Quarantine Station sell-out

by Peter Mac

The NSW Carr Government has announced its decision to lease off Sydney's 
spectacular and historic former North Head Quarantine Station at the entry 
to Sydney Harbour. The Government wants to lease most of the site and its 
largely 19th century buildings to the British-based firm of Mawlands 
Hotels.

The lease would be free of charge for the first few years. Over its 21-year 
life the lessees would be charged a "chicken-feed" rent, equivalent to some 
$80 per week for each quarter acre of the site. The 21-year lease would 
include an option for the lessee to renew the lease, if they so desire, for 
a further 15 years.

The potential for interpretation of the area's unique and extraordinary 
history would be severely limited under the current proposal. The lease 
would effectively bar the public from the main accommodation buildings on 
the site, and would restrict access for visitors (other than guests) to the 
small area around the jetty.

The jetty would become a major point of arrival for North Head, and the 
former boiler room in the jetty area would be converted to an up-market 
restaurant. Adaptation of the buildings to improve their "star" 
accommodation rating, would irreversibly compromise their historically 
significant fabric.

The lease would also result in severe congestion within the jetty area, and 
have major impacts on this area's wildlife, which include Sydney's only 
nesting ground for fairy penguins.

Memories of the wonderful tours of the Station, currently carried out by 
the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), would fade over the period 
of the lease, and would effectively disappear altogether if the lease were 
renewed.

To date the maintenance and interpretation of the site has been very 
competently handled by NPWS staff. However, savage funding restrictions in 
recent years have resulted in a reduced service by NPWS, including 
reductions in the surveillance of the site, with the resultant loss by fire 
of two of the Station's most significant buildings.

Eighteen months ago an extensive inquiry was held into the lease proposal. 
During the inquiry hearings two government authorities, the NSW Heritage 
Office and Planning NSW each outlined a powerful case for rejecting the 
lease proposal. However, within a week the opposition expressed by each of 
these organisations had wilted, and they meekly gave the proposal a 
qualified approval.

As a result of this, and despite the fact that every community organisation 
and individual speaker who addressed the Inquiry spoke vehemently against 
the proposal, it was subsequently approved by the inquiry Commissioners.

The decision has been condemned by groups as far apart as the state Liberal 
Party and the Communist Party of Australia, and by individuals as diverse 
as former Whitlam Government Minister Tom Uren, current judge and Chairman 
of the National Trust, Justice Barry O'Keefe, and former Liberal Premier 
Tom Lewis. The decision will almost certainly be subject to a court appeal.

Prior to the recent election the government was forced to backtrack on 
other issues concerning the sale of valuable public lands, including the 
Hunters Hill High School and a large part of the Callan Park site in 
Sydney.

The announcement of the government's decision to lease the Quarantine 
Station was delayed until after the election. A pre-election announcement 
that the government was to proceed with leasing the Quarantine site would 
have done considerable electoral damage to the ALP.

The 1984 transfer of the Quarantine Station from the Commonwealth to the 
State Government was only the first stage of a governmental decision-making 
process that will eventually affect the whole of the North Head area.

The former North Head School of Artillery is also to be transferred to the 
State Government within the next few years. When this happens, almost the 
entire North Head area will be under state government ownership and 
control.

The situation therefore offers an unparalleled opportunity for this 
immensely significant area to be treated as a totality in determining its 
future interpretation, conservation and use.

North Head is of major significance in the history of European occupation 
of Australia, because of its use for quarantine and military purposes. It 
also has enormous historical and spiritual significance for Aboriginal 
people, as a tribal meeting place, pilgrimage site and healing centre.

The community group, the North Head Sanctuary Foundation, is arguing that 
any future use of North Head should take the form of a sanctuary for both 
humans and animals. Such a use would have the potential to reconcile and 
unite its extraordinarily diverse historical themes.

Its use as a sanctuary would involve improving access for the public, 
preserving its serene beauty and its fascinating historical buildings, and 
identifying suitable uses for the developed precincts.

It would, however, also involve severely limiting any future development of 
the site, conserving and interpreting it sympathetically, and retaining it 
under government ownership and control.

And there's the rub. As demonstrated in their treatment of the Quarantine 
Station over the last 19 years, the Carr Government's primary approach to 
North Head (and other "redundant" government-owned sites of great beauty 
and significance), appears to be that it is a great opportunity for some 
prime real estate deals.

The people of Australia deserve a whole lot better than that.