Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) Thompson Square, Windsor, is Australia's only surviving Georgian public town square;

(b) in 1810 Governor Lachlan Macquarie proclaimed Thompson Square as the first public place named to honour the contributions of an ex-convict, sending a strong message about Australia as a place of the 'fair go';

(c) the NSW Government's Windsor Bridge replacement project will result in a large modern concrete structure destroying the current Square; and

(d) a community action group, Community Action for Windsor Bridge, has staged a 24 hour occupation of Thompson Square since 21 July 2013 in order to fight the NSW Government's plan;

(2) condemns the NSW Government for ignoring the advice of its own Office of Environment and Heritage, the Heritage Council of NSW and the National Trust; and

(3) calls on the Minister for the Environment and Energy to exercise his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and grant emergency heritage listing to the Thompson Square Precinct to protect this unique place of Australia's cultural heritage.

For 1,514 days local volunteers have been sitting 24 hours a day in a square in historic Windsor, an hour north-west of Sydney. They sit in pairs, four hours at a time, at this time of year sheltered from cold weather by a tarp and, through the night, a gas heater and blankets. In summer they take the sides of the tent down to let whatever breeze there is from the Hawkesbury River wash over them. They sit there because this is Australia's only surviving Georgian public town square, and it's under threat from a poorly-thought-through road project that would knock down an equally heritage bridge and put a modern concrete structure through this historic place. That's why the federal Minister for the Environment and Energy needs to show leadership and grant emergency heritage listing to Thompson Square precinct to protect this unique place.

Let me take you through why this place matters, not just to me as the member for Macquarie, not just to my local community, but to all Australians. For a start, this square and its original listed Georgian buildings are still homes and businesses but are older than Port Arthur. The precinct dates to the same time as Sydney's Macquarie Street buildings like Hyde Park Barracks, The Mint and Sydney Hospital, which the New South Wales government is so concerned to protect. In 1810 Governor Lachlan Macquarie proclaimed Thompson Square as the first public place named to honour the contributions of an ex-convict. As we look back on Macquarie and his decisions, we know we're not proud of all of them. Like many governors he was determined to crush Aboriginal resistance, and that history needs to be told. At the same time, he was pivotal in the development of the Hawkesbury, a region which provided food for the early settlement in New South Wales. In January 1810 Macquarie wrote:

I am concerned to be under the painful necessity of stating to you that there is not at present a single ounce of Wheat or any other sort of Grain in His Majesty's Stores here for victualling the Troops and Convicts.

The colony faced starvation. Within months Andrew Thompson was successful in appealing to settlers in the Hawkesbury to sell extra grain they might have been withholding from the government. Without Thompson's efforts, you'd have to wonder how the colony would have survived, and our nation's history might have been very different. What Macquarie did by rejecting the name of a king or a lord for this gathering place was send a strong message about Australia as a place of the fair go, a place where a convict would be given a second chance as a free man, having served his time, his name to be carried into the 21st century.

The state member for Hawkesbury, Dominic Perrottet, agrees with me about the significance of Macquarie's contribution. He recently said, 'Lachlan Macquarie was one of the chief architects of our state and our nation', yet his government, the New South Wales government, seems hell-bent on proceeding with the Windsor Bridge replacement project, which will result in a large, modern concrete structure right through the current historic square. It is shameful that the New South Wales government continues to ignore the advice of its own Office of Environment and Heritage, the Heritage Council of New South Wales and the National Trust. It also ignores the wishes of a community that desperately wants and needs improvements to its road and bridge network but respects the heritage contained in one of the five Macquarie towns.

The federal Minister for the Environment and Energy has the power to protect Australian history and stories here. He can exercise his powers under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and grant emergency heritage listing to Thompson Square, and its precinct, to protect this unique place of Australia's cultural heritage.

Local group Community Action for Windsor Bridge, CAWB, which organises the 24-hour sit-in, has been doing so since 21 July 2013. They're doing it to fight the New South Wales government's plan and they must be commended for running what we believe is the longest heritage protest Australia has ever seen. The four years of effort shouldn't be ignored. In those years the local council changed its views on the square and now calls for it to be spared, only to be ignored by the New South Wales government.

