One Mile Dam residents have welcomed film makers, journalists, academics and human rights activists from all over the planet to their community, in order to publicise their concerns

"We hear that Larrakia Nation is now planning with the NT Government to use our land for something else, again without involving us. Once again, the Larrakia Nation plans would involve evicting the residents of OMD. The Larrakia Nation has been proven not to have native title over our area and our people have been living here with the traditional Larrakia people for a long time" (October 2007)

- David Timber - President Kumbutjil Association - representing the residents of One Mile Dam community

Posted Wed Aug 20, 2008

The Larrakia Nation says many of its elderly people are having trouble living in mainstream aged care centres and housing commission homes because of cultural and language barriers.

Larrakia Nation's Donna Jackson says discussions are currently underway with Government to build an aged care centre and childcare centre at One Mile Dam, a small Aboriginal community on the fringes of Darwin's CBD.

Ms Jackson says the two centres in the same spot would mean Larrakia culture could be passed smoothly between generations.

"After many years of fighting land claims and being strong, Larrakia people find themselves in these standard housing commission units.

"I've got a father who lives in those units in Parap and it's pretty full on there sometimes for him.

"There are other Larrakia old people there who would be pretty happy to go to somewhere that's just for our mob, [with] a childcare centre so there's that link there between the old people and the young people."

David Timber says:

I believe the Northern Territory Government is talking it up with Larrakia Nation (representing traditional landowner families of the Darwin area), to have us moved out of here. I’ve had that feeling since day one and I think it’s still a possibility that that’s what the Government wants with us. Just by looking at the place you can see it’s prime land and very valuable to the Government to develop this area. You can see all the development going on around us, but we were here first, we expect to be treated equally as everybody else. As far as I know, we are still getting the silent treatment by this Government and they won’t let up on us. (2006)

Indigenous Law Bulletin

National Shame Job: Inner City Aboriginal Community Earmarked for Development for the Elite, While Residents Fight for Basic Human Rights

Stella Smith[1]

One Mile Dam is an Aboriginal community of 150 people half a kilometre from Darwin's central business district. Our community is in a state of profound neglect. Fifty permanent residents live in six tin dwellings with no fans. They are unbearably hot in the wet season causing many residents to sleep outside. Gaps in the floors and ceilings allow rats and insects to enter creating dangerous power problems with chewed cables. Electric shocks are an ongoing problem. The dwellings have no cooking facilities.

All residents share two ablution blocks (when they are working). The walk to use them is unacceptable for kids, sick and disabled people. Up to 20 people live in a wire mesh shelter. A number of family groups also camp in tents and under tarps in and around the One Mile Dam lease area.

These living conditions physically affect the health and wellbeing of all residents at One Mile Dam. Residents want the standard of housing to be raised to that experienced elsewhere in Australia and that is the right of any citizen.

One Mile Dam is the only place in central Darwin where Aboriginal people can stay, within their cultural comfort zone and within the law. It provides a sanctuary for Indigenous homeless people and functions in a way that Aboriginal people feel accepted.[2] Police and the Community Patrol rely on One Mile Dam as an alternative to sobering up shelters or the police lock-up. The Government has yet to recognise One Mile Dam for providing this service.

David Timber says:

I believe the Northern Territory Government is talking it up with Larrakia Nation (representing traditional landowner families of the Darwin area), to have us moved out of here. I’ve had that feeling since day one and I think it’s still a possibility that that’s what the Government wants with us. Just by looking at the place you can see it’s prime land and very valuable to the Government to develop this area. You can see all the development going on around us, but we were here first, we expect to be treated equally as everybody else. As far as I know, we are still getting the silent treatment by this Government and they won’t let up on us.

Government Plans A large area of land above the One Mile Dam community, the tank farm, has been the site of fuel tank storage from early Darwin days. The tanks are to be relocated to the new Port Darwin within a few years. This relocation will make the development of the tank farm area for medium to high-density living a possibility for the Government and prospective developers [3] In 1997, the Country Liberal Party Government announced that the One Mile Dam community did not fit in to development plans and that they would have to move. [4] General community support for the residents to stay made the story go quiet. It now appears that the ALP Government has been in negotiation with the Aboriginal Development Foundation (‘ADF’) (the leaseholder of the land). The ADF and the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment (‘the Department’) have not involved residents of the community in discussions about future developments. The residents continue to hear stories that they will be moved. We would argue that this lack of consultation is entirely undemocratic.   The Situation Now The current proposed development of the One Mile Dam lease is to reduce the area by about half by rezoning the area to be lost as open parkland. Two of the better dwellings at One Mile Dam are situated in this area. These plans for our community are for the benefit of developers and the proposal was made without consultation with the community. We have put a submission in to the Department opposing the rezoning and have asked the Government for written assurance that the lease will not be changed in any way and will be retained as an Aboriginal living area.

The Submission states

:Community members of One Mile Dam assert their residency rights and call on the Northern Territory Government to explicitly recognize these rights.

[A]s residents of One Mile Dam community, they are key stakeholders of any planning concepts or land use objectives and as such, should be consulted by Government as a matter of urgency.

We refer the Northern Territory Government to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – General Comment No. 4 on the Right to Adequate Housing:

To protect effectively the housing rights of a population, Governments must ensure that any possible violations of these rights by ‘third parties’ such as landlords or property developers are prevented.

In order to protect the rights of citizens from acts such as forced evictions, Governments should take immediate measures aimed at conferring legal security of tenure upon all persons and households in society who currently lack such protection.

