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Thanks to you all for saving Currawong
Dear Friends of Currawong supporter,
As of today Friday April the 8th Currawong Beach is now owned by the people of New South Wales.
After a mammoth fight beginning in the seventies the people finally convinced a government to do the obvious thing and put it into the hands of the community.
As many of you know the last fourteen years of that fight have been complex, mysterious, murky, maddening and fascinating. So where do you begin to tell the tale that involves Maharishis, Union Bosses, tears, demonstrations, passionate debates, late night meetings, red wine, shock jocks, developers and hit men ? I believe the short answer is that you don’t.
I feel that Unions New South Wales throughout the entire fight conducted itself very poorly and that the time has come for Unions New South Wales to have a time of reflection on exactly whose values they represent, the values of working families and Union members or those of the Union bosses with political ambitions?
One day the entire story for the fight for Currawong will come to light but today is not that day.
Today is a day to say thank you to everyone who played a part in the ‘Battle for Currawong‘ as it has become known.
Firstly I would like to thank my family for standing by me while many times I was deconstructed by events, thank you Annie and Madeleine I know it couldn’t have been easy.
I would like to thank our Patrons Jack Mundy, Jo Holder and Anne Mc Mahon for their kindness and passionate support. I would also like to thank Don Seaton.
Of course the Friends of Currawong committee, in no particular order.
Ken Hughes, David Haythornthwaite, Sue Martin, Niamh Kenny, Parry Thomas, Polly Thompson, Jenny Cullen, Brigitte Mills, Cathy Kubany, Geoff Bentley and Michael Mannington.Without these fantastic people we would have got nowhere.
Of course Rob Stokes whose tireless work, insight, guidance and wonderful speeches in Parliament always let them know we were never going to give up. Kristina Keneally, Tony Kelly, The Greens and The National Trust.
Harvey Rose, Mark Ferguson and the entire Pittwater Council who never failed to back us during the entire 14 years that I led the fight and that is a credit to all previous Councillors as well. Trish Lake and Ben Hawke, the late Cathy Carey, and the late Tony Cullen.
Ric LePlastrier, Marianne Lloyd, Mike Sandy, Julian Pulvermacher, Andrew Mills, Elizabeth Farrelly, Piers Akerman, and Alan Jones.
I would also like to thank every single person who lifted a finger to make a phone call or write a letter or attend a rally or send in a submission or offered a kind word, without people like you we would have witnessed another piece of Australian coastline destroyed.
There will still be a place for Friends of Currawong to ensure that this beautiful snapshot of an egalitarian Australia is conserved properly and we will need volunteers so please feel free to put your hand up.
I would also like to offer our support to every environmental and social activist group currently fighting to save the sites they clearly love, it is a long and difficult road and we offer our solidarity and support. Our win is your win too.
And finally to all those people who asked over the years “why do you do it’?
I think that all of us involved in the fight have our own answers to that question but mine has always been “So that in twenty years time we can still see kids jumping of the end of that wonderful wharf” and it looks as though we will.
I have met many, many wonderful people from this journey and have learned much from them and they will always be my friends.
With patience and persistence we have prevailed.
In Solidarity,
Shane Withington
President of the Friends of Currawong.