Elders hit out on Hill 60

HILL 60 is once again a source of contention within the community.

Local aboriginal elder Reuben Brown has accused the Federal Government and Wollongong City Council of stalling tactics.

With new information rising the defence site, which had been offered to council for $1, is contaminated and argument over who should clean the site up if in fact the contamination exists Mr Brown said both parties, the Federal Government and Wollongong Council, are playing games and would like to see a resolution as soon as possible.

He said his biggest concern is that the Federal Government is using the contamination issue to deter Council from purchasing the site so they can place it back on the market and sell it without the community backlash that occurred the first time the Defence Department called for tenders for the site.

I worry Council will say we are not going to clean it up, you may as well have it back, he said.

I call on both parties to amicably work it out themselves and even share the cost. Mr Brown, his wife Gwen Brown and Mrs Esther Ford are the recognised elders of the Wollongonlow clan, the traditional owners of the land in the Illawarra area.

Mr Brown has sent a letter to both Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells and Wollongong Council CEO Rod Oxley offering to assist in a plan of future management of the land. In the letter Mr Brown states My people and I wish to ensure that the land remains properly cared for and is not sold to developers at a future time by the local council when the generosity of the commonwealth in providing the land may have been forgotten.

He has commissioned a report by archaeologist Dr Richard Fullagher to establish the significance of Hill 60 to the aboriginal people. Senator Fierravanti-Wells has called on Council to accept the Federal Governments offer of a concessional sale on an as is, where is basis.

The sites value has been assessed at up to $1.7 million at its current residential zoning and about $850 000 as public open space. The Council have been offered the site for $1, this pricing takes into account the as is, where is basis of the offer, she said.

She said an independent expert study of the site conducted in January 2006 found that given the past use of the site, the risk of significant contamination was considered to be low. She said the report has been provided to Council.