Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we know, the City of Darwin's VIP event to
unveil its kinetic sculpture for the fiftieth anniversary of Cyclone
Tracy is happening tomorrow. That event at Bundilla Beach has
been the subject of criticism by some survivors who say
they've been excluded from attending amid ongoing backlash over the
sculpture's design. Now, I will say that Dee has just
(00:22):
sent us a photo of what she can see of
that sculpture as she's walked past this morning in it
and it's her email is entitled Fallopian Tubes. And look,
it does look exactly as you'd expect, I think, But look.
The situation then further escalated, with survivor Anthony Bullock now
calling for the council to return taxpayers money that has
(00:45):
helped to fund that sculpture. He joins me on the
line right now, Good morning, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, good morning, Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
How are you Ye're not too bad? Now? What exactly
do survivors want to see happen with that three hundred
thousand in federal funding?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I think it's really important, Katie, just to go
back to a square one within the prime Minister Anthony
Albanese's press release and that BOK press release of the
thirteenth of March said, fifty years after Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin,
the Albanese in law of Governments will honor the memory
of those who died and those whose lives were irrevocably
(01:21):
changed with a permanent monument and a separate permanent memorial
in Darwin. And that was followed up a bit later
by a federal member for Loop Queen. Yeah, and he
clarified by way of that, and he said, to be clear,
the federal government contributed six hundred thousand to the Anti
(01:41):
government to split evenly between the City of Darwin and
Cyclone Tracy Survivors Group as a financial contribution towards the
building of a monument by the City of Darwin and
a memorial remembering Cyclone Tracies, as per the attached media release. Now,
as you're probably aware, now on two separate occasions, the
Mayor and the Council have made it crystal clear that
(02:05):
this will not be the official monument for the fiftieth anniversary,
and on that basis they've reneged. The strong feeling is
Katie that the Council have walked back, walked away from
that commitment given by the Prime Minister of Australia, and
they are doing something completely different now. Thankfully to your
(02:28):
show and the amount of times that you've interviewed the mayor,
the change the story has changed far too many times
for people now to wear this anymore. And now that
they've come out and officially said this isn't the monument
for Cyclone Tracy, we're calling for one monument. The funding
to now be returned back to the anti government and
I'm calling on Luke Gosling and Lea Fanocchiario, Chief Miness
(02:53):
of Northern Territory, to begin the immediate processes of recovering
that money and funded to with whomever. I really don't care,
but as long as that money goes towards its proper
intended purpose. Now we've got to remember too, Katie, this
is not just a memorial for us here in Darlin.
If this is a memorial for a monument, I should
(03:16):
say for everyone in the North Territley. This was the
biggest natural disaster in Australian history. It affected everyone in Australia, so.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, yeah, and you know a lot of like a
lot of people are really unhappy about this kinetic sculpture. So, Anthony,
not only do you want to see that money returned,
but as I understand it, there is a group of
survivors as well who would like to see the Lord
may stand down from his role. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Absolutely, Look, even though the mayor is part of a
team that made this decision, he is the top person.
He has to accept responsibility. He's come on to the radio,
he's been in the media, has been on the wherever
you want to look, and he can annually changes the story.
And that's not good enough, Katie. This should have been
(04:06):
a lay down more from the get go. It could
have been such a good thing for the council just
to stuck to the original plan help as promised by
the federal government. But for whatever reasons why they did
what they did, they've decided now to take a totally
different path and it's completely and totally undermined what this
(04:32):
monument is for. And of course so people are calling
for him to step down. This is, as I said,
the biggest natural disaster in a school in history, and
the Darwin City Council had the honor to prepare something
that meant so much to so many people and they
stuffed it up and the mayor has to take responsibility
(04:54):
for that.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Well, Anthony, we are going to be speaking to him
on the show this morning after ten o'clock, so I'll
ask him of his intentions if he is planning to
stand down over this whole debarcle Anthony, Can I ask you,
are you guys still planning on protesting tomorrow at that
VIP event.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yes, absolutely, Katie, Yep, tomorrow at about two thirty three o'clock.
