Oatlands Golf Club rejects child car crash victims’ memorial
Oatlands Golf Club directors have dismissed designs of a memorial for the four young children killed outside their course, saying it should be of a scale where people “are not reminded of the tragedy on a daily basis”.
NSW
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One of Sydney’s richest golf clubs has rejected a memorial for four young children killed by a drunk and drugged driver because they don’t want people to be reminded of the tragedy “on a daily basis”.
More than a year after the tragic deaths of the Abdallah children Sienna, 8, Angelina, 12, and Antony, 13, and their cousin Veronique Sakr, 11, Oatlands Golf Club has rejected a fresh set of plans for a tasteful memorial to mark the spot drunk and drugged driver Samuel Davidson ploughed into them while they went to buy ice cream.
It had been proposed the memorial would be under a tree in the rough along the 12th hole where the bodies came to rest, about 5m from the footpath on Bettington Rd.
The golf club board was handed two design drawings by the City of Parramatta Council, which were dismissed out of hand at a special meeting last week. The board will not show the designs to the club members.
“We have been very clear on the scale of what would be acceptable for the club to take to the members and all the concepts we have received have been well beyond the acceptable scope,” Oatlands Golf Club general manager Sam Howe said.
“We believe the memorial must be of an appropriate scale, such that neighbours and first responders are not reminded of the tragedy on a daily basis.
“We have gone back to the council and told them until we get a concept within the scale, there is nothing for the club to consider.”
One of the rejected designs proposed a low sweeping steel sculpture to represent “an angel’s wing and a mother’s arm providing a sense of safety and protection for her children”, with a curved bench to allow visitors to “rest and reflect”, and trees that blossom in February to mark the anniversary of the crash.
The proposed designs also featured four sunken sandstone boulders with name plaques to remember Sienna, Angelina, Antony and Veronique, which have also been rejected.
But the golf club board will only entertain four proposed memorial stone plinths if they are no larger than 50cm high and 40cm wide — which are the specifications for temporary roadside memorials set down by Roads and Maritime Services.
The golf club board is only willing to consider a “small area of grass or small hedge” in addition to the small memorial plinths.
The board will not show any of the designs to its members until their specifications are adhered to, which has angered politicians on both sides of the aisle.
“I am very disappointed the board, who previously indicated they would put designs to the membership, are unwilling to let the members decide,” Liberal MP Geoff Lee said.
“If the designs are so unsuitable, the members should be given the opportunity to make that decision.”
The Oatlands Golf Club board is tone deaf to the importance of a permanent memorial, Labor MP Jihad Dib said.
“This is not a vanity project, it is a memorial for a tragedy that left a scar on the nation’s heart,” Mr Dib said.
“The club should have moved heaven and earth to ensure there was a fitting memorial in time for the first anniversary of the tragedy (on February 1).
“This is a bitterly disappointing outcome. I hope the club is genuinely serious about a memorial because it doesn’t seem like it at the moment.”
Parramatta Council has quietly offered to cover the public liability insurance for any memorial to satisfy concerns of club officials they will be on the hook for any injury caused if a mourner is struck by an errant golf ball.
The council has also offered in private discussions to maintain the memorial and take a peppercorn lease over the land to allow mourners’ access from Bettington Rd.
The Abdallah family still holds out hope the club will allow a memorial on the site.
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