A PROPOSAL to list the Moree baths as a state heritage site has been put on hold after locals raised concerns about the site’s infamous history of segregation.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A spokesperson for the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage told the Moree Champion feedback from the community informed its decision to hold off on the bath’s heritage listing and consider other sites.
“On 3 June 2015 the Heritage Council of NSW considered the public submissions received regarding the potential Heritage Listing of ‘NSW Freedom Rides 1965–66: Moree Baths and Swimming Pool’,” the spokesperson said.
“Based upon feedback from the public, the Heritage Council considered that more time was necessary for public consultation on this site.”
The Moree Baths and Swimming Pool are listed on the department’s website as potential state heritage significance and described the key site of an iconic event in the history of the struggle for Aboriginal rights in NSW.
“The Freedom Ride was a turning point in race relations in Australia,” the website reads.
“It was one of those transitional moments in Australian history when one era fades and another takes its place.”
But Kamilaroi historian Noeline Briggs-Smith OAM said listing the baths as a heritage site for its significance to indigenous people would be hypocritical.
She said the Moree Local Aboriginal Land Service voted unanimously to oppose the bath’s heritage listing in May.
“The site of the 1965 Freedom Ride, the Moree Baths, is not state heritage significance for it is not a significant Aboriginal place, in the past or the present,” Mrs Briggs-Smith said.
“It was a place of segregation and discrimination and many who live in the Aboriginal community still remember the hurt and humiliation of not being wanted, experienced by themselves and their ancestors.
“I was born into and lived through this segregation.”
Instead, Mrs Briggs-Smith said the struggle for Aboriginal rights would be better commemorated by sites over which local Aboriginal people had ownership.
She suggested the Aboriginal Section of the Moree Cemetery and the Dhiiyaan Centre be nominated for heritage listing.
The OEH spokesperson said the council was considering alternative or additional sites following community feedback.
“The Heritage Council also recommended that it should be put forward for consideration in conjunction with a number of other sites associated with the NSW Freedom Rides 1965-66,” the spokesperson said.
“The Heritage Council will be seeking further information from the community.”
