‘Ignorant’: former Labor MP condemns Minns government for threatening Blue Mountains protesters over historic site | New South Wales

The provincial government has threatened to treat First Nations and environmental groups as trespassers if they continue to use a historic home in the Blue Mountains that was once a notorious “house of horrors” but has been repurposed as a community centre.

But a former state and federal MP and Labor stalwart has criticized the Minns government as “unethical” and “ignorant” for forcing groups to evacuate Clairvaux in Katoomba.

The NSW government has been gradually evicting long-term tenants in Clairvaux over the past few years. Last month it transferred responsibility for the property from the ministry of communities and justice to the ministry of land and property, which is tasked with disposing of excess state property and selling it to the private sector.

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A meeting of former residents’ groups was moved off-site on Saturday after they were told they would be trespassing if the meeting was held.

On Friday a lawyer acting on behalf of the justice department and the families and communities minister sent an email to one of the community groups, a copy of which Guardian Australia has seen.

It was stated that “some kind of public meeting” was proposed to be held in the area on Saturday.

“Neither DCJ nor current owner PDNSW has authorized such a meeting and attendees may be considered trespassers,” the email said.

Former NSW attorney general and finance and environment minister Bob Debus, who also served as home affairs minister in the federal Rudd government, said the eviction and trespass comment showed the bureaucracy was “completely unaware” of its significant history.

“The land transfer and the heavy-handedness that followed… For God’s sake, it’s not ethical at all to threaten these people who have been there for years,” Debus told the Guardian.

“They have been legally occupying premises under lease or license in that area for over 25 years… and I know that is the case because I helped negotiate the original regulations in the mid-1990s.”

Clairvaux began life as the boarding school of the De La Salle Brothers St Bernard’s College in the late 1930s. After the college was closed in 1966, the state government converted it into a boys’ dormitory known as the “house of horrors”. Former Clairvaux children have been deemed eligible for the National Compensation Scheme following a royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

After the government closed the institution in 1990, Katoomba Neighborhood Center saved the site and it became Clairvaux Community Centre. Tenants in recent years have included the Blue Mountains Aboriginal Culture and Resource Centre, Gundungurra Tribal Council, Arts Council, Gateway Family Services and Wildplant Rescue Service. Only the latter still occupies the site and is fighting an eviction notice.

The campaign to keep Clairvaux in community hands includes First Nations elders, aunts Carol Cooper and Pat Field, and Mary Waterford, one of the community centre’s founders in the 1990s, who said the community viewed the potential sale of the land as a “betrayal” of its long history as a cultural and community centre.

Genevieve Murray, spokeswoman for the campaign to save Clairvaux, said the land was of deep significance to the Blue Mountains community and the traditional owners who have gathered there for millennia.

“To be labeled as trespassers on one’s own territory is not only unfair, but also a betrayal of the trust and dialogue we believe we have with the department,” he said in a statement.

Murray said the government’s decision to transfer the property to a new government department was made without prior notice or consultation with the communities, and that a request for an interim agreement in April on a moratorium on the sale of the land was ignored.

A Department for Communities and Justice spokesman said the decommissioning process at Clairvaux was ongoing and confirmed the department transferred the site to NSW Property and Development last month.

In a statement, the spokesman said the site had to be evacuated and the cost of remediating the property was prohibitive as a 2020 inspection found the facility was not fit for purpose due to significant safety, disrepair, compliance and extreme bushfire zone issues.

“Regarding the items remaining on the site, DCJ is engaging with appropriate cultural and heritage experts to establish a transparent process with local elders and traditional owners,” the statement said.

“This will ensure respectful interaction with the local Aboriginal community and the appropriate management and care of any items of potential cultural significance.”

Waterford said the best the community can hope for right now is the Minns government’s initiative to turn Clairvaux into social housing.

“The Blue Mountains Community Land Trust has a proposal on the table to develop this into affordable housing, particularly for local Aboriginal people,” he said.

More than two-thirds of NSW public land found suitable for housing under the Minns government’s statewide property audit has so far been sold to private developers, according to a recent Guardian report; Many of these do not require the inclusion of social or affordable housing.