Willow Court is significant to the Disability Sector! It has a rich and powerful history, and if we want to preserve it we need to take some positive action. We need as a sector to find ways to work with the council and community to assist them in their efforts to find the future direction for this site. We don’t have answers but as a collective group we can start to find them. What we do need is support! Please join this Facebook page and invite all people who you think have an interest and some passion.
Janet Presser. March 7, 2012
Janet and I (Mark Krause) started this site back in 2012, even though we had been involved in the sites history for nearly three decades and had been running tours since 2007 when I first started teaching. We have had many supporters over the years who have helped us through some difficult times as some of the behind the scenes politics got quite nasty, but one thing that still remains is a solid support base for the site and its history. This came about from the first call to action when the group formed in 2011 and planned a way forward.
Since then we have over 2.5k members on our facebook sites and our website 1.8 million hits. We have had many people use the site for reference material, tour information, general historic information, family history and followed the conservation of the heritage precinct.
The call could not be more needed than it is today as Willow Court is being considered for privatisation and other uses outside of the normal heritage agenda. So it is even more important that we expand the research base and offer this site as a public service for all to see and read so our heritage both physical and social is known and available to the community, whether for study, general knowledge or a support for the human rights of the people who were sent there because of their differences.
I need to thank those people who have helped along the way, including financial and moral support. The future now remains to gain as much history as can be gathered before the physical site is lost forever. If you enjoy research and have the time to offer I would be happy to hear from you. You can contact me on my email, mark@willowcourttasmania.org