Thursday, March 28, 2024  
 
 
       
     
   
    from AHC website  

AHC_1.jpg  AHC_2.jpg  AHC_3.jpg

In 1973 the AHC formed in direct response to the widespread discrimination Aboriginal people experienced in the private rental market. The lack of affordable housing for Redfern's increasing Aboriginal population and general racial discrimination in the private housing market resulted in a group squatting in empty terraces in Louis Street Redfern, in the latter months of 1972. In November that year, police arrested 15 squatters. They were released in the care of Father Ted Kennedy at St Vincent’s Church in Redfern. Fr Kennedy housed the goomies in the church hall, but when the number of homeless people living in the church grew to over 50 South Sydney Council exerted great pressure on Fr Kennedy to evict them.

Fr Ted Kennedy teamed up with Aboriginal leaders including Bob Bellear and his brother Sol. The Builder Labourers Federation imposed a green ban on the Louis Street site prohibiting the owner from demolishing and redeveloping the houses.

The squatters organised themselves and formed The Aboriginal Housing Company. A grant of $530,000 from the newly elected Whitlam government allowed the AHC to purchase and restore the first six houses. 

NAA_1.jpg  NAA_2.jpg  NAA_3.jpg

When the Fraser Coalition government was elected in 1975, a year later it terminated capital works funding to the project. Without financial assistance the Block descended into disrepair. By the early 1980s the AHC had acquired almost half the properties on the Block and with another change of federal government (Hawke/Keating) came renewed support for Redfern’s Aboriginal community. In 1994 the last house on the Block was finally owned by the AHC .


     
   
       


A Condensed History of the Block in Redfern
Material from the Gary Foley Collection
     
   
       
Redfern: Aboriginal activism in the 1970s
  
by Johanna Perheentupa  -  thesis  |  book
CHAPTER 6Claim to urban land: Aboriginal Housing Company
     
   
       
t i m e l i n e  - in reverse order
     
   
    25 July 2023  

Building complete & AHC 50th anniversary celebration
KooriRadio LIVE on The Block + Blackchat recorded
  
NITV News | SSH
                 

  photos here, here, here, here and here
     
   
    2021  

Urban Renewal Development Award for The Block | SSH
     
   
    2020  
     
   
    2019  
     
   
    13 June 2019  
     
   
    March 2019  
Student housing in The Block redevelopment
  
 IPC decision & historical overview 
AHC media release 4 March
  
News -  ABC  |  SMH  |  NITV
  

'Turning of the Soil' to start construction 26 March
     
   
    June 2017 - March 2019  
 meeting transcripts  
     
   
    29 January 2017 / 9 March 2017  
AHC seeks student housing changes to fund Pemulwuy Project
REDWatch update | SSH article 14/2
AHC media releases
SSH 4 April Time for tough decisions | Funding
AHC Community presentation [powerpoint]
     
   
    Redfern Tent Embassy 26th May 2014 - Sept 2015  


NITV Tuesday 1st July 2014

THE SATURDAY PAPER  12th July 2014

August 2015 - Lorna Munro 26/8 | Jenny Munro 4/9
Court report: Protesters lose case - SSH | ABC
     
   
    2012  

The Block: Stories from a Meeting Place
was http://www.sbs.com.au/theblock but gone :(

Kay BellearAmanda MorganYvonne Phillips
Cecil BowdenAnthony MundineLes & Donna Polletti
Fred BuchananMick MundineGordon Syron
Edna CraigieLyall MunroLizzie Ward
Ali GoldingShane PhillipsDiane Whittaker
 
These are some quick links, but go in and explore, it's interactive, and don't miss the timeline...
     
   
    2011  
     
   
    2011  

All The best - The Block
Yvonne Phillips | Shane - Family&Culture days| Lionel | Gym | AHC |  St Vincents Church | Mahalia | Gathering Place
     
   
    updates 2010 - 2012  
     
   
    2009  

Pemulwuy on the Block [ABC Encounter] 2009
Jack Callaghan, Mick Mundine, Lily Shearer, Col James, Peter Lonergan, Julie Cracknell, Angie Pitts, Lani Tuitavake, Edmund Campion and Elizabeth Farrelly
     
   
    2008  
  dreaming the block
  Angela Pitts in
      Architecture Australia
     
   
    2004  
     
   
    2002 - 2007 Our Oral histories  
     
   
       
From the archives: 16 April 1973 - Work started
     
   
       

Black housing book  edited by Robert W. Bellear pp.4-5 Amber Press May 1976

Evictees formed a mop and bucket brigade
to cleanup the houses in December 1972

 
??? Henry Wallace ?? Bobbie Perry ?
   
Another is Donald Solomon, other people at the time were Cyril
Boney, Jasper McGregor Grey, Kenny Fraser, Joe Mick,
 Frank Kyle, John Kyle, Wilfred Morton, Rodney Connors,
Gladys McAvoy, George Villaflor.  [names from Kaye Bellear]

     
   
       
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