The fate of the residents of Cabbage Tree Island is still unclear, as stakeholders continue with more meetings and court appearances in the hopes of finding a resolution.
The Department of Planning and Environment (DPE) have clarified that the land title to Cabbage Tree Island is held by Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council, and that the post-flood assessment reports were commissioned by Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) and Aboriginal Affairs NSW.
Jali LALC says that members voted on August 28 to demolish the homes on Cabbage Tree Island.
An affidavit submitted to the NSW Land and Environment Court by resident Susan Anderson says that she is one of the senior elders and custodian over the land at Cabbage Tree Island.
She states that it was her grandfather who survived a massacre at Evans Head, and that he and his brother-in-law were granted the land Cabbage Tree island in the 1880s.
She says that in 1983 following the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act, Cabbage Tree Island came into the possession of the newly set up Jali Local Aboriginal Land Council.
‘The land council was supposed to assist the community get decent houses and infrastructure’, she says.
‘The residents, my people, have been treated so appallingly following the mass evacuation at the time of the flood in February 22. They were shuffled all over the place throughout the area, as far as the Gold Coast.
The affidavit says the land council would not consult with them about what was happening, and she says they were bullied, threatened and shouted down.
’In my many years I’ve seen lots of injustice to our people, but this situation is something hard to describe. We are being made refugees in our own land. We are being forced to reside in a temporary pod village while perfectly good houses stand empty.’
Anderson says that the final burden placed upon them was at the meeting on August 28, in which the demolition and no return for residents was pushed through, ‘without any regard to meeting protocol or fairness’.
Aunty Susan’s nephew, Troy Anderson, has been a member of the Jali LALC board for over ten years.
He also submitted an affidavit in which he says that during the motion for demolition, it was obvious that there was no agreement from the membership, who were expressing quite a lot of anxiety and serious sentiments.
‘At this point, the facilitators had no choice, but to close the meeting which they did’.
The matter is yet to be heard in Land and Environment Court. In the meantime, Jali has called an extraordinary meeting for members. The agenda is to either rescind the current motion to demolish the housing on Cabbage Tree Island or to put a new motion to rebuild residential houses on Cabbage Tree Island. They are also seeking to pass a motion to lobby the NSW government to fund the rebuilding of housing on Cabbage Tree Island.
The Echo is yet to receive a response from Jali Land Council with our requests for comments.
The meeting will be held in the auditorium at Ballina RSL on Monday, October 23 at 5.30pm.
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