Willow Court Advocacy Group – Willow Court Tasmania

Our Sites History

May 26, 2019 No Comments

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

Global, Local

National Disability Abuse Inquiry

April 11, 2015 No Comments

A case from this website has helped make up the many stories of abuse of people with disabilities in Western Australia as part of the submissions for the National Disability Abuse Inquiry held this week. Taken from the 1980 Board of Inquiry Report the case added to the many cases that have been gathered around the country to highlight the serious abuse that has and continues to occur in settings were vulnerable people reside. A submission by Samantha Connor who is part of a group of strong advocates calling themselves the Bolshy Divas submitted and spoke to the Inquiry. They also had good representation throughout the national media, including ABC’s program PM in Tasmania. This come hot on the heels of the latest report out of Victoria of a scandalous 20-year cover-up of abuse of people with disabilities in the Mornington Peninsula state-run home.

Some of Victoria’s most profoundly disabled people were subject to six years of abuse in a state-run home, including a suspected rape, assault, unlawful restraint, denial of medical care and regular soap suppositories. Documents obtained by Fairfax Media reveal a 20-year cover-up by respective state governments over the scandal at the Department of Human Service’s care house on the Mornington Peninsula.

The revelations come as the federal and Victorian parliaments prepare to hold public inquiries into the abuse of disabled people in residential care and as the state Ombudsman investigates Yooralla over its failure to protect clients from serious sexual assaults by male carers.

Submission The Uncounted

Media: Click Here

Victorian Fairfax Media Report

This story may cause distress, if so please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Global, Local

Board of Inquiry, new book released for the first time.

April 16, 2014 No Comments

Never publicly available before today, this is one of three volumes (blue cover) that we are scanning and releasing for all to read, study and make up their own minds about Royal Derwent Hospital and Mill Brook Rise and the care provided. These robust tested testimonies are proof that allegations were listened to and some proved and other unproved. Such a mixed history has left many different experiences for such a diverse community. Read and make up your own mind.

Complete book: Part B1 (blue cover) NEW!

” .. They had me by the throat and I was bruised all up the side there and I was that sore I could hardly damn well walk and I had jeans on … they we ripped off, and the buttons, there was only one button on and my bra were all showing you know. And when they got me across to A Ward I was thrown into a cell into a cell next to the visiting room, I was throw in there and left… “.

Pages 46-188 CLICK HERE

Global, Local

Tasmania’s dedicated Willow Court website

September 16, 2013 2 Comments

Today, Tasmania’s dedicated Willow Court website ticked over 160,000 hits which means the message of Willow Court is getting out. This is great news for those that are Willow Court supporters.