Bruce Devereaux calls for Gympie council to put First Nations on mail

A regional Queensland councillor calling for First Nations’ country recognition to become part of his council’s outgoing mail has taken matters into his own hands amid concerns the push will fail.

A councillor pushing for Indigenous country recognition to be added to addresses on outgoing Gympie Regional Council mail is taking matters into his own hands amid fears the idea is not feasible.

Mr Devereaux has added “Gubbi Gubbi country” to his own personal address amid concerns his efforts to make it council policy won’t succeed.

In September 2022, the Division 4 councillor asked his fellow councillors to consult with local residents and First Nations groups to start the ball rolling on the change.

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When the motion was lodged council staff raised concerns that adding the extra name to the council’s address could be confusing.

Mr Devereaux said Australia Post had guidelines on how to include traditional place names on addresses.

Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux has added First Nations recognition to his own council address amid concerns his push for it to become policy won’t get up.

Mayor Glen Hartwig said at the September meeting the potential confusion would mainly impact ratepayers who lived outside the region.

Mr Devereaux said he was not able to speak to those logistics as he was not part of the council’s operational services and did not know how its systems worked.

He said the answer may be for residents to contact the council and request it be added, which Dan Stewart said was “actually the way to go”.

“It’s really up to the receivers to say what their address is.”

Councillors voted in September to discuss Bruce Devereaux’s proposal, but concerns were raised its own systems might not be able to accommodate adding First Nations country recognition.

Councillors agreed to consult with Indigenous elders and the wider public, and explore whether the council even had the ability to achieve Mr Devereaux’s proposal in the first instance.

In early November, Mr Devereaux said on social media council officers did not “think it’s possible to add country to all regional addresses on outgoing mail in the bulk sense”.

He is now urging residents who want to include the recognition to do so. It only “took five minutes,” he said.

“I think it’s important we do things for our First Nation’s people to try and repair the damage we’ve done over the last couple of hundred years.

“It’s just been dreadful.”

Mr Devereaux said suggestions it was little more than “tokenism” were not wrong.

“In a way they’re right, but it’s something. If everyone does something it becomes more normal.

“Then we can move onto something more substantial,” he said.