Indigenous Groups Oppose Deebing Creek Development
Reports have emerged recently on the tense standoffs between Indigenous activists and Police at Deebing Creek Mission, west of Ipswich at the site of a proposed housing development on what is alleged to be a site of cultural significance to the local Yuggerah Ugarapul people. Without massive immigration driven population growth pushed by ‘Big Australia’ proponents would this project be as financially attractive?
Activists have been camping on the land in protest for the last few weeks. On Wednesday police drove them from their camps and used capsicum spray to keep control of the increasingly agitated mob.
Fraser’s Property Australia has been approved by the state government to develop the site west of Ipswich to build over 900 houses, parkland and walking tracks. Indigenous opponents to the development of the former Deebing Creek Mission say that they haven’t been consulted and that the site is of cultural significance to them due to its history.
It is claimed that Deebing Creek contains a mass burial ground and potentially several undocumented burial sites. The developers claim that there will be no disturbance of the burial site and that there will be a 30m exclusion zone.
The development push is made more profitable by high immigration rates pushed by proponents of ‘Big Australia‘.
The Australian population has been increasing at a rate of approximately 200k a year for the last decade, which means the population has increased by close to 10%, last year the population increased by 1.6%, placing Australia at #5 in the list of top OECD countries by population growth.
This drive towards constant population growth is an attempt by the government to maintain Australia’s AAA credit rating by ensuring that GDP growth remains steady, despite Australia officially entering a recession on a per capita basis.
It has been 27 years since Australia’s last economic recession. Recessions are an important process in keeping debt levels under control and discouraging economic recklessness.
With so many people dependent on real estate investment for their retirement there are many who will fight tooth and nail to avoid a recession, which will send house prices plummeting back to more reasonable levels. Good for young people hoping to buy their first home, bad for the boomers.
So while the economic managers of the country are allowed to kick the can of recession down the road and maintain our immigration based economic growth we will need these new housing developments such as Deebing Creek, that encroach on increasingly scarce metropolitan peripheral bushland.
See my coverage of Indigenous protest ‘Invasion Day’ in 2019 here.
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