• Richard Wilkes wants Arthur Head to be a place of shared healing, not drinking. (last week we ran a photo of his nephew Ted) Photo by Steve Grant
ARTHUR HEAD could be a major and unrecognised gravesite for Aboriginal people says Nyoongar elder Richard Wilkes.
Expanding on a claim he made at last week’s Fremantle city council meeting which approved the lease for a new bar and concert venue on the site, Mr Wilkes told the Herald this week he was convinced Aborigines would be buried in the area.
The Round House was the colony’s first gaol where many Aborigines were imprisoned. Later they were taken from there to Rottnest Island where conditions were brutal and hundreds died from disease and malnutrition or were murdered.
Mr Wilkes says given this history, many would have commited suicide before making that trip.
“We know they were buried in close he says,” pointing to the notorious Quod on Rottnest where a mass grave lies nearby.
The only European to have been hung at the Round House, John Gavin, was buried in nearby sand dunes, but the exact location in not known.
Mr Wilkes acknowledges there’s no documented evidence to back his claim, but points out that successive governments covered up such attrocities against Aboriginal people.
He says potential graves in the area is one of the reasons he doesn’t support Sunset Events’ proposed bar.
There’s also the spiritual significance of the area, given its proximity to the mouth of the Swan River, and the fact it was the site of the settlers’ first contact with Aborigines.
Mr Wilkes says because of that shared piece of history, the area should be turned into a place of shared healing.
That, he says, is incompatible with somewhere selling alcohol.
Mr Wilkes is a part of a group which has an outstanding native title claim over the Perth region. He says if that’s successful, he’d like to see its powers used to have the bar moved elsewhere.
He says Nyoongars have a history of approving developments across Perth, but the proposed bar is unacceptable.
by STEVE GRANT