We'll all be down there. The enthusiasm and support is strong.
It's wide. It goes right around Australia. I understand we've
got people driving in from Catherine, possibly one person from
Alice Springs. Wow. So yeah, there's a huge amount of interest.
(05:34):
And as I said, it's not just from survivors, Katie,
this is about Territorians who who feel like they've been
insulted by this council and the way they've gone about it.
You know, we begged, We went on our hands and
knees and asked the council to please when they had
time to reconsider. But you know it's got to the
point now, Katie, where you know they don't even bother
(05:56):
inviting survivors to a VIP event that the event the
following day will be another commemoration activity, and again those
people that attend that function won't be able to see
the monument either because it's behind a work site. So,
you know, it only seems like this has been done
for a select few of whoever the VIP list is,
(06:18):
and that's not good enough, Katie. We deserve far better
than this.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
How did you go in the end in terms of
you know, then wanting you to have a permit to protest?
Did you get one in the end or are you
just going ahead with it? Anthony?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We came to a stalemate. I firmly believe we're the
community event, you know, call it what you're like that.
I did contact a few insurance companies because we're not
a club and association, a body, corporate a like that.
We have no affiliation with anybody, and one of the
(06:50):
local insurance companies here in Darwin, after my last interview
with you, actually sat down as a group and discussed
how possibly that would work. You know, so ye're right,
of course, yeah, yeah, absolutely, so you know, it's never left.
We feel we're entired to go down there. Were said,
we're not there to cause any trouble. Interesting. I went
(07:14):
down to East Point last week and there would have
been two huge gatherings there, A big party of some
sort and a whole bunch of fellas and all their
families playing cricket. There'd have been sixty or seventy people there.
I don't know if they would have been required to
get an indemnity insurance for that, you know, doubt so,
I doubt it. So we don't see ourselves as anything
different to that. You know, we're very peaceful. We just
(07:37):
want to have us say we want this on the
record and you know, hopefully you know, over time, you know,
I do ask that the Chief Minister please please look
into this and taking steps to recover that money back.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Anthony matt In Darwin's just message through and said, how's
your booking? Anthony? Where and when can I buy a copy?
Are you writing a book as well? I?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Okay, the sixty four thousand dollars question. I always in
the process of I've been documenting from the very get
go the Council's involvement in this book, and out of
a duty of care to make sure that my information
was accurate, I for example, I contacted Luke Gosling. He
(08:25):
was very very kind to let me know his side
of the story, which has been included in the letter,
and I did the same for the Council. At this
point in time. The councils responded with concerns. Noticed that
they're they're looking at taking legal act even though the
book hasn't been published. They are looking at taking legal
action should I publish it. So I'm currently negotiating with
the Council to try and find a pathway through this.
(08:47):
But when that time comes, hopefully it gets resolved, that
book will be available to anybody here in Darwin, just
for the cost of whatever it cost to publish it
or print it. I don't want a single sent out
of I just want people to be aware of how
this process was conducted, for historical reasons and for you know,
(09:08):
who knows. Maybe if there are further investigations down the
road or people need clarifications, that book will be a
valuable tool to find out how everything was done.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Hey, Anthony, But yeah, well fair enough. We'll let us
know once that all happens, and we'll let our listeners know. Hey,
before I let you go though, this morning, how many
people are you expecting at that protest? Any at that
get together gathering you might want to call it. I
don't know what exactly you call it.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
A gathering, Yes, community gathering, I'm going to call it. Yeah.
