department of Disability Services gave notice in 1995 that it wished to sell the Pyrton site Council passed a resolution that a Concept Plan be drawn up and the Council wished to be heavily involved in the process. In 1996 the Eastern District Planning Coomitte proposed that the site be rezoned residential. Because no mention was made in the report of the significance of the site to Aboriginal people, the Town of Bassendean successfully argued that the amendment be deferred. Despite this, the W.A. Planning Commission included the rezoning of the Pyrton site in the 1997 Omnibus amendment. However it was withdrawn as two main issues needed to be evaluated and resolved.
Just prior to this information becoming public the Ministry of Justice proposed that a pre-release centre for women be put on 7 hectares of the 40 hectare site. This proposal has been bitterly by the community for social impact reasons and by the Town of Bassendean for planning reasons. |
The Town of Bassendean subsequently passed this motion at its Ordinary Council Meeting on
31st July 1998:
Council advises the Ministers for Justice and Planning and key members of Parilament that, based on the results of Council's consultation process, it considers the proposal to establish a prison a totally inappropriate use for the site due to:
We have now been notified by the Minister for Planning that a consultant has been employed to draw up a Land Use Concept for the whole site and are looking forward to participating in the Plan for that process. |
Cr David Fardig, representing the Altone Ward of the Shire of Swan
I lend my strong support in opposition to the proposal to establish a womenÕs prison upon the land previously owned by the Disability Services Commission as part of the Pyrton Complex in Eden Hill. I am aware of the concerns of an overwhelming number of residents of Eden Hill, Bassendean and Lockridge about the Prison proposal and the major impact it would have upon the area. These legitimate concerns focus on the financial and economic consequences of the proposal as well as the issues relating to the status of the area, concerns about the way a prison might be operated in the future and associated lifestyle issues. I am particularly conscious of thc concerns of the Swan Valley Nyungah Community. The Pyrton site was identified a number of years ago as a site of Aboriginal significance. The Community occupies the adjacent land area and live in a traditional way. The Community is concerned with the well being and welfare of Aboriginal people for the betterment of the Aboriginal people and our whole society. In supporting the community's opposition to the prison, Stephen Smith MHR, Federal Member for Perth and Clive Brown MLA, Member for Bassendean, have written to residents in the surrounding areas (17 August): "The Attorney General...accepts the Ministry of Justice has not handled the consultation process well. He wants the consultation process to continue as he believes a number of issues have not been properly addressed." "We are hopeful the Ministry of Justice's resolve to use the Pyrton site may be weaking...if the consultation process continued, it would reinforce and underline our community's strong rejection of the prison proposal." |
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BUILD COMMUNITIES NOT PRISONS
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AND OUR GRASSROOTS NYUNGAH COMMUNITY FROM A WOMEN'S PRISON The Ministry for Justice has got plans to put a Women's prison on top of Sacred Grounds at Eden Hill on Aboriginal Land in the Lockridge and Bassendean area. We are a living community, the Last of the River People of the Swan Valley, Western Australia. We have been here all our lives living on our Homegrounds. We have never left looking after this Land. We have never been away from it. Its our Right to be Protectors of it. It is an insult to our Religious Beliefs by the Ministry for Justice suggesting and planning a Prison on top of our Sacredness. It is wrong to put a Prison there and it is wrong for the women to be imprisoned there. jeopardising our peaceful way of life. It is important the Land be looked after in the proper way. It is the Homegrounds of our Ancestors with Spiritual Dreaming long before the White Development came. It is one of the Ancient Meeting Areas of Aboriginal existence. We've lived here when it was all bush. The Sacredness under the ground belongs to us. It is our Culture and Belief. Sacredness runs right through from Success Hill, the junction where Bennett Brook runs into the Swan River, right along the West Ridge where the Prison is proposed to be, right through Pyrton, Hamersleys paddock, and right along Bennett Brook, Grogans Swamp, and right up to Whiteman Park. All we are asking for is common decency and common sense in ways of respect towards the things we cherish most in life. Dreaming. It is our Right to be protectors of it. It is the Waugal Dreaming Track and it is not going away. It is there for ever. The river itself and the Bennett Brook is full of Water Dreaming. The Embankment is full of Dreaming Stories. It is the Beginning of Life there. Robert Bropho Nyungah Elder and Spokesperson Swan Valley Nyungah Community |
