The shack communities have been heritage listed by Wollongong City Council, the National Trust (NSW) and the Australian Heritage Commission and are currently being considered by the NSW Heritage Council. Dare I suggest that these bodies might have a little more understanding of such issues than Mr Scott.

Mr Scott then refers to: “weeds ….. that escaped from hut gardens”. I have owned a shack at Burning Palms for 48 years and I can state categorically that no shack at Burning Palms has now or has ever had a “hut garden” in that time and, I believe, the same applies at Era and Little Garie. The shack sites are small and, at most, have only a few square metres of lawn outside of which is native vegetation.

Whilst there are weed infestations at various locations within the Royal they did not emanate from the shacks. Furthermore, shack owners in 1993 formed a Landcare group which has actively pursued weed control and other remedial work in the area and elsewhere in the Park, eg over 300 bags of ‘mother-of-millions’ were collected and removed from Jibbon.

Mr Scott’s letter is just one more example of misinformation and demonisation of the shack owners, from an ideologically driven vocal minority, who neither know nor wish to know the true history of these shacks’ ownership and occupancy!

The shacks at Burning Palms, Era and Little Garie were all built on freehold land which was subsequently resumed in 1950, at least in part, as a result of representations from the shack owners, who forsook the opportunity to purchase that land, for the common good.

Portion 1 – Parish of Bulgo, on which the shacks at Burning Palms and Era were built, was, on Sunday 5 February 1950, advertised for sale by auction, following which a deputation of shack owners met with then Minister for Lands, Billy Sheehan, on or about Monday 13 February 1950. It is my understanding, from archival records and oral history, that: at this meeting it was agreed that shack owners would resile from seeking to purchase the land and from any claims for compensation that would otherwise be open to them and that, in return, the Crown would resume the land but: “that no claim be made (by the Crown) in respect of any structures on the land resumed” and that the shacks would remain “forever”.

Thus the way was cleared for the resumption to proceed within achievable funding constraints and Minister Sheahan announced, on Monday 20 February 1950, that the “Era Lands” would be resumed and that: “people who had built huts at Era Beach would not be evicted”.

It is long past time that the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the National Parks Association and others of that ilk respected this agreement and the Minister’s commitment to the shack communities without which the land would have gone to auction and it may well have been that the “Era Lands” were lost to the National Park!

Bob McClelland

Engadine