JOHN DOWSON is the president of the Fremantle Society. He’s previously flagged that the congregation at St John’s Church is not thrilled with plans to instal an Indigenous-themed artwork on what’s now Walyalup Koort – but remains church-owned land. After church leaders flagged their concerns at a recent council meeting (“New snag for Koort artwork,” Herald, May 16), he adds his thoughts.

LAST year the Fremantle Society successfully took legal action against Fremantle mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge after defamatory comments she made against us at a reconciliation conference. 

We had simply asked for a balanced approach by council to the 2029 Bicentenary.

Fremantle council it would seem is still pursuing a divisive reconciliation policy, with its proposal to deliberately put $1.4 million worth of large rocks for an Aboriginal artwork encroaching on church land and on top of a listed heritage site, the site of the former St John’s Church clearly outlined in the paving.

The confronting project is one culture building on top of another culture, and cannot be allowed to happen.

The church and the Fremantle Society support Aboriginal art, but not in this location.

Reconciliation and preparation for the 2029 Bicentenary, (which council and the state government refuse to engage the community on), should aim to bring people together, not divide them.

Council has already divided the community when a council committee led by Ms Fitzhardinge changed the name of King’s Square to Walyalup, the name for an extinct deceased kangaroo-rat that used to inhabit a wide area north and south of the river. 

At the very least there should have been dual naming, and the Fremantle Society seeks that. 

Council has also recently changed the name of Arthur Head to Wadgemup with no community consultation.

The church feels aggrieved at the attitude of council staff in dealing with the church who own half the former square and allow free public use there, in return for an annual rent since 1926 of six pence a year. 

There are six car bays on church land for sole use by the church, but council staff regularly park there and have refused to move their vehicles when asked. 

Council regularly encroaches onto church land with events without permission, and once, when asked to move something off church land, the Fremantle Council staff member reportedly retorted: “This is not church land, it is Aboriginal land!”

When council was destroying the only town square in Western Australia with its $70 million administration building they said would cost only $42 million, they tried to remove from the square the statue of Hughie Edwards, the nations’s most highly decorated soldier, because he represented a dead white male. 

That was despite the statue being sited on church land. 

Statue

The Fremantle Society got the RSL into action and the statue is still there.

The Catholic Church down High Street with Notre Dame University has a powerful positive presence, occupying 46 buildings, and bringing 7,000 students into town. 

The Anglican Church have historically had an important and positive influence in Fremantle, especially in early years, founding a school for Aboriginal children way back in 1842, but losing much of their land, including Victoria Hall, which they built in 1896 as their Parish Hall.

They need to get it back for a community space, as the current owner, Fremantle council, cannot afford to keep it. 

The Fremantle Society suggests the church seek funds to buy it as a Bicentennial project.

It is heartening to see St John’s Church stand up for themselves.

The last thing we want is for the church to be bullied out of existence, so that in 10 years’ time it becomes just a museum.