Quarantine Station Inquiry
Speakers slam privatisation proposal

Speakers at a public inquiry have condemned the NSW Government's 
proposed long-term lease of Sydney's historic North Head Quarantine 
Station.

Under the scheme, Mawlands Hotel Management would run the 31 Ha site as a 
hotel and restaurant complex rent-free for two years. They would then pay 
$350,000 per annum for three years (i.e. $88 per week per acre of 
magnificent prime harbourside land), and for the next 40 years at the same 
rental indexed to the consumer price index.

The Station is currently administered by the NSW National Parks and 
Wildlife Service (NPWS). Until recently NPWS staff did an excellent job of 
tour guidance and administration, but for the last year or so there has 
been a drastic shortfall in resources for the Station. 

The resultant deterioration and loss of site revenues has been used by 
Mawlands to argue that they would do a better job of looking after the 
place.

However, 18 months ago an NPWS manager prepared a business plan which 
demonstrated that by expanding the NPWS' role the site would yield a 
handsome profit, without introducing the drastic changes proposed by 
Mawlands, and without increasing the current modest admission charge. The 
plan was ignored by NPWS management.

Mawlands claims that it intends to make the site more accessible to the 
public.

The reality, however, is that the residential areas of the site would be 
largely off-limits to the public, who would be transferred by shuttle bus 
from the road entry, and by ferry from the Manly pier to the wharf area. 
The public's understanding of the history and significance of the site as a 
whole would therefore be effectively reduced, not enhanced. 

The proposal would also result in traffic congestion in the approach roads, 
and in gross overcrowding in the wharf area, made worse by construction of 
restaurant facilities within the former wharf boiler house and adjacent 
area. 

This would be great for business, but very bad for interpreting the 
Station's history. The historically sombre mood of the wharf area would be 
entirely lost. As a measure of the insensitivity of the proposal, the first 
place the new Quarantine Station inmates entered, the former medical 
examination room, would be converted to a public toilet.

Wear and tear on natural areas and the buildings (most of which are timber 
framed) would be intense. Mawlands refused to offer an upper limit figure 
for safe usage of the site, leaving the impression that the only limit 
would be whatever the market would bear. 

Most of the surviving residential buildings were constructed in the late 
19th century as segregated accommodation with shared bathrooms, as in ship 
berth accommodation of the day. However, in order to meet the demands of 
Mawlands' well-heeled hotel patrons, they propose installing ensuite 
bathrooms, and in the process drastically modifying most of the rooms. 

The proposal also involves constructing some new buildings, completely 
contradicting previous recommendations of conservation and interpretation 
experts.

The scheme has serious implications for the extraordinarily rich flora and 
fauna of the Station. Many speakers at the hearing stated that the great 
natural beauty of the area would be degraded, and that the Station's 
colonies of little penguins and long-nosed bandicoots would be seriously 
jeopardised by the proposal.

The NPWS has described itself as a "co-proponent" of the proposal, even 
though they're responsible to the government and the public, not the 
company.

Many have questioned how NPWS could let a contract to lease the site if 
they were a proponent of the lease. Others have asked how NPWS could act as 
future guardian of the site, to ensure that Mawlands managed it 
conscientiously, if NPWS was effectively a partner in its development.

For Aboriginal people North Head is of great significance as a place of 
healing and sacred sites. Before the arrival of Europeans many of them 
would come there from as far away as Cummeragunja on the Victorian border. 
The President of the Aboriginal History Association told the Inquiry that 
Aboriginal people wanted the North Head land to be shared by all people, 
and not to be alienated for private profit.

For many former inmates, the Quarantine Station is of great personal 
significance. Their arrival there was charged with tremendously mixed 
emotions of apprehension and relief, regrets and expectations, bitterness 
and hope. They retain vivid memories of their stay at the Quarantine 
Station as their first experience of Australia and as a turning point in 
their lives. 

Speaking for the National Trust, NSW Supreme Court Justice Barry O'Keefe 
argued strongly against the lease proposal. He reminded the Commission that 
the NorthHead complex is the oldest surviving quarantine station in the 
world, and that although not nearly as well known as Uluru or the Sydney 
Opera House it is nevertheless of equivalent significance.

He commented that the treatment of historic places such as the Station 
should not be based on profit, nor should they be regarded as a "cash cow" 
for government or the private sector.

Andrew Partos, a former inmate of a German concentration camp, arrived in 
Sydney as a stateless refugee in 1953. He told the Inquiry that the idea of 
inserting ensuite accommodation into the simple accommodation buildings of 
the Quarantine Station was no more acceptable to him than doing the same 
within the surviving barracks buildings of Austwitz, or building a hotel 
over the Australian War Memorial at Gallipoli.

If the NPWS or Mawlands thought they would have a relatively easy time at 
the Inquiry hearing they were sadly mistaken. The "Guardian" goes to press 
on the seventh day of the hearing, and so far not a single speaker, other 
than the representatives of the NPWS, the company and their professional 
advisers, has come out in favour of the leasing proposal.

Critics have included the NSW Department of Planning, the NSW Heritage 
Council, the National Trust, Friends of Quarantine Station, the North Head 
Alliance, the Sydney Harbour Forshores Authority, Manly Council and many 
concerned organisations and individuals.

It is still possible that the Commission could decide in favour of the 
proposal, or that the government could simply ignore a Commission judgement 
against it. However, given the strength and breadth of opposition to it 
these outcomes are looking less likely.

The faces of the Mawlands representatives at the hearing are becoming 
sullen and sour, while the NPWS representatives look as if they're in the 
grip of a very bad dream. Watch this space!