Call to relocate brewery
By Leon Harrison
PERTH — Aboriginal activist Robert Bropho and other members of the Swan Valley Fringedwellers have told the WA Heritage Council to remove the old Swan Brewery and rebuild it elsewhere.
The proposal is part of their submission to the council, which called for submissions after heritage minister Jim McGinty decided to lease the derelict complex to building giant Multiplex.
Under the lease, Multiplex can build offices, shops, up-market accommodation, a boutique hotel and a restaurant inside the brewery remains.
In his submission, Bropho said, "If you want to conserve the building's remains, they should be carefully removed and put up elsewhere, not on top of our sacred things".
He called for "the sacred area [to be] returned to parkland for use of black and white families together in harmony at this sacred place of peace".
Picketing of the site continues every morning, to show black and white opposition to the government's redevelopment plans. People can join the protest by arriving at the brewery gates at 7 a.m. Monday to Friday.