The site of conscience advocacy group were well represented at today’s open day at Willow Court, we had part of the display we set up forthe students studying Community and Disability Services with audio and lighting. There was a count of between 600 and 1000 people looking at the site and learning from well experienced and knowledgeable presenters/guides. Lots of opportunities to educate people about Life “behind the walls”, which was the name given to our display. There are so many people interested in the preservation of the Site and the “People Heritage”.

Margaret Reynolds will be conducting tours and offering readings from her book on the May open day, we are very privileged to have Anne and Margaret. There will be much People history.
“Margaret confirmed she is very interested in being involved in Willow Court and will be available on the open day to conduct tours, read from her book and talk about her time at Willow Court.” The minutes of the last meeting available directly from the DVC web page. It’s a shame that there weren’t enough people to get a quorum, I hope that a lack of interest isn’t to blame for non-attendance?

Derwent Valley Council – Willow Court and Barracks Working Group

www.derwentvalley.tas.gov.au

Willow Court and Barracks Working Group

The Willow Court Working Group has approved our proposal to present at the Open Day on the 6th May. We also have Anne McKinstray who will be offering tours as an ex staff member of Willow Court. Anne has a unique understanding of the model of practice that was Willow Court. She also has a long history in the social model of supporting people with disabilities as well as some national experience at Kew Cottages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew_Asylum) in Victoria. We plan on bringing our chairs, or sitting on the lawns, bringing our food and drinks and making a day of the event. We hope that you will join us, you can indicate if you are planning to be there by responding to the “event” tab on this group.

We had a most productive meeting this morning with Mayor Martyn Evans. We were able to put forward the sites of conscience model and plan a forward direction for further advocacy. We believed that Mayor Evans what receptive to the ideas and concepts. We also had discussion around the current progress and the MOU Memorandum of understanding between the State Government and the Derwent Valley Council. It was also interesting to see how the Mayor saw Willow Court fitting into a total visitor package or experience. We are yet to see action, but we are hopeful that the direction that was explained will see something start soon. We are defiantly going to keep an eye out for that.

We hope to see as many people at the open day on May the 6th. We are putting a proposal to the Willow Court Steering Committee on what we would like to do. We spent some time up at the site, had a light lunch at the old school building and met a Gentleman from Queensland who was tracing his great Grandfathers history from Wynyard to New Norfolk, where he later died in the 1850s.

Mark, Janet and Anne