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MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AND SACRED SITES
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No mention is made of the overwhelming rejection of a prison on the Pyrton site by local residents. This is merely referred to as questions identified by the Community Advisory Panel. Even more worrying is the Ministry of Justice's response to the question of the site's significance for Aboriginal people and their referral to an 'Indigenous Land Council' when in fact there is no such entity. The Ministry of Justice has stated: "Our advice from the Aboriginal Affairs Department and Indigenous Land Council is that the Pyrton Land is not a sacred site but may contain 'significant sites'. These are not established or identified." In response to the above, Dr. Patricia Baines, the anthropologist responsible for registering the site, has made a Statutory Declaration (shown in the column to the right) |
In the "Pyrton Centre Newsletter" No.3. August 1998 produced by the Ministry of Justice, on the third page, it states that "the Pyrton Land is not a sacred site but may contain 'significant sites'. These are not established or identified." I, Pat Baines, Doctor of Philosophy, registered the Pyrton Land as a site of spiritual significance, that is, as a sacred site, in the mid nineteen eighties, on behalf of Nyungah people associated with the land and on their intructions the sacred site or spirtual significance, was registered as a whole. The whole area is full of spiritual meaning to Nyungah people. It is documented in historical sources as well as recalled in oral testimonies that Nyungar people lived on the land which was known as "the Hammersley Land". And I make this solemn declaration by virtue of section one hundred and six of the Evidence Act, 1906. Declared at Bassendean this 11th day of August 1998 before me Terence Edwin McMahon, Justice of the Peace |
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WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT AND EFFORT
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The entire Community want and need your support to ensure that their rights are honoured
by our government.
The Community Consultative Committee asks that if any person feels that they could make a contribution in any way to stop this prison and to establish a Culture and Environment Centre, to contact Kay Pearson (Success Hill Action Group), phone a/h 93773710 or John Sutherland (Chairperson, Success Hill Action Group), phone 92791774. You can give voice to your concerns that public opinion rejecting the prison proposal has not been considered in a genuine and unbiased way, by contacting the Minister for Justice, the Hon.P.G. Foss and the Minister for Planning and Heritage, the Hon.G.D. Keirath: |
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Minister for Justice Hon.P.G.Foss phone: (08) 9321 2222 fax: (08) 9322 5149 |
Minister for Planning Hon.G.D. Keirath phone:(08) 9481 2133 fax:(08) 9324 2320 |
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The Hon. P.G. Foss, Q.C., B.A., L.L.B., M.L.C. Attorney General; Minister for Justice; the Arts 12th Floor, Dumas House 2 Havelock Street West Perth 6005 Dear Minister, With respect, I ask you to ensure that genuine and unbiased consideration be given to the public's massive rejection of the prison proposal for the Pyrton site. I would also ask that acknowledgement and due respect be given to the indigenous people's spiritual connection with the land and to the fact that the land in question under your proposal is a registered Aboriginal site. Yours respectfully, The Hon. G.D. Kierath, M.L.A. Minister for Labour Relations; Planning; Heritage 13th Floor, Dumas House 2 Havelock Street West Perth 6005 Dear Minister, With respect, I ask you to ensure that genuine and unbiased consideration be given to the public's massive rejection of the prison proposal for the Pyrton site. I would also ask that acknowledgement and due respect be given to the indigenous people's spiritual connection with the land and to the fact that the land in question under your proposal is a registered Aboriginal site. Yours respectfully, |
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NYUNGAH PLANS FOR ALL YOUNG PEOPLE
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IS THIS BRIBERY?
The Swan Valley Nyungah Community has been made aware that the Ministry of Justice has approached the Nyungah Alchohol and Substance Abuse Service (NASAS), promising NASAS a building on the site for the rehabilitation of glue-sniffing children if NASAS supports the Ministry's prison proposal. Nyungah Elders have responded with concern to this Ministry of Justice tactic: "Our kids are in crisis. A small building to rehabilitate glue-sniffing children is not enough. They need the Culture and they need all the things that the Nyungah Elders have got planned." |
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Newsletter of the Community Consultative Committee for the Pyrton Site
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