The Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC) has submitted an application with the federal government for permanent legal protection of Brisbane's Victoria Park/Barrambin. Together with community-led advocacy group Save Victoria Park (SVP), YMAC has announced that the legal proceedings are part of their "resolve to safeguard the park - one of the city's most important First Nations sites - against major Olympic stadium development."
The application has been made under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act, which, according to SVP and YMAC's joint communique, allows the Commonwealth to declare long-term protection of a significant Aboriginal area under threat of injury or desecration.
According to the media release, "Victoria Park/Barrambin holds thousands of years of stories in its hills and gullies. It is a place where Aboriginal communities lived and thrived, where visitors gathered from all directions to mark seasonal festivals, marriages, funerals, Bora and trade. This continued in diverse ways long after European arrival."
YMAC spokesperson and Yagarabul elder Gaja Kerry Charlton noted, "For we Goori people, Barrambin is living Country, possessing sacred, ancient and significant relationships within our cultural heritage systems."
"We know this is a place of great significance and history, not only for Yagara people, but for other First Nations and non-Aboriginal people as well," she added.
Despite pre-election assurances that Victoria Park would be spared from development of a new stadium ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced in March that the public parkland would be transformed into "a thriving central games precinct."
Together with a 25,000-seat National Aquatic Centre and associated Olympic infrastructure, the site is slated for a 63,000-seat oval stadium. Expressions of interest from principal contractors for the master planning of the games precinct have only recently closed.
The joint media release from SVP and YMAC notes that "up until recently, the 60-hectare park had been the subject of a detailed Brisbane City Council Master Plan. As part of this, local elders participated in a four-year consultation process which honoured the rich Aboriginal heritage of the site."
SVP and YMAC have expressed their opposition to the Premier's vision for the precinct, which they say has "sidelined widespread community aspirations for the parkland and excluded elders integral to the development of the masterplan."
Charlton commented, "It was a complete shock when the Premier came out with his stadium plans. He said the park would be protected from stadiums; I thought the park was safe. Now the government wants to destroy it."
"We are very concerned there are ancient trees, artefacts and very important eco-systems existing there. There may be ancestral remains," Charlton added. "We stand resolute in our responsibility to protect it."
The decision lies with the federal government and there hasn't yet been an official response.
