Esplanade or bust: RSL says it won’t rebuild if it can’t use preferred Cenotaph site
A PETITION to maintain the Darwin Esplanade as green space could spell the end for the Darwin RSL as the organisation says it won’t rebuild in any other location
Northern Territory
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A PETITION to maintain the Darwin Esplanade as green space could spell the end for the Darwin RSL as the organisation won’t rebuild in another location.
After Member for Port Darwin Paul Kirby tabled a petition with over 10,000 signatures on Wednesday, RSL president Steve Gloster said the Esplanade was the only viable location for a club to be rebuilt.
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“If we don’t get to build on that site we probably won’t put an RSL in Darwin. Looking at all the other sites, they don’t come up to the scratch,” he said.
“If you look around there’s a lot of clubs in trouble and if you don’t get the perfect spot we’d be in trouble too.”
The petition will not receive a response this term.
Mr Gloster said the decision would be financial and a club would likely be built outside Darwin, if at all, if the club was prevented from building at the Esplanade.
“We’d still look at it but if we don’t (build there) we’d look outside Darwin,” he said.
“The thing is, we can always go back to our old site. It doesn’t cost us anything to go there but that club was going broke.
“Why would we go back into the city to go broke? Whatever we look at has to be able to make money.
“If it doesn’t make money it’s not viable.”
He said it was disappointing but the RSL would be unable to maintain services to veterans.
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“It just means the Darwin people don’t want a club in Darwin. We’ve only been here 102 years,” he said.
“The club is only one small part of the RSL. If you look at all the other RSLs in the Territory, none of them have a club.
“Most of the clubs around Australia don’t have a club. It has to be a financial thing.”
A decision on the petition will likely come after the Territory election in August.
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Originally published as Esplanade or bust: RSL says it won’t rebuild if it can’t use preferred Cenotaph site