‘Fremantle and Hamilton Hill are not Russia and Crimea’
SEAN BRUCE-CULLEN is a resident of Hamilton Hill. He works as a program coordinator for Aboriginal education in the local area.
IT is not without some degree of sadness that Hamilton Hill, North Coogee and Rottnest are to be severed from Cockburn, and are destined to merge with East Fremantle, Fremantle and parts of Melville.
The City of Cockburn in recent years has had a hard-working council, very committed to serving the local community with a wide range of services, strong environmental credentials and was one of the first councils in Australia to have a comprehensive reconciliation action plan.
But at the same time the merger represents a time of opportunity and optimism to create something new from our four council areas.
Inaccurate
The tone of the Thinking Allowed article in the Herald (October 25, 2014) by Fremantle’s deputy mayor, Josh Wilson, appeared to indicate he thought the City of Fremantle was “expanding”. This is an inaccurate depiction of what is proposed: Fremantle and Hamilton Hill are not Russia and Crimea.
Fremantle is in fact “merging” or “amalgamating” with Hamilton Hill and other suburbs. If this is to be a genuine merger it follows that Hamilton Hill, Bicton, East Fremantle and others are not becoming part of Fremantle any more than Fremantle is becoming part of Hamilton Hill or Bicton, but rather a collection of previously separate localities are now banding together on equal terms to form a new entity that serves us all.
The confusion, I believe, arises primarily out of the proposed retention of the existing name of the City of Fremantle for our newly-created local government.
By contrast, the amalgamated local government of the remainder of Cockburn and all of Kwinana is likely to be given a new name (Jervoise Bay) in an egalitarian gesture designed to acknowledge that neither one nor the other in the new alliance is of greater significance or importance.
The merger of Hamilton Hill, North Coogee, Bicton, Palmyra, Rottnest and suburbs that now comprise Fremantle and East Fremantle should likewise not automatically be assumed to adopt the existing brand name “Fremantle”. At the very least some community input could be sought to develop a short-list of nominations, to be voted on.
My preferred name is Walyalup. It is a traditional Noongar name of the area, which long pre-dates the use of the name Fremantle and is already used by a number of organisations in the area, including the region’s reconciliation group.
Choosing a Noongar name would represent a strong gesture of recognition of traditional owners. I believe Walyalup is a name that would grow on us very quickly, and become just as natural to us as Coolbellup, Beeliar or Uluru. To some this may seem like a token gesture, and one that might upset some people, but symbols can be powerful.
Just like Kevin Rudd’s apology or Gough Whitlam’s handful of sand, the new council could be remembered for doing something very meaningful for the Wadjuk Noongar people of this area. The central city area will still be Fremantle, and will continue to have a strong identity as a vibrant port area, a historic centre, an artistic and cultural hub, a place of festivity, great restaurants, a great footy club and just a great place to hang out and drink coffee.
It doesn’t necessarily need a council name to reinforce that identity: Fremantle also has a reputation for being dynamic, forward-thinking, progressive, inclusive and welcoming. So let’s do something progressive together that acknowledges both our newly-enlarged alliance and the traditional owners at the same time.
Let’s begin our newly-united local government area by calling it something that really says something powerful, generous and unifying about us as a community.