Cullacabardee, Western Australia
Encyclopedia
Cullacabardee is a northeastern rural suburb of Perth
, the capital city of Western Australia
, located 21 km from Perth's central business district
via Alexander Drive or Beechboro Road. It is in the City of Swan local government area
. Most of the suburb is covered in native sheoak
and banksia
forest. A small Noongar
Aboriginal
community is based on Baal Street, a drug rehabilitation
retreat is located off Gnangara Road in the suburb's northeast, and the Perth International Telecommunications Centre
facility is based in the suburb's northwest.
Cullacabardee is 21 kilometres (13 mi) north of Perth
's central business district
, beyond the residential suburb of Ballajura
. It covers approximately 13 square kilometres (5 mi²) and its borders are Gnangara Road
to the north, Alexander Drive 
to the west, Beechboro Road 
to the east and the proposed extension of Hepburn Avenue to the south. Only one public road, Baal Street, enters the locality.
Much of the suburb's area, formerly owned by the Western Australian Planning Commission
and known as "IP8 West", became part of Whiteman Park
on 31 March 2000 and contains about five square kilometres (2 mi²) of regionally significant bushland. The remaining sections are zoned General Rural under the City of Swan's 1993 Cullacabardee Rural Plan.
Cullacabardee is located over an unconfined aquifer
known as the Gnangara Mound
, a major supplier of scheme groundwater
to the Perth Metropolitan Area. The area is classified as an underground Water Pollution Control Area under the Water Authority Act 1984
and a Priority 1 drinking water source by the Department of Water. A survey of soils in the area in April 1999 indicated that Cullacabardee's soil is located in the Bassendean Sand soil association, and is a leached white siliceous
sand of mineral quartz
, with negligible phosphorus
retention capability. Vegetation is mainly low woodland forests of sheoak
and banksia
, with scattered jarrah.
The community at Cullacabardee consisting of 30 units set in 40 hectare
s of bushland has existed since about 1980, and was designed for four different groups who the Western Australian Government perceived to be "having difficulty surviving in suburbia" and who would otherwise be homeless. Families were first moved into the homes on 8 October 1980 and the Cullacabardee Aboriginal Corporation was registered and incorporated on 21 March 1984 under paragraph 45(1) of the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976, and is vested in the Aboriginal Lands Trust. The community's housing is managed by the state's Department of Housing, but local programs and maintenance are managed by the Aboriginal Corporation and funded by federal and state governments.
reported that many of Cullacabardee's residents were unemployed, had no public transport despite 20 years of State Government management and no access to jobs, shops, education or health services. The article noted that "residents have to walk up to 6 km along a dangerously busy road or through a bush track to reach a shop or bus stop", and that the nearest primary school is 8 km away. Nine derelict homes in the community were being refurbished under a training scheme to assist young community members to gain skills, although the community claimed that funding was only available for 12-month periods, making apprenticeships (which run for several years) impossible to offer. A review report into the community in 2000 identified these and other issues such as the land being zoned General Rural, effectively prohibiting residential development, and the illegal dumping of concrete demolition rubble and other refuse near the community.
In 2003, a series of articles in The West Australian
newspaper claimed that gun violence
, threats to women and children and other social problems were widespread at Cullacabardee and at similar camps at Gnangara
and at Saunders Street, Henley Brook
, and reported some residents' criticism of the community's long-time manager, Ivy Quartermaine. Reporting to a government select committee into the operation of the reserves later the same year, Homeswest director Greg Joyce defended Quartermaine: "She has done her best over a long time to run the place. One of the dilemmas we always get involved with is that when families are dysfunctional in the normal community, the tendency is for the system to ask Mrs Quartermaine to take them." He said the department were "legitimately ambivalent" towards the future of the camp.
A press report in The Australian
newspaper in August 2006, which also noted the passing of Mrs Quartermaine, suggested that following the withdrawal of funding by the Federal Government, which had provided most of the Corporation's income since 1997, the state's Department of Housing and Works intended to close the camp down and relocate the 15 families still resident in the village to "better housing in suburban Perth". However, there has been no mention of the community in Hansard
since 2004, and the Department of Housing and Works's website does not mention any impending action.
(OTC), one of two entities which later merged and formed the Telstra
telecommunications company. Most government agencies refer to the site's location as Landsdale
or Landsdale-Gnangara. In July 1984, an international meeting agreed to construct an undersea cable between Jakarta
, Singapore
and Perth
, spanning 4473 kilometres (2,415.2 nmi) and connecting with cable systems in Malaysia, the Philippines, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The Perth International Telecommissions Centre (PITC) commenced operations in November 1986. To this day, it handles a large percentage of Telstra
's satellite communications.
