Lismore City Council began its new local government 4 year-term term in earnest at an Ordinary Monthly Meeting at 6pm on 8 February 2022. It quickly went downhill....

Banyam Baigham, The Sleeping Lizard
Images: Change.org & David Lowe

With little forewarning Lismore City Council Business Paper for its Ordinary Monthly Meeting of 8 February 2022 contained a Notice of Motion which shocked and alarmed the Widjabul Wia-bal People, traditional owners of the unceded lands on which Lismore local government asserts a jurisdictional right, as well as shocking a good many residents in the wider community of the Lismore area and across Northern New South Wales. 

Motion 10.7 North Lismore Plateau read thus:

Councillor Big Rob has given notice of intention to move:

That:

1. Council take no further action in relation to its decision of 13 July 2021 (Item BP21/567) to hand back all Council owned land at the North Lismore Plateau to the traditional owners;

2. staff prepare suitable information and budget estimates for consideration in the upcoming Operational Plan and budget process to investigate options for Council to realise a financial return on its R1 zoned land at the North Lismore Plateau;

3. the information above include an analysis of Council’s obligations and associated costs to rehabilitate the quarry having regard to the North Lismore Quarry End Use Plan 2012, the North Lismore Quarry Rehabilitation Plan 2012, with a particular focus on the E2 and E3 zoned land;

and

4. Council provide in principle support to transfer ownership of the E2 and E3 zoned land owned by Council at the North Lismore Plateau to the traditional owners and prepare budget estimates and supporting information to allow further consideration of this matter in the upcoming Operational Plan and budget process.  [my yellow highlighting]

The initial public reactions was two-fold - an online petition and a public meeting.

Big crowd on hand to support Widjabul Wia-bal People in their fight to see North Lismore Plateau returned to them as the Lismore Council promised last year. pic.twitter.com/JzBztv4zuq

— Michael Bennett (@nthistorian) February 8, 2022

The Lismore Council meeting was webcast at 6pm and the following Twitter stream of consciousness from among those watching began in the hour before the meeting opened and once the relevant item was reached.

• Do Lismore City councilors realise if they go forward /w assent in any form of Motion 10.7 North Lismore Plateau at tonight's Ordinary Monthly Meeting then Council will likely be subject of least 2 formal complaints to NSW Office of Local Government & to Minister? @WendyTuckerman

• Have signed petition, downloaded business paper & attachment & opened a screen to listen to Lismore Council Ordinary Meeting at 6pm. I am seriously pissed off with Lismore City councillors!

• I think the SK team will get the shits with Big Rob calling all the shots. This might be the turning point. (Noticed Nimbin GT labelled it Big Robbery).

• this is not the only issue being tabled. The Sleeping Lizard agenda will attract much attention and the response may surprise this arrogant new council and mayor. The newly elected council are all in for a tough time and deservedly so.

• What a way for the new Lismore City Council to start its local government term 😂😂😂

• Uncle Mickey Ryan just presented a petition of 25,000 people to the Lismore Council meeting.

He expressed his thanks to all that have shown their support.

• Way to go! Opponents of Motion 10.7 North Lismore Plateau politely & carefully raised the prospect of racist intent. The colonialist attitude of take what you want & let First Nations live on the scraps you don't want was written all over it #LismoreCityCouncil

• Not normally a fan of watching Council meetings but that was superb.

• One LGA resident told Lismore City councilors that if they voted for Motion 10.7 North Lismore Plateau they will be on the wrong side of history & another told councilors who might support this motion that it looked as through they intended to "steal" the land a second time.

• Yet another LGA resident told councillors Motion 10.7 North Lismore Plateau is a test of their personal characters & referred to colonial attitudes towards First Nations peoples.

• I never thought watching a Lismore City Council meeting would bring me so much joy. The deputations are on fire! #landrights #reconciliation #SleepingLizard #GiveItBack

• OMG! Motion 10.7 Lismore Plateau is being changed on the run before being voted on - the details clearly demonstrating one particular councilor has no idea what spiritual connection to Country actually means. #OdiousDestructiveColonialismIsAliveAndWellAtLismoreCouncil

• And the newby Mayor is making it worse!

• Elly doing best to stop the mess that Cr. Rob created

• Sheesh Mayor Krieg is totally out of his depth.

• Yes. Caught the last 5 minutes. BR reading the meeting code and getting it totally wrong.

The Mayor’s got even less of an idea. It’s pathetic.

• He thought he knew how to chair a meeting because he was a school teacher. Oh well, reality strikes.

• I just witnessed so many breaches of the meeting code of practice, I don’t know where you would start a complaint.

• A certain Lismore City councilor is calling the Sleeping Lizard "a piece of crap land" then tries to walk it back and blame others a la Scotty Morrison.

• Oh please, someone save those new Lismore City councilors from themselves before they wreck this particular local government. A 5 minute break has been called in the OGM

• I honestly fear for Lismore City Council. If it continues breaching Code of Meeting Practice & Practice Notes it will be under administration before June.

• Motion 10.7 North Lismore Plateau before Lismore City Council at OGM 8 Feb 2022 failed decidedly! No-one except the mover voted for it.

• And the motion goes down.

• It should never have been contemplated, let alone put to a vote. This kind of shit harms people.

That said, I’m glad it was voted down.

• 9-1! Excellent news.

• Good news

• Finally, in spite of the Lismore City Mayor & Cr. Rob the experienced councillors finally put the issue of Motion 10.7 to bed.

• Honestly I have never witnessed new local government councillors anywhere undertake such a sustained insult of First Nations culture, lore & law #LismoreCityCouncil

• To see the response to Lismore council brings strength to my soul. Thank you to everyone who has helped.

Yessss pic.twitter.com/TP6Ukvbbq5

— sᴉɹɹǝℲ ǝllǝɥɔoɹ (@OzEcology) February 8, 2022

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The journey towards a name change for Coutts Crossing begins.....

In November 1847 Clarence Valley grazier Thomas Coutts disgruntled by what he thought was a failure of local authority to act on his complaints, angry that his cattle herd had diminished over the space of eight years allegedly due to cattle theft and irritated at the size of his wages bill - all of which he blamed on local Aboriginal family groups living on 'his' property - decided to take action.

According to media reports at the time it soon became common knowledge that Coutts "had poisoned some aborigines" and this was eventually reported to the Commissioner of Crown Lands who, after visiting the group who had been given poisoned flour, hearing their account, arrested Thomas Coutts based on an affidavit sworn by one of his servants. 

On the 17th January 1848, Thomas Coutts was committed for trial by Forster and Mylnes, local Justices of the Peace, on a charge of wilful murder, and was sent to Sydney for trial before the Supreme Court.…… On the 10 May the Attorney General decided not to proceed with the case due to lack of evidence and Coutts was discharged.

Stating; "there is not sufficient legal evidence to sustain the prosecution although I am sorry to say that the suspicion is very strong that the prisoner is not guiltless of the dreadful deed charged against him.....This is one of the many cases from which the defect of the present law, in excluding altogether the evidence of the Aboriginal natives, is apparent."

One hundred and seventy year later on13 June 2018 The Daily Examiner reported:

Coutts Crossing could have two names and a memorial to the 23 Aboriginal people murdered by the man the town is named after, following a meeting called to discuss proposals to rename the village.

Prospects for a name change for the village have gathered pace since Daily Examiner indigenous columnist Janelle Brown’s article two weeks ago detailed how colonial settler Thomas Coutts murdered 23 Aboriginal people with arsenic-laced flour he gave as payment for work on his property at Kangaroo Creek in 1848.

Yesterday, about 40 people – indigenous and European – met at the Gurehlgam Centre in Grafton to discuss the next steps in proposing a name change for the village. The meeting did not produce formal resolutions, but the debate uncovered key areas to work on.

These included a proposal to include a traditional twin name for the village and to build a memorial in the village for the victims of the atrocity.

“I didn’t know I would get the amount of kick back from the article,” said Ms Brown, who led the meeting.

“But it’s good. It’s time to have these conversations and look at things like a name change for Coutts Crossing.

“What happened at Kangaroo Creek was a horrendous thing and not good for the Clarence Valley.

“It’s not good for a town to be named after a mass murderer.”

She said research into Gumbaynggir language revealed the original name for the area had been Daam Miirlarl, which meant a special place for yams.

However, she was reluctant to push this name as an alternative until there was further discussion among indigenous people about it.

Coutts Crossing resident Cr Greg Clancy said yesterday’s meeting was an initial step to move toward a name change.

“It’s not something that is going to happen next week,” he said.

Cr Clancy also made an apology for the deputy mayor Jason Kingsley, who was also the council’s delegate to the Aboriginal Consultative Committee. He said working through the council committee could be the best way to bring the push for a name change to the council.

Cr Clancy said the work of local historian and environmentalist John Edwards left no doubt Thomas Coutts murdered the 23 Gumbaynggir people with poisoned flour.

“In his book The History of the Coutts Crossing and Nymboida Areas, the chapter on the Kangaroo Creek massacre has all the transcripts from the court case,” he said.

“Its evidence is conclusive, but the case could not go ahead because the court at the time could not hear evidence from Aboriginal witnesses.”

The current owner of the property on which the massacre occurred, John Maxwell, had nothing positive to say about the original owner.

“What he did was cynical beyond belief,” Mr Maxwell said. “To poison 6kg of flour and give it to people, knowing they would take it home and kill a huge number more of their family, is too terrible to consider.”….