Plans to name Sydney’s new underground metro station after the Gadigal People have been railroaded by New South Wales transport minister David Elliott.
The Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council proposed the name 'Gadigal Railway Station' in August 2021, in recognition of the people of the area where the underground station would be situated.
The name received sign-off from former transport minister Andrew Constance and was handed to the Geographical Names Board of NSW (GNB).
The GNB hosted a one-month consultation period in October for the name. They received 120 submissions on the proposal with the majority in support.
Due to objecting proposals, GNB handed all 120 submissions on the proposal back to the department of transport, for comment before final approval. They did not receive a response.
However, on February 21, GNB received a proposal of an alternative name, and a request to defer the Gadigal Railway Station name.
Mr Elliott, who was appointed as state transport minister in December, has instead proposed naming the station after Captain Reginald Saunders – Australia’s first Indigenous commissioned army officer.
Metro LALC chief executive Nathan Moran said they had received no warning of the Minister’s intention to introduce an alternative name and were under the assumption Gadigal was supported.
Mr Moran said the decision to defer away from Gadigal after extensive consultation was a “waste of public funds”.
"There are many Blackfulla names across the city, you look around from Woollahra to Bondi. We are very proud to point them out to people who think it's new or controversial,” he told NITV News.
"We do this because we want to get our language words returned, but if we can't get that, we want at least dual naming."
According to Mr Elliott, the name was inspired by his thinking that the state hadn’t honoured Captain Saunders appropriately.
“As Veterans Minister, I’m concerned we haven’t honoured Reg the way we should. So, my vision is for the station to include a large ‘story board’ of Captain Reg Saunders MBE,” he told Newscorp.
But Mr Moran, whose grandfather served in World War II, contested that claim. He said the Minister’s decision to prioritise a particular individual over a culture, came down to the colonial priority of individualism.
Nathan Moran of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council. Source: NITV
"Working with mainstream, they want to seek out individualism. As a culture, we aren't into martyrs. Our culture is plural and to point out one person in 80,000-years of linage is just not feasible,” he said.
"It's not right to say that one person at one point is more important than any of us, prior or into the future.”
The LALC did provide a list of individual people which would “acknowledge the first recorded First People of that place”.
"I hope one day people realise that we actually do know the appropriate way to acknowledge and pay respect and honour our people when it comes to war and those who have served,” Mr Moran said.
“But when it comes to naming a station, which is where people come together, and gather, I don't think the acknowledgment of those who participated on behalf of the colony in war is cultural. It’s contemporary.”
GNB will consider Mr Elliott’s alternative name at a meeting on March 8.