No assurance has been forthcoming. A decision on rezoning in the lease area was still ‘deferred’ according to the Department when enquiries where made again recently.

Kumbutjil Association, formed and incorporated by residents in 2004, has informed the Government of its desire to hold the lease (currently held by the ADF) so that, in future, residents can be assured that the community’s interests are represented and that their history and future cannot be negotiated by a third party.

Background

In the early days Indigenous people were not entitled to housing and lived in the undeveloped areas in camps around Darwin. It was the old people of the now permanent residents who lobbied the Government of the time for the right to their land. A special lease was granted in 1979 to ADF for an Aboriginal living area at One Mile Dam. The lease area was at that time of no use to the Government or developers being situated at the ‘out’ end of drainage systems.

Culturally appropriate housing in line with adequate standards of living is one of the key issues for our community. Since 2001 we have been writing to the Territory and Federal Governments raising the state of neglect of the One Mile Dam community and feelings of hopelessness among the residents.

Our experience with ADF has been one of paternalism. People have tried to participate in the ADF to provide a voice for residents but their voices have not been heard. We have had no say in the running of our community, even the most basic service provision.

The Kumbutjil Association was formed as a way to undertake our own programs to address the health and safety issues confronting residents. We have asked the Government to deal with us directly instead of ADF. We have also set up, with volunteer assistance, a website for the One Mile Dam community <www.onemiledam.org.au> for the purpose of informing Government and providing a voice.

We, the residents of One Mile Dam, have a vision for our community. We would like it to be consulted, informed and to have a strong voice. This would provide a role model for other Indigenous communities. Other Aboriginal groups should stick by us in our quest to keep this place for ourselves as an Aboriginal living area.

This is an uncorrected proof of the daily report. It is made available under the condition that it is recognised as such.

Letter to Mal Brough from Kumbutjil Association

Kumbutjil Association
One Mile Dam Community
16 Dinah Beach Road
c/- GPO
Darwin 0800

Senator Mal Brough
The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600

9th October 2007

Dear Mr Brough

RE: EFFECTS OF FEDERAL INTERVENTION AT ONE MILE DAM TOWN CAMP

Our community of more than thirty people live in a ‘town camp,’ near the Darwin business district on a lease allocated for Aboriginal community use. The lease was handed over to us in 1978 after a long struggle by members of our extended families. The land we chose was beside a scenic lake that was the old Darwin one mile railway dam, previously surrounded by the Stuart Park oil storage tanks. Since 1997, Northern Territory Governments have threatened to have our community evicted and the area used as a park for luxury apartments with harbour views to be built on the surrounding hillsides. Work is now in progress for the foundations of these housing developments.

At One Mile Dam we live in worse than third world conditions in tin sheds with faulty and dangerous wiring, leaking and draughty walls, all dependent on two dilapidated shared toilet blocks and without the amenities most Darwin residents take for granted. Scientific tests have shown that the one mile dam where our children used to swim is now dangerously toxic. Needless to say the huts in which we live are grossly overcrowded. Since homelessness was criminalised in Darwin, more people are crowding into our accommodation. Despite these difficulties, we want to live here and we remain prepared to fight any attempt to evict us.

Although the lease was given to our people by the NT Government, the title has always been held by the Aboriginal Development Foundation (ADF) who rarely consult with us. Mr Brough, lately we read in the newspaper that you have taken over the leases of all NT Aboriginal Town Camps; however, no-one has discussed any change of lease with our community. All we know is that we recently received a letter instructing us that it is now forbidden to consume alcohol in the One Mile Dam town camp. We believe that a large sign will soon be erected notifying all who enter that One Mile Dam is a dry community. While some of us are pleased that alcohol will be banned in our community, this will be difficult for our community leaders to enforce.

To end our uncertainty, we want to know who holds the lease for our land - the ADF or the Federal Government? If you have taken over the lease for our land, what are you plans for the future? Will you support our fight to stay here? If we are to be a dry community, how do we enforce it? What assistance will we receive? No one has explained these things to us. We hear that the ADF is suing you for millions of dollars for the loss of ‘their’ town camps in Darwin and Adelaide River. One Mile Dam does not belong to the ADF. Bernie Valadian and his ADF have done little for us for years, ever since they built our tin sheds.

Now the surrounding apartments are being built to overlook us, we feel threatened by future plans for so called urban development in Darwin. We hear that Larrakia Nation is now planning with the NT Government to use our land for something else, again without involving us. Once again, the Larrakia Nation plans would involve evicting the residents of OMD. The Larrakia Nation has been proven not to have native title over our area and our people have been living here with the traditional Larrakia people for a long time.

Ever since the land was assigned to us we have been living here in uncertainty as tenants of the ADF and with continued threats by town planners to be moved aside for a park to serve the residents of the new Stuart Park apartments. The Federal intervention has further added to the uncertainty for OMD residents and Kumbutjil members.

Mr Brough, we beg you to come to One Mile Dam Community to see how we live, to hear our grievances and most importantly to explain what your ‘intervention’ will mean to us. We only know what we read in the newspaper. Please answer this invitation to visit us as soon as possible. If it is true that you have taken over the lease from our landlord, the ADF, we would appreciate being formally informed. Also, as leaseholder you have a duty of care to ensure we no longer live in the worse than third world conditions that we have endured for the past thirty years under the ADF, the City of Darwin and the Northern Territory Government. I can be contacted by my mobile, 0410 117 292

Yours faithfully

David Timber - President Kumbitjil Association One Mile Dam Community