Update: Westbury Prison Site on Fire-Farmed Plains

Recently TT columnist John Hawkins wrote about Aboriginal resistance fighter William Lyttleton Quamby: you can read Part 1 and Part 2 for the full story.

In them he noted (our emphasis): “This first mention of the boy Quamby is significant for a number of reasons, not least because it provides the Tasmanian Aboriginal community with a reason to protect what later became known as Quamby’s Brook which still divides the two former Aboriginal fire-farmed plains where it adjoins the suggested site of a new prison in northern Tasmania.”

During the writing, the letter below was received from Hank Horton which has considerable relevance regarding the issue:

Thanks again John.

Your work and research is wonderful, and I know many of the Aboriginal community have a range of issues with the Prison development, going ahead on such sacred fire farmed Aboriginal Cultural landscape. 

As having a prison in the north also has many of the Aboriginal community in support, as they have family friends in prison, and the travel to the south can be an issue and mean that family are limited by access to these members in prison. 

Westbury: is an option the Gov are looking at, how-ever being on the “Cultural Landscape” and an area where the fire stick farming (Aboriginal way) practice is still evident in the environment, also has many of the community, saying it should be moved!? 

George Town: is NOT an option, as this would impact greatly on the Coastal Aboriginal landscape, as we know that these values are prominent in and around that area, these impacts would also be damaging to “Aboriginal Cultural Heritage” in the area. 

Birrallee Road: The Aboriginal community would agree to seeing the location go further out along Birrallee Road, where forest and logging activities have already damaged the landscape, and would also mean this development could be still up north, but in a place that is NOT important to the Aboriginal community, but allowing the new prison to be built in the north. 

Yours Truly;

Hank Horton

Tasmanian Times forwarded this letter and links to the Hawkins’ article to the Premier Peter Gutwein and Corrections Minister Elise Archer for comment. The following response was received, attributable to ‘a Department of Justice spokesperson’:

No final decision has been made about the location of the Northern Regional Prison.  The site at Birralee Road has been identified as the preferred site only and we are working through a consultation process to determine if the preferred site is the best site for this important development.

The Department has been liaising with Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania regarding the preferred site at Birralee Road and will continue to do so.  Furthermore should the new prison be built on the preferred site, it will need to go through all of the standard planning approvals and requirements including aboriginal heritage considerations.

We then asked Linda Poulton, President of Westbury Region Against the Prison group (WRAP) to provide a comment. She said:

I understand that Mr Hank Horton, who is a Pallittorre elder in the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, has expressed concerns to the State Government about the preferred site being used for the prison.  

Mr Horton’s concerns go to the fact that the site is on land which, before European expropriation and since ancient times, had been fire-farmed by Aboriginal people. 

“Hank Horton is an elder of the Pallittorre and a traditional custodian of land in this region. His Aboriginal ancestors engaged in ceremonies and practices on land in this region which includes the site proposed for the prison on Birralee Road. 

Mr Horton has recognised evidence of traditional fire-farming practices on that site.

He has stated that he and others in his community object to the proposed site being used for the prison because of the damage it would do to the Aboriginal cultural values which are still evident in that landscape.”

Given their traditional connection to country in this region of Tasmania, the concerns of the Pallitorre as voiced by Mr Horton should be respected and must surely be given precedence by the State Government in any decision it makes on the location of the prison.”  

THE CONVERSATION: Aboriginal Grassland Savannah in Tasmania.