Recent debate in the community and in State and Federal parliaments has focussed on residential development near the previously isolated site. The PITC had maintained for many years that there should be a 1 km buffer surrounding its land in which no residential development should occur, and from the mid-1990s onwards, several members of parliament for the area tried to resolve this issue on behalf of neighbouring landowners. Some Landsdale residents in the already-developed section had also complained that the PITC facility interfered with their domestic appliances.
In October 2005, the WA Planning Commission presented Metropolitan Region Scheme
Amendment 1089/33 to the Western Australian parliament, which was approved and took effect from 2 April 2006. The amendment rezoned an area known as East Landsdale
Precinct 64, west of Alexander Drive, from rural to urban. In August 2006, Wanneroo City Council, the local government area responsible for Landsdale, submitted corresponding changes to the District Plan for approval. It is unknown at this time whether PITC will eventually have to relocate as a medium-to-long-term result of the rezoning.
. They operate two facilities off Gnangara Road in Cullacabardee, both of which were established in 1991 - the Rick Hamersley Centre, a therapeutic community where residents spend 10 weeks, followed by a two-week community re-entry skills development program, and the Saranna Women's Program, a residential village for women affected by addictive or compulsive behaviour and their children, where residents spend a minimum of three months and also receive assistance for re-entry into the general community.
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, the capital city of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, located 21 km from Perth's central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
via Alexander Drive or Beechboro Road. It is in the City of Swan local government area
Local Government Areas of Western Australia
The Australian state of Western Australia is divided into 141 local government areas...
. Most of the suburb is covered in native sheoak
Allocasuarina
Allocasuarina is a genus of trees in the flowering plant family Casuarinaceae. They are endemic to Australia, occurring primarily in the south. Like the closely related genus Casuarina, they are commonly called sheoaks or she-oaks, they are notable for their long, segmented branchlets that...
and banksia
Banksia
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...
forest. A small Noongar
Noongar
The Noongar are an indigenous Australian people who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the south coast...
Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
community is based on Baal Street, a drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
retreat is located off Gnangara Road in the suburb's northeast, and the Perth International Telecommunications Centre
Perth International Telecommunications Centre
The Perth International Telecommunications Centre is located in the northeastern Perth suburb of Cullacabardee, and has handled a large percentage of Australian telecommunications company Telstra's satellite communications since its opening in November 1986...
facility is based in the suburb's northwest.
Geography
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
's central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
, beyond the residential suburb of Ballajura
Ballajura, Western Australia
Ballajura is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, in the City of Swan local government area. Ballajura is located 14 km north of the Perth CBD...
. It covers approximately 13 square kilometres (5 mi²) and its borders are Gnangara Road
Much of the suburb's area, formerly owned by the Western Australian Planning Commission
Western Australian Planning Commission
The Western Australian Planning Commission is a statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia that exists to coordinate planning for future land use and transport needs. It describes itself as Western Australia's "peak representative body of land use planning and development"...
and known as "IP8 West", became part of Whiteman Park
Whiteman Park
Whiteman Park is a 4000-hectare/40-square-kilometre bushland area located 22 km north of Perth, Western Australia...
on 31 March 2000 and contains about five square kilometres (2 mi²) of regionally significant bushland. The remaining sections are zoned General Rural under the City of Swan's 1993 Cullacabardee Rural Plan.
Cullacabardee is located over an unconfined aquifer
Aquifer
An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...
known as the Gnangara Mound
Gnangara Mound
The Gnangara Mound is an area north of Perth, Western Australia where a large mound of sandy soil reaches an elevation of about 60 metres. It stores about 20 cubic kilometres of fresh water, about one hundred times Perth's current annual water usage. It is currently the single most important source...
, a major supplier of scheme groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
to the Perth Metropolitan Area. The area is classified as an underground Water Pollution Control Area under the Water Authority Act 1984
Water Authority Act 1984
The Water Authority Act 1984 is an act of the Western Australian Parliament that provided for the development, protection and monitoring of water resources, mainly through the establishment of the Water Authority of Western Australia.-Further reading:...
and a Priority 1 drinking water source by the Department of Water. A survey of soils in the area in April 1999 indicated that Cullacabardee's soil is located in the Bassendean Sand soil association, and is a leached white siliceous
Silicon dioxide
The chemical compound silicon dioxide, also known as silica , is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula '. It has been known for its hardness since antiquity...
sand of mineral quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
, with negligible phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
retention capability. Vegetation is mainly low woodland forests of sheoak
Allocasuarina
Allocasuarina is a genus of trees in the flowering plant family Casuarinaceae. They are endemic to Australia, occurring primarily in the south. Like the closely related genus Casuarina, they are commonly called sheoaks or she-oaks, they are notable for their long, segmented branchlets that...
and banksia
Banksia
Banksia is a genus of around 170 species in the plant family Proteaceae. These Australian wildflowers and popular garden plants are easