Aunty Lindy Lawler, Uncle Richard Davis, Shellharbour Mayor Chris Homer and Dr Jodi Edwards and the view from the proposed Aboriginal Interpretive Centre. Photo: Shellharbour City Council.
Shellharbour elder Uncle Richard Davis has made an emotional plea for the city to move forward with the establishment of an Aboriginal Interpretive Centre (AIC), which has been 20 years in the making.
Addressing the latest Shellharbour City Council meeting, Uncle Richard welcomed council’s decision to prepare a business case for the proposed AIC, which would consider its viability.
“I’ve been part of council’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee for over 20 years,” he told councillors.
“We first spoke about the Aboriginal Interpretive Centre 20 years ago; we need to move forward and get the business case done and get something happening.
“Twenty years is a long time; I’m 64 and I don’t want to be here in another 10 years’ time talking about it.
“Hopefully I’ll see it before time’s up – a lot of our elders out there want something like this. It’s important that we get something established in our community.”
The proposed centre would be a place for community to connect and share stories about local Aboriginal culture and heritage and also provide a keeping place for Aboriginal artefacts uncovered during the excavation of the Shellharbour Marina.
Councillors unanimously voted for the business case to proceed, and also endorsed the preferred location of the centre within the Business and Technology Park fronting onto Bass Point Tourist Road at Shell Cove.
Council had previously supported the AIC to be located on the corner of Harbour Boulevard and Bass Point Tourist Road.
However, a report to councillors said the site was currently used for harbour fill as part of the Shell Cove development project and would be unavailable as a developable site for at least several years.
The report also stated council would need to consider internal and external resources, including grants, to cover the cost of developing and operating the project.
Shellharbour City Mayor Chris Homer said preparing a business case was an important step in a highly anticipated project, but warned there was still work to do.
“This milestone reflects community’s vision for the Aboriginal Interpretive Centre,” he said.
“However, there are a number of steps to go to get this project shovel-ready. There will be the targeted stakeholder engagement during the development of a business case.
“Securing state and federal government support for funding of the construction of the Aboriginal Interpretive Centre will be critical to the project’s success.”
Uncle Richard said there was no similar centre on the South Coast, and it would be a “feather in council’s cap” if it went ahead.
“It will be something that will bring the community together, to showcase that Aboriginal culture is alive and well in our community,” he said.
“It would bring tourism to the community and employment for our people, not just Indigenous people but people from across the board.
“We don’t have anything along the South Coast that’s an Aboriginal centre – we’ve got community centres and health care centres but nothing with tourism.
“This is a big opportunity to put Shellharbour City Council on the map as a leader in local government in NSW.”
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