On 15 August 2018, the Cooks River Valley Association (CRVA) lodged a petition with Inner West Council that called for the establishment of a Pemulwuy Cooks River Trail.1
A letter, dated 2 November 2018, was issued by Council in response to CRVA’s petition. The letter noted that Council had engaged Tocomwall Aboriginal Consultancy “to undertake a critical investigation into the Gadigal and Wangal landscape” and that the “aim of this investigation is to build a wider and clearer understanding of the former landscape including the flora, the fauna, Aboriginal history, culture and heritage of the Inner West Local Government Area.”2
The letter stated that a decision to proceed with the proposal would be conditional on the following factors:
- The report by Tocomwall Aboriginal Consultancy that has been delayed until the end of November 2018. When “received and reviewed, the Council will use the report’s content to guide its future work”, and
- The establishment of a new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Working Group.
The letter states that the “proposal put forward by the Association will be given full consideration as part of this overarching process” and that “Council will be in a better position to provide a fuller response on the proposal for a Pemulwuy Cooks River Trail once the Working Group is established, in early to mid 2019.”
So it appears that Council will await a formal response from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Working Group to the proposal for a Pemulwuy Cooks River Trail before ultimately deciding on the matter sometime in 2019.
It would be appropriate for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Working Group to receive a presentation from CRVA on the proposal prior to the matter being formally considered by the Working Group’s members.
Note: A “fuller response” promised by Inner West Council by early to mid 2019 to CRVA’s proposal for a Pemulwuy Cooks River Trail to be established, has never been provided.
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1. More details about CRVA’s petition and its covering letter can be found here.
2. Council’s response to CRVA’s proposal for a Pemulwuy Cooks River Trail can be read here.
Permulwuy was the first plaque to be installed on the “Honour Roll For Peace” at the front gates of Addison Road Community Centre in Marrickville. The memorial plaques for individuals and organisations alive or dead, local, national or international, shows peace activists and war resistors nominated by members of the community. The business card size stainless steel plaques are mounted on brass plates fixed to the two stone pillar gates at the entrance to the Community Centre. Anyone can nominate recipients for the honour of inclusion. The cost is $50 for ten words and name and $70 for twenty words and name. The most recent additions on Armistice Day last November 11th 2018 included the late Liz Jackson (ABC journalist), Dennis Walker (poet and Black Resistance leader), John Mandelson (East Timor activist), Gavin Stuart Murray (Melbourne peace activist),E.M.Moore (former WILPF founder), John Dengate (poet, story teller parody expert and Republican), and among those still living John Hallam (Sydney anti-Nuclear weapons campaigner),and many others. Please contact Mena Bui Jones the Museum Director at ARCCO if you wish to add someone or organization on (02)9569-7633 or . This message is posted by Jefferson Lee Order of Timor-Leste (2015).