Yarra Bay cruise terminal: La Perouse Aboriginal community’s health and heritage concerns

Sydney’s longest functioning and only discreet Indigenous community fears for the health of its members if a large cruise ship terminal, touted for Yarra Bay, is given the green light.

The stunning shoreline of Yarra Bay is already littered with shellfish its Indigenous community can no longer harvest due to dredging and ship wash.

And Sydney’s longest functioning and only discreet Aboriginal community fears they will soon lose what little marine life they have left if plans for a mega cruise ship terminal get the green light.

Gamay Rangers leader Robert Cooley feared what that would mean for the health of the La Perouse Aboriginal community, which is the only discreet and longest functioning Indigenous community in Sydney.

“It will be a domino effect that really hurts our community’s health, not just physical but also mental,” Mr Cooley said.

“To bring these bigger ships that will be digging deeper and deeper, there will be huge threats to already threatened seagrass, which is habitat to many species that are culturally significant to us.

Robert Cooley, Senior Gamay Ranger (l) and chair of The La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council Noeleen Timbery (r)

“We’ve been doing experiments and where there’s no seagrass, there’s none of those fish that are ingrained in our DNA, so it will impact what we eat and our health and it’s of great concern.”

La Perouse’s cultural heritage protection is managed by Mr Cooley and the other The Gamay Rangers, who patrol Botany Bay’s waters to carry out threatened species and marine mammal protection work.

Many of the marine species within Yarra Bay are already threatened

Since 2018, the Port Authority of NSW planned to present a business case to the NSW Government for Sydney’s third cruise terminal to be built at the quiet bay next to Port Botany before Covid hit.

But its CEO Phil Holliday was recently quoted in the media saying the agency had “dusted off” that business case and a terminal at Yarra Bay could be considered as early as next cruise season.

Mr Holliday said increasing demand meant Sydney needed another terminal and no other site but Yarra Bay was deemed feasible.

This has widely angered the La Perouse community – and for its large Indigenous settlement, it would have severe consequences.

The La Perouse Aboriginal community looks out to the potential future terminal site

In the 2016 census, there were 399 people in La Perouse, with nearly half of them Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people.

To many Australians, Botany Bay marks the beginning of Australia as it is today, as it is where Captain James Cook landed in 1770.

But its Indigenous history stretches back thousands of years before that. Its surviving community is a story of strength in the face of European colonialism.

Its current location, on the northern headland of Gamay, became a permanent Aboriginal settlement in 1883 when the remaining Aboriginal people from camps around Sydney Harbour and Gamay relocated there.

Gamay Rangers with La Perouse with Minister for Indigenous Australians, Linda Burney and Kingsford Smith MP, Matt Thistlethwaite, who oppose the terminal

Today, the community is largely run by the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, which provides essential services such as education and health.

Being the only Sydney suburb where Aboriginal people have ancient and unbroken roots to coastal Sydney, its community relies significantly on the seafood they catch in the very bay that could soon bring in thousands of tourists daily.

According to the chairperson of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, Noeleen Timbery, the idea of a cruise terminal would be “completely devastating” to wildlife and Indigenous history.

Save the Bay is a community group that protested against the plans pre-Covid. Picture: Bianca De Marchi.

“A lot of families here can trace their lineage and their ancestry back to when (captain) Cook arrived,” she said.

“We have always cared for this land and in this country, so we don’t want it destroyed.”

Ms Timbery said the Indigenous community had never been consulted on any infrastructure projects in the area, such as the building of other ports of expansion of the nearby airport.

“All of that construction was done without any thought to the traditional custodians of this area, and the traditional people who have lived here for a very, very long time,” she said.

“So now’s our time to stand up and say, ‘we don’t want this’.”

Hundreds of people have turned tup to protest the plan during past demonstrations. Picture: David Swift.

A spokeswoman for the Port Authority of NSW recently told the Southern Courier the detailed business case for a cruise ship at Yarra Bay was put on hold in 2020 to assess the impacts of Covid on the cruise industry.

She said no consultation had taken place with the cruise industry or community since.

“Any plans for a third terminal in NSW will need to consider the long-term projections of cruise passenger demand among a range of considerations including the environment, transport, financing, heritage, Indigenous culture and community impact,” the spokeswoman said.

The NSW Government will have to approve the plans if and when it received a business case from the Port Authority of NSW.