A controversial hotel development at Kangaroo Bay on Hobart’s eastern shore has been revised to include a floor dedicated to the area’s Indigenous past — but an Aboriginal expert on the area says it’s not their story to tell.
Key points:
- Chambroad has released new images and results of a community survey in a last-ditch bid to save the project
- Indigenous groups say they have not been approached for input
- Clarence City Council will decide whether to proceed with a land buy-back on Monday
Developers at Chambroad have been trying to get the five-star hotel off the ground since purchasing the land for $2.44 million in 2017 and have released new architectural concept plans in the run-up to a make or break meeting of the Clarence City Council on Monday.
In the new plans, the hotel’s four floors would each have a theme — Tasmanian Aboriginal, maritime, the bay and beyond, and produce and providence.
Nunami Sculthorpe-Green is a palawa and walpiri woman, who runs walking tours focusing on Indigenous heritage in the Kangaroo Bay area.
“It was a really rich cultural landscape,” she said.
“Pre-invasion, it was one of the richest kangaroo hunting grounds on the whole island and that’s where it gets its name from.”
The owner of Blak Led Tours said the bay was home to many Indigenous people and a camp site for “resistance fighters”.
“The last time this came up at council they said we’ve talked to the University of Melbourne, we’ve talked to all these global consulting firms,” she said.
“But not once did they say we’ve talked to Aboriginal people about it.”
Ms Sculthorpe-Green said she wanted the Chambroad agreement terminated and the land handed back so Aboriginal people could tell the story of the frontier wars in their own way.
“It was a significant hunting ground and a place of violence,” she said.
“The wisest thing to do would be to acknowledge that and give it back to our people to do what we will with it.”
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre’s Nala Mansell said no-one had approached her organisation to discuss the new Indigenous component of the project.
“It’s a classic example of developers using Aboriginal culture and history to make money from their developments,” she said.
“If they were authentic in wanting to share the Aboriginal story, they’d first of all ask the Aboriginal people if it’s a story they’d like to have told in this way.”
Project director Greg Hudson said there was “no point” discussing the plan with Indigenous groups until the council approved it at a meeting on Monday.
“This is absolutely concept,” Mr Hudson told ABC Radio Hobart.
“Whether it’s history or Tasmanian Aboriginal, until such time we can actually engage with them on a meaningful basis there was no point going through this stage because we had nothing to offer them.
“As of Monday, we are hoping to be able to go ahead and start that process and engage specifically with the Tasmanian Aboriginal story at Kangaroo Bay”.
“At the full council meeting, they will decide what we are allowed to do and what we are not allowed to do.”
The project was first flagged in 2017 but struggled from the start.
The original plans included a hospitality school, focusing on hotel management, but partners Tas TAFE and the University of Tasmania both pulled out.
In mid-2019, the council warned Chambroad if it didn’t begin construction within six months, it would invoke a clause that allowed it to buy the land back at the sale price.
In a bid to head that off, the developers agreed to do extensive community consultation work.
Speaking on ABC local radio on Thursday, Mr Hudson said 2,600 Clarence residents shared their thoughts on the project and 51 per cent found the hotel plans “appealing” or “somewhat appealing”.
About 39 per cent found it “unappealing” or “somewhat unappealing”.
He said the survey found businesspeople around the Bellerive Village area tended to want the area “activated”, while over-55s living in close proximity to the site didn’t want it developed at all.
In contrast, a council-run consultation process — which asked people to respond through a council web page — found 66 per cent of the 1,527 respondents did not support the development of a boutique hotel at Kangaroo Bay.
It found 83 per cent wanted the land bought back by council.
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