Former residents angered at plan to redevelop Parramatta Girls Home
Plans to redevelop a former home in Sydney where hundreds of women and children were physically and sexually abused have been criticised as being disrespectful to the former residents.
More than 30,000 people were sent to live at Parramatta Girls Training School from 1887 until it was forced to close in 1974.
This year, the former state-controlled child welfare institution was the subject of a public hearing as part of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
People who had spent time there gave accounts of the systematic physical and sexual abuse they endured.
The New South Wales Government has submitted plans to develop the home as part of a multi-billion dollar redevelopment of North Parramatta's Australia Parramatta Female Factory Precinct.
But one former resident fears the site's important historical significance could be at risk if the plan goes ahead.
Bonnie Djuric spent eight months as a resident at the Parramatta Girls Home as a 15-year-old in 1970.
She founded the Parra Girls support group for former inmates in 2003 as a way of honouring the memory of those who died at the facility.
Ms Djuric said she was unhappy with the redevelopment plan.
She started a petition lobbying the NSW Government to give residents and those with a personal connection to the home more time to review the plans and submit comments.
Ms Djuric said the process had been disempowering.
"Essentially, I am back in that space where I had no power," she said.
"I am back being a Parramatta girl and the government authority has absolute power over me."
Ms Djuric said she was concerned at the speed at which the development plan was being pushed through.
"If we are given more time and consultation, this precinct has the potential to be a world-class exemplar of urban renewal as a site of memory – one that contributes to our sense of identity as a nation and pays tribute to an estimated 40,000 women and children who passed through its historic institutions," she said.
Preservation of cultural heritage paramount: MP
Parramatta MP Geoff Lee said fears of disrespecting the precinct's history were unfounded and that the preservation of cultural heritage was paramount in any new developments in the area.
He said that current plan has been more than three years in the making and has the potential to become a world-class project and generate tourism in Western Sydney.
"A lot of people they fly into Sydney – they see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge or take the bus up to the Blue Mountains and they don't stop at Parramatta," Mr Lee said.
"This will give them a look at where our earliest civilisation started."
The project, spearheaded by the State Government's development arm, Urban Growth, was revealed in November.
It forms part of Urban Growth's mandate to redevelop government land into new urban enclaves and vibrant communities complete with new housing and shops.
Urban Growth said it would continue consultation with the community about the proposed development in the New Year.