I want to commend the community for its patience and resilience. We all know how appalling traffic problems are, and most of us realise the New South Wales government's plan is not the answer. I find it hard to reconcile that they will spend $100 million and in doing so not fix the traffic and destroy this important piece of history. This federal environment minister should be similarly appalled and act to make sure that Thompson Square is saved.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. As my colleague the member for Macquarie has just outlined, Thompson Square is located in the heart of Windsor, the third-oldest place of British settlement on the Australian continent. It lies 55 kilometres north-west of Sydney and is a little over an hour away from the CBD by car or train. Thompson Square is Australia's first public square. It is the only town square that remains from the original five towns planned and designed by Governor Macquarie. Australia has a long-lived history that long pre-dates European settlement of this country, and capturing and maintaining its history—all elements of its history—is vital to our cultural identity as a nation. You may find it passing strange: what's the member for Lyons in Tasmania doing commenting on this in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales? I have a former history, having lived in Fremantle in Western Australia for many years. That, too, has a long, proud, built architectural history. I know just how important it is to retain what Tim Winton once referred to as a sense of place. Professor George Seddon made similar comments—that a sense of place is so vitally important, because if we don't have that sense of place, that sense of belonging to a past, it's difficult to contemplate where we head to in our future.

There is much built heritage in my own electorate of Lyons, a lot of it built by convicts, many of them Fenian political prisoners. Thompson Square, as the member for Macquarie alluded to, pre-dates Port Arthur, and Port Arthur has had a magnificent restoration. I can't imagine a Tasmania without Port Arthur and the incredible restoration work that has gone on there. Port Arthur hasn't been modernised, or, for want of a better word—and I hope this is not used as an expletive—bastardised. The heritage of Port Arthur has been respected. I think the least we can do is do the same with Thompson Square. We need to respect our heritage in all its forms. I will just come to this point: I'm a big believer in taking a fresh look at history through contemporary eyes. I don't think history is a fixed thing.

Mr Christensen interjecting—

No, it's not a fixed thing. The member for Dawson laughs at this. He thinks that somehow what he learned in primary school is all there is to history. But the fact is that history is contextual.

George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's about facts.

Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's all about facts. I do agree with the member for Dawson on that. History is about facts. But people are taught some facts and not others. What we need to do in the 21st century is look at history with a fresh filter. We need to look at Aboriginal history. What is the context of Aboriginal history in Australia? What is the context of Australia's history in terms of trade unions and their impact, and how things impact on trade unions? There are a whole range of things that we can learn from that. It's not just the white, colonial history.

Thompson Square is vitally important. It is only one element of Australia's history, but it's an element worth preserving. I'm not of the view that we should be tearing down statues or demolishing them. I think they are a part of our history, and we need to honour that history and learn from it. Sometimes we may need a new plaque on something to better explain part of that history. We owe it to our future to protect significant sites, like Thompson Square. And Thompson Square of course is remarkable in that Macquarie had the foresight to name it after an ordinary bloke. What better Australian story is there than to name a square after an ordinary bloke, right next to a street that is named after the King of England? It's a wonderful middle finger to the royalty of England and a great example of emerging Australian larrikinism. So, we owe it to our future to protect significant sites like Thompson Square, places where history was made, where people have gathered, and places that are important in our history.

I'm not a slavish devotee of colonial history. It is a very good thing that we are re-evaluating with fresh eyes what we have assumed to be our national history. It is a very good thing that we impose new filters on our history—through Indigenous eyes, through the experiences of women and of children who were brought out as little more than slave labour, through the experience of people who are LGBTIQ, or trade unionists, and of course through the experience of migrants. We need to learn from all these experiences and weave together a shared history of this land, a shared history of this nation that we all love, that we all want to see succeed. Thompson Square is part of that history, and what the New South Wales government is doing to it is a terrible shame and should be stopped.

Debate adjourned.