Open Day Tour Guides
Information on the three tour guides for the next open day can be found by clicking in the blue hyperlink. (Subject to change without notice)
It is done!
At long last the fence and old gates are finished. Rod and Scott along with all the various volunteers deserve a beer and a pat on the back. What a transformation!
Just imagine this transformation to the Barracks and Willow Court site? It’s possible within our time but takes a community that is willing and able.
Volunteers are needed, if you have a passion for history to be respectfully and sensitively restored and told, why not put your name down at the next open day on the 18th November.
Open day details HERE
See the full evolution HERE
Site of Conscience call for notorious Parramatta Girls Home
Click here to see full article. Call for “Site of Conscience”
There has been a call for Parramatta Girls home to be declared a “Site of Conscience” with the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, the same group that we are advocating for Willow Court.
“Authorities promised to educate and reform “uncontrollable” young women but molestation, punishments and humiliation occurred, mirroring the thousands of cases of child abuse in institutional care that were recognised in the federal government’s 2009 Apology to the Forgotten Australians.”
“The redevelopment of the site needs to respect past occupants, recognise sufferings and wrongs and not be driven by commercial interests,” a 1970 inmate of Parramatta Girls Home and founder of Parragirls, Bonney Djuric, said. “The site can have interpretation centres, research facilities, art studios and memorial gardens.”
This call sounds familiar?
Open day 18th November
A planning meeting was held tonight for the open day that will be held on November 18th. I am excited with the possibilities and program of events. The Community House will have their swap meeting and Haydn Pearce will have some activities also, so it will be a big day in the valley!
I will get the news out as quickly as possible. Next meeting November 8th and then 15th. Three tour guides arranged and confirmed already, a drama in the Barracks and Art displays by Artists living with disabilities etc etc.
Cheers
Mark Krause
Morgue development, Llewellyn announces “A Site of Conscience”
ABC News tonight had a report that Haydn Peace, owner of the Morgue at Willow Court will now renovate and set this place up as an accommodation. This area is privately owned. The Morgue has served the Derwent Valley Community up until the closure of the institution, it was also believed to have served as an over flow for Hobart during the Port Arthur massacre.
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David Llewellyn announced that Willow Court is a “Site of Conscience” on ABC Radio today, while David is happy to have businesses and people occupy the area because it adds to the security of the area. He refused to endorse or be drawn to comment about Haydn Pearce’s idea, instead he gave an update of the works on the Council owned areas by some members of the Friends of Willow Court and some options that were on the table for future development.
Radio interview copyright ABC Local. Interviewer: Leon Compton
Friends of Willow Court Meeting
Meeting of the “Friends of Willow Court Committee” this Thursday at the Community Centre, The Avenue, New Norfolk at 7pm.