I've had quite a few names that have a lot
of influence in Darwin. I've also reached out because they've
got a lot of people who want tottend. So I
haven't got a number, but you know, i'd be surprised
(09:56):
if we get I'd be very happy if we've got
a few hundred people there and it could be more. Yeah, Katie,
I've got no idea. I do know that the amount
of people that have written to me supporting it, the
amount of people who said they're going to turn up,
you know it is. It's probably going to be a
warm day, fortunately or mostly the rain will hold off
and that usually will determine what happens. But nevertheless, the
(10:17):
support has been overwhelming, overwhelming, and even from ex anti
politicians have reached out to me, or those ones that
reached out are in support of it, and some of
them will be coming down too.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So well, Anthony, let us know how it goes. I'll
be doing school pickups so I won't be able to
go down there and have a look myself, but please
do let us know how it goes. And yeah, we
might even try and catch up with you on Monday
to find out what's happened.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Sure, that would be fantastic, Katie. And again, thanks so
much to you and the team there keeping keeping Darwin
or Territorians or even all of Australia upd with all
of this.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, and look, you know, to me, whether you love
the monument, whether you hate it, whatever you want to
call it, you know, I actually believe everybody deserves the
opportunity to be able to talk about it and to
be able to you know, to voice their opinions. And
to me, I think it was a real misstep by
the council and I've said that to them, and certainly
said that to the mayor, you know, months ago or
(11:15):
whenever it was that I'd interviewed him, asking him, you know,
exactly what it was and where the funding had come
from and all that kind of thing, and he told
me it was an art installation. But it doesn't look
as though that is the case. So we'll continue to
talk about Dantity.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Perfect absolutely well, we'll keep on top of it then
and again, thanks so much, and I hope to see
a heap of people down there tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So what time should they get there if they are
planning ongoing along.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, it'd be a bundle of beach. It's between the
Ski Club and the Sailing Club. You can probably walk up.
There's various pathways that lead up Acn Road straight to
where the Kinetic structure, whatever you want to call it,
is being opened by the VIP group and that starts
at two thirty three o'clock, will probably go for an
(12:00):
hour or so. Just as people walk in they let us,
we'll let them know that we're object to this and
we're doing it again on Saturday morning at the front
of the Ski Club where that's the commemoration for the
public at that stage, and again will just basically be
there letting people know that you know, this hasn't hasn't
gone the way it should have done, and there should
(12:21):
have been community consultation.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, Anthony Bullock really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks
so much for having a chat with us.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Katie, thank you, and thank you to everybody else who
supported us.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Thank you
As we know, the City of Darwin's VIP event to
unveil its kinetic sculpture for the fiftieth anniversary of Cyclone
Tracy is happening tomorrow. That event at Bundilla Beach has
been the subject of criticism by some survivors who say
they've been excluded from attending amid ongoing backlash over the
sculpture's design. Now, I will say that Dee has just
(00:22):
sent us a photo of what she can see of
that sculpture as she's walked past this morning in it
and it's her email is entitled Fallopian Tubes. And look,
it does look exactly as you'd expect, I think, But look.
The situation then further escalated, with survivor Anthony Bullock now
calling for the council to return taxpayers money that has
(00:45):
helped to fund that sculpture. He joins me on the
line right now, Good morning, Anthony.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, good morning, Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
How are you Ye're not too bad? Now? What exactly
do survivors want to see happen with that three hundred
thousand in federal funding?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Well, I think it's really important, Katie, just to go
back to a square one within the prime Minister Anthony
Albanese's press release and that BOK press release of the
thirteenth of March said, fifty years after Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin,
the Albanese in law of Governments will honor the memory
of those who died and those whose lives were irrevocably
(01:21):
changed with a permanent monument and a separate permanent memorial
in Darwin. And that was followed up a bit later
by a federal member for Loop Queen. Yeah, and he
clarified by way of that, and he said, to be clear,
the federal government contributed six hundred thousand to the Anti
(01:41):
government to split evenly between the City of Darwin and
Cyclone Tracy Survivors Group as a financial contribution towards the
building of a monument by the City of Darwin and
a memorial remembering Cyclone Tracies, as per the attached media release. Now,
as you're probably aware, now on two separate occasions, the
Mayor and the Council have made it crystal clear that
(02:05):
this will not be the official monument for the fiftieth anniversary,
and on that basis they've reneged. The strong feeling is
Katie that the Council have walked back, walked away from
that commitment given by the Prime Minister of Australia, and
they are doing something completely different now. Thankfully to your
(02:28):
show and the amount of times that you've interviewed the mayor,
the change the story has changed far too many times
for people now to wear this anymore. And now that
they've come out and officially said this isn't the monument
for Cyclone Tracy, we're calling for one monument. The funding
to now be returned back to the anti government and
I'm calling on Luke Gosling and Lea Fanocchiario, Chief Miness
(02:53):
of Northern Territory, to begin the immediate processes of recovering
that money and funded to with whomever. I really don't care,
but as long as that money goes towards its proper
intended purpose. Now we've got to remember too, Katie, this
is not just a memorial for us here in Darlin.
