Museum to be turfed to make way for ‘surprise’ cultural hub for indigenous youth at Logan Central
Indigenous groups are yet to be consulted but this cultural centre could be key to keeping kids off the streets in a suburb with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the state. CHECK OUT THE SITE VIDEO
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A suburb, with a high indigenous population and plagued by youth unemployment, will become home to a large-scale cultural hub aimed at getting wayward kids off the streets.
DANCE SCHOOL, MUSEUM BOOTED FROM BUTTER FACTORY
Logan City Council unveiled its plans to build the community hub for youth and indigenous groups in Logan Central without consulting indigenous organisations.
The project has been both welcomed and questioned by indigenous and arts groups across the city.
It will convert a large warehouse office space next to the Logan Central Library in Wilbur St, currently home to the Logan Historical Museum.
The museum has been based at the site for 18 months since it was booted out of the city’s longstanding arts precinct at the Kingston Butter Factory.
It will stay at the Wilbur St address until December when it will be moved back to the Butter Factory.
The youth and cultural hub will provide office space for services which could include anything from health, mental health, housing, financial, or training courses and could be multi-tenanted or offer hot desk opportunities.
A council report said the site was also likely to rise as an election issue for the October state election.
The previous council earmarked the Logan Central site for a cultural precinct in March 2019 after it decided to gut the arts facility at the Butter Factory, move the tenants and turn that venue into an innovation hub.
When the new council was elected this year, it backflipped on that plan and in May decided to restore the Butter Factory as an arts centre, move the tenants back in and renovate with a new theatre and outdoor music stage.
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That decision opened the way for the Wilbur St site to be used as a community hub for young people and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
Nearly a third of residents in Logan Central are under the age of 17, nearly 5 per cent, or about 4000 people, are indigenous and the youth unemployment rate in the first quarter this year was 18.9 per cent and heading north.
However, the plans had still not been discussed with many of the city’s major indigenous and youth service providers or the museum curator Graham Filkins.
Gunya Meta chief executive Aunty Faith Green, who runs the largest indigenous youth service in Logan Central, said her not-for-profit business had not been consulted, even though it had once operated out of the Wilbur St site.
“This news is a bit of a surprise to me,” she said.
“We have been begging the council for years to provide us with a site on a peppercorn-lease because we are bursting at the seams and are now located just two streets away.
“There is no dedicated indigenous cultural precinct for indigenous youth in Logan – so it is definitely needed and we would welcome that sort of project.”
Other services such as Multilink, Beenleigh Housing and Development Company, Logan District Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation of Elders and ATSICH also lauded the project even though they had not been consulted.
Logan City Council said it only decided in May to use the space for a community hub with a focus on youth and the indigenous community.
“The next step is to facilitate the detailed design process, but the operational model will be a decision for council in the future.”
Last month, a consultant was due to be appointed to manage the design process and engage stakeholders.
Detailed designs and financial analysis are expected to completed by December along with discussions with partner organisations interested in using the space.