Rally against development
By Edward Johnstone
BRISBANE — Fifty people gathered in Boundary Street, West End here on February 26 to protest against Bristram and the construction of a bridge connecting West End with St Lucia. The rally was organised by the Kurilpa Protection Society.
Kurilpa Protection Society president Brian Laver, who is standing as an anarchist candidate for mayor in the March 25 Brisbane City Council election, accused the Labor state government and council administration of being in league with Brisbane developers. They plan to drive light rail through West End and ultimately funnel road traffic through the West End peninsula, via the bridge, to St Lucia, he said.
Aboriginal community leader Sam Watson reminded those attending of the past purpose of Boundary Street. "Any Aboriginal person who was seen after dusk on the northern side of Boundary Street would be shot by the troopers", he said. Watson implored the crowd to continue the fight against inappropriate development in West End which, he said, threatened a modern-day exclusion of Aboriginal people from the area.
John Tracey, a community independent candidate for the Dutton Park ward in the March 25 elections, spoke of the need to defend the last remaining area of city bushland at Hill End from development.
Democratic Socialist candidate for Dutton Park Graham Matthews also addressed the crowd, blaming Labor council and state governments for the threat to the local community. He said the reason the Democratic Socialists were running in the election was to "foster the building of a workers' political alternative to Labor."