If this is a memorial for a monument, I should
(03:16):
say for everyone in the North Territley. This was the
biggest natural disaster in Australian history. It affected everyone in Australia, so.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Well, yeah, and you know a lot of like a
lot of people are really unhappy about this kinetic sculpture. So, Anthony,
not only do you want to see that money returned,
but as I understand it, there is a group of
survivors as well who would like to see the Lord
may stand down from his role. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Absolutely, Look, even though the mayor is part of a
team that made this decision, he is the top person.
He has to accept responsibility. He's come on to the radio,
he's been in the media, has been on the wherever
you want to look, and he can annually changes the story.
And that's not good enough, Katie. This should have been
(04:06):
a lay down more from the get go. It could
have been such a good thing for the council just
to stuck to the original plan help as promised by
the federal government. But for whatever reasons why they did
what they did, they've decided now to take a totally
different path and it's completely and totally undermined what this
(04:32):
monument is for. And of course so people are calling
for him to step down. This is, as I said,
the biggest natural disaster in a school in history, and
the Darwin City Council had the honor to prepare something
that meant so much to so many people and they
stuffed it up and the mayor has to take responsibility
(04:54):
for that.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Well, Anthony, we are going to be speaking to him
on the show this morning after ten o'clock, so I'll
ask him of his intentions if he is planning to
stand down over this whole debarcle Anthony, Can I ask you,
are you guys still planning on protesting tomorrow at that
VIP event.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yes, absolutely, Katie, Yep, tomorrow at about two thirty three o'clock.
We'll all be down there. The enthusiasm and support is strong.
It's wide. It goes right around Australia. I understand we've
got people driving in from Catherine, possibly one person from
Alice Springs. Wow. So yeah, there's a huge amount of interest.
(05:34):
And as I said, it's not just from survivors, Katie,
this is about Territorians who who feel like they've been
insulted by this council and the way they've gone about it.
You know, we begged, We went on our hands and
knees and asked the council to please when they had
time to reconsider. But you know it's got to the
point now, Katie, where you know they don't even bother
(05:56):
inviting survivors to a VIP event that the event the
following day will be another commemoration activity, and again those
people that attend that function won't be able to see
the monument either because it's behind a work site. So,
you know, it only seems like this has been done
for a select few of whoever the VIP list is,
(06:18):
and that's not good enough, Katie. We deserve far better
than this.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
How did you go in the end in terms of
you know, then wanting you to have a permit to protest?
Did you get one in the end or are you
just going ahead with it? Anthony?
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We came to a stalemate. I firmly believe we're the
community event, you know, call it what you're like that.
I did contact a few insurance companies because we're not
a club and association, a body, corporate a like that.
We have no affiliation with anybody, and one of the
(06:50):
local insurance companies here in Darwin, after my last interview
with you, actually sat down as a group and discussed
how possibly that would work. You know, so ye're right,
of course, yeah, yeah, absolutely, so you know, it's never left.
We feel we're entired to go down there. Were said,
we're not there to cause any trouble. Interesting. I went
(07:14):
down to East Point last week and there would have
been two huge gatherings there, A big party of some
sort and a whole bunch of fellas and all their
families playing cricket. There'd have been sixty or seventy people there.
I don't know if they would have been required to
get an indemnity insurance for that, you know, doubt so,
I doubt it. So we don't see ourselves as anything
different to that. You know, we're very peaceful. We just
(07:37):
want to have us say we want this on the
record and you know, hopefully you know, over time, you know,
I do ask that the Chief Minister please please look
into this and taking steps to recover that money back.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Anthony matt In Darwin's just message through and said, how's
your booking? Anthony? Where and when can I buy a copy?
