Yamba eyesore still standing

had Indigenous Land Use Agreement discussions with the owner in relation to access for the redevelopment of the Gormans old restaurant site.

Cr Tiley said an ILUA would solve the problem which has dogged the site since the sale, that the restaurant site is landlocked by the surrounding Hickey Island Reserve, and the owner has no legal access to Harbour Street.

The Hickey Island Reserve is Crown Land owned by the NSW Government, meaning consent from Crown Lands was required to traverse the Hickey Island Reserve to access the land.

The Yaegl People have been granted non-exclusive native title rights and interests by the Federal Court over the Hickey Island Reserve.

The adjoining land parcel to the north of the Gorman’s site is owned by the Birrigan Gargle Local Aboriginal Land Council, and their consent was also required if any part of their land were to be accessed as part of the demolition or redevelopment.

Cr Tiley said the corporation believed council did not need to become involved.

“They’re saying that the officers recommendation is unnecessary and indeed redundant, because they’ve been negotiating and have reached agreement,” he said “And the bottom line is that the developer can’t do a damn thing until he gets access. And it’s Native Title.”

But some councillors, including Cr Karen Toms, were not convinced.

She said council staff had briefed councillors ahead of the meeting that for the development to proceed, the Member for Clarence, Richie Williamson, would need to advocate for the State Government to begin a process to demolish the former restaurant.

The recommendation from the council officers also called for a council to write to the Minister for Lands and Property, Steve Kamper, requesting that the State government engage with the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC and their legal representatives to agree on a process to resolve the current need to demolish the former Gorman’s Restaurant for public health and safety reasons and to secure long-term legal access for Swell 77 Pty Ltd to access their property.

Cr Toms said the staff view was Crown Lands must be involved in the ILUA process because the Yaegl people and Swell 77 did not have the power to grant access to the site across the surrounding land.

The council’s general manager Laura Black advised the meeting that Crown Land must be involved.

“Certainly that’s the officers recommendation as a means of resolving this matter is that Crown Land does become involved if they are not already involved,” she said.

“They need to be involved for council’s order to demolish to be achieved.”

But Cr Tiley argued this was not the case and the council’s native title officer was mistaken in his views on the need for Crown Land involvement.

There was also confusion among councillors about the orders covering the proposed demolition and new building on the restaurant site.

Cr Tiley mentioned a development application for the site, but Cr Toms, with a point of order, reminded him there was no DA for the work.

Cr Tiley said he was aware of the situation because of the contact he had with the traditional owners.

“The traditional owners commence the ILUA process with the development before the Crown gets involved,” he said.

“The council officer that I referred to earlier is the council’s native title officer who wrote the report before us today.

“And regrettably, he didn’t check to see if any ILUA discussions had commenced with traditional owners. He should have done that.

“TOs (traditional owners) were not advised of this business item, which is regrettable, and were not contacted by the same officer before the report was written. Cr Toms is wrong.”

Put to a vote, council voted 6-3 against Cr Tiley’s motion and proceeded to debate a foreshadowed motion from Cr Toms to accept the officer’s recommendation.

Cr Steve Pickering moved to amend the motion, to include Cr Tiley’s defeated motion, which was was achieved with a third point to note the letter from Mr Walker.

Cr Toms and the motion’s second Cr Alison Whaites, were happy to include the point in their motion.

Cr Toms said her motion would allow the council to move ahead with the demolition of a dangerous building.

Cr Pickering said it had been 10 years since the restaurant closed and the decaying building remained in the middle of the Yamba tourism precinct.

“This dilapidated, dangerous building just sitting there, which council requested was demolished by September last year,” he said.

He said he did not expect the building to come down any time soon.

“I appreciate Billy Walker and the Yaegl traditional owners have been working with Swell 77 Pty Ltd to come up with a solution, but the ILUA may have been agreed to, but it hasn’t been signed,” he said.

“If the ILUA had been signed and Crown Lands had been part of that, this would have been a different debate.

“The building hasn’t been demolished. And

I’m expecting it still to be standing there in September this year.”

Cr Debrah Novak said the history of the agreements over the site and the surrounding land suggested to her that Crown Lands must be involved in any decision to move forward.

“It’s important that we have now recognised through a letter given to Cr Tiley that the Yaegl traditional owners have now commenced that pathway for a discussion at Crown Lands,” she said

“It says in black and white that they still need to be at the table for conversation.”

Other councillors were worried the council was not respecting indigenous people and interfering in a process they had already begun.

Cr Greg Clancy described Cr Toms’ motion as “a bit rude”.

“We’re basically interfering in a process that’s already happening,” he said.

“The Yaegl Traditional Owners and Swell 77 would be more than aware that once they sign an ILUA, that that also involves the Crown Lands and if it’s managed by the council, the council.

“So this is in a sense, it’s a non-motion because it’s already happening and I think to have this motion can be seen by the Yaegl traditional owners as being a little bit intrusive or a bit rude when they’re actually doing the very thing that this motion is calling for.”

Cr Bill Day agreed and said the council should show more patience and respect to the Yaegl traditional owners.

The council voted 6-3 for Cr Toms’ motion, with the voting recorded as Crs Johnstone, Novak, Pickering, Smith, Toms, Whaites for. Against: Crs Clancy, Day, Tiley.