The key to the successful implementation and delivery of the Cubba Cubba Project will be in a very big commitment to community engagement by both Federal and State government agencies. There is already good evidence of this with the group of volunteers that do an incredible amount of unpaid work at Sydney Harbour National Park on Middle Head.
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/conservation-and-heritage/get-involved
Sydney Harbour Federation Trust also operates a volunteer program. The Cubba Cubba Project acknowledges the Headland Park Volunteer Gardeners who have tamed a mixture of exotic & native plants and continue to maintain the gardens at Middle Head.
But the Cubba Cubba Project believes there is much greater potential for harnessing the energy, creativity, time, skills and experience, including in the planning process and decision making about what development work actually happens.
Potential Community Partners for Cubba Cubba
The following organizations have been identified as ones that have demonstrated past commitment to achieving better outcomes through volunteering their time, skills and energy on other projects.
These organisations are listed in alphabetic order by their name. The process of briefing them about the Cubba Cubba Project has barely started, but has been well received in principle already, subject to receiving more detailed information about what sort of new physical and administrative infrastructure could be provided at Middle Head.
Aboriginal Support Group – Manly Warringah Pittwater. This group started in 1979 as a treaty organisation and later developed into a group of people committed to supporting Indigenous Australians in their broader struggle for justice. Located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, members of the ASG share a passion to see right relationships forged between Indigenous and settler Australians. Working in our local area, we seek to change the way non-Aboriginal people understand and relate to Aboriginal Australians.
A number of members of this organisation claim to be direct descendants of Bungaree. He was nominated by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to be a leader of a group of people from many different mobs in the Sydney region who came together after disease kill as much as 90% of the First People population who were living in the Sydney Region in 1788. The Royal Australian Navy recently honoured Bungaree by naming a dance company of serving personnel of all ranks in the RAN as the Bungaree Dance Company.
Architects for Better Planning NSW. This is a relatively new group that has its origins in former architecture students and graduates at University of Sydney dating from the 1970s. Many of these are now retired, and so have the time, experience and energy to provide their services pro bono on projects like Cubba Cubba
Better Planning Network. This organisation is NSW wide, volunteer-based, non-political and not for profit. Established in 2012 in response to proposed planning reforms that prefaced economic outcomes and are developer driven, today they have more than 400 groups in the BPN network. In addition, thousands of individuals are BPN supporters.
Crown Land Our Land. Dedicated to stopping the abuse of Crown Land in NSW by private individuals, corporate entities, local councils, NSW government agencies and elected members of the NSW Parliament.
Foundation of National Parks and Wildlife. The FNPW believe in conservation not only because it protects native plants and animals, but also because it protects us. Volunteer based the FNPW work with local people and governments to gain permanent protection for habitats. Their aim is to grow Australia’s National Parks system. Perhaps Cubba Cubba could become a model for a system of Australian National Parks, where the community, federal, state and local government work together to offer longterm sustainable protection of our national landscape, the native flora and the native fauna. FNPW already does numerous projects hubbed out of Sydney Harbour National park at Middle Head. FNPW is also a benefactor of the fundraising activities of the Sydney Skinny event, and is able to make a financial contribution to conservation projects in many parts of Australia, not just at Middle head.
Friends of 10 Terminal Regiment HQ. This particular cohort came out of blue during the recent campaigns of opposition to the aged care centre that the SHFT had very actively promoted to the community, until it ran up against a brick wall of community opposition. It became a rallying point for former members of many parts of what is now known collectively as the Australian Defence Force.
But it also drew in support from the Return Soldiers League (RSL), the Australian War Memorial and NSW Veterans Affairs, who all played a recent role in the recognition of Black diggers during the anniversary celebrations of Gallipoli in 2015. Black diggers are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service personnel who fought for the wars Australia has taken part in, such as the Boer Wars, WWI and WWII, the Vietnam and Korean wars.
Friends of Middle Head. This is a loose knit group of people from all over Greater Sydney who regularly visit Middle Head for passive recreation. Their interests and passions include wildlife, photography, military history, rock fishing, walking for fitness, bush regeneration, swimming, kayaking, sailing, boating and fishing. In good weather there can be significant numbers of fishermen spending all or part of the evening fishing from the rocks, beaches and bays around the perimeter of Middle Head, who disappear again as the sun rises.
Guringai Aboriginal Tribal Link. Established in 2003 this group sets its personal task as trying to unite the traditional clans of the Guringai. The coastal and harbour strip from the Lane Cove River and up to Lake Macquarie is the traditional Lands of the Wanangine/Guringai Peoples.
Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council
Mosman Parks and Gardens Association
Mosman Club
Walking Coastal Sydney This group has already work closely with 5 government agencies and all the Councils along the coastline of Sydney and its harbour, to create the Sydney Harbour and Coastal Walking Network, which passes through Middle Head. So it is important that the Cubba Cubba Project recognises and integrates with the valuable achievements of this group in passive outdoor recreation.
Cubba Cubba Project Team
14-jan-2017