Opinion: Corporate profiteering is set to ruin the oldest Indigenous urban settlement in the country | emfarrelly
The most interesting thing about The Block is that it exists – or at least, existed. And no, by the Block I don’t mean the mindless renovation show where couples race to exploit the property market. I mean the oldest Indigenous urban settlement in the country, The Block, Redfern.
But Redfern’s fame derives not from gentrification but from its intense identification with black culture. Technically the Block isn’t actually Redfern but Darlington, part of a 95-acre land grant to William Chippendale in 1819. Nevertheless, Paul Keating’s famous 1992 apology – “the problem starts with us non-Indigenous Australians” – is known simply as the Redfern speech. Redfern and Aboriginality are one, so Redfern it is.
Within months, planning minister Frank Sartor had declared the Block "state significant", taking jurisdiction from the council to the Redfern Waterloo Authority. This overrode all heritage protections and rezoned most adjacent land for skyscrapers, while allowing the Block only low-rise commercial development and a much-reduced number of houses – first 19, then 42.
At the heart of this question sits AHC chief executive Mick Mundine – "Uncle Micky" - who has helmed the AHC for 45 of its 47 years. Some consider Mundine a visionary. Others, like Jenny Munro, who led a two-year tent-embassy on the Block before the Supreme Court
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