Are you writing a book as well? I?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Okay, the sixty four thousand dollars question. I always in
the process of I've been documenting from the very get
go the Council's involvement in this book, and out of
a duty of care to make sure that my information
was accurate, I for example, I contacted Luke Gosling. He
(08:25):
was very very kind to let me know his side
of the story, which has been included in the letter,
and I did the same for the Council. At this
point in time. The councils responded with concerns. Noticed that
they're they're looking at taking legal act even though the
book hasn't been published. They are looking at taking legal
action should I publish it. So I'm currently negotiating with
the Council to try and find a pathway through this.
(08:47):
But when that time comes, hopefully it gets resolved, that
book will be available to anybody here in Darwin, just
for the cost of whatever it cost to publish it
or print it. I don't want a single sent out
of I just want people to be aware of how
this process was conducted, for historical reasons and for you know,
(09:08):
who knows. Maybe if there are further investigations down the
road or people need clarifications, that book will be a
valuable tool to find out how everything was done.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Hey, Anthony, But yeah, well fair enough. We'll let us
know once that all happens, and we'll let our listeners know. Hey,
before I let you go though, this morning, how many
people are you expecting at that protest? Any at that
get together gathering you might want to call it. I
don't know what exactly you call it.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
A gathering, Yes, community gathering, I'm going to call it. Yeah.
I've had quite a few names that have a lot
of influence in Darwin. I've also reached out because they've
got a lot of people who want tottend. So I
haven't got a number, but you know, i'd be surprised
(09:56):
if we get I'd be very happy if we've got
a few hundred people there and it could be more. Yeah, Katie,
I've got no idea. I do know that the amount
of people that have written to me supporting it, the
amount of people who said they're going to turn up,
you know it is. It's probably going to be a
warm day, fortunately or mostly the rain will hold off
and that usually will determine what happens. But nevertheless, the
(10:17):
support has been overwhelming, overwhelming, and even from ex anti
politicians have reached out to me, or those ones that
reached out are in support of it, and some of
them will be coming down too.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
So well, Anthony, let us know how it goes. I'll
be doing school pickups so I won't be able to
go down there and have a look myself, but please
do let us know how it goes. And yeah, we
might even try and catch up with you on Monday
to find out what's happened.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Sure, that would be fantastic, Katie. And again, thanks so
much to you and the team there keeping keeping Darwin
or Territorians or even all of Australia upd with all
of this.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, and look, you know, to me, whether you love
the monument, whether you hate it, whatever you want to
call it, you know, I actually believe everybody deserves the
opportunity to be able to talk about it and to
be able to you know, to voice their opinions. And
to me, I think it was a real misstep by
the council and I've said that to them, and certainly
said that to the mayor, you know, months ago or
(11:15):
whenever it was that I'd interviewed him, asking him, you know,
exactly what it was and where the funding had come
from and all that kind of thing, and he told
me it was an art installation. But it doesn't look
as though that is the case. So we'll continue to
talk about Dantity.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Perfect absolutely well, we'll keep on top of it then
and again, thanks so much, and I hope to see
a heap of people down there tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
So what time should they get there if they are
planning ongoing along.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, it'd be a bundle of beach. It's between the
Ski Club and the Sailing Club. You can probably walk up.
There's various pathways that lead up Acn Road straight to
where the Kinetic structure, whatever you want to call it,
is being opened by the VIP group and that starts
at two thirty three o'clock, will probably go for an
(12:00):
hour or so. Just as people walk in they let us,
we'll let them know that we're object to this and
we're doing it again on Saturday morning at the front
of the Ski Club where that's the commemoration for the
public at that stage, and again will just basically be
there letting people know that you know, this hasn't hasn't
gone the way it should have done, and there should
(12:21):
have been community consultation.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Well, Anthony Bullock really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks
so much for having a chat with us.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Katie, thank you, and thank you to everybody else who
supported us.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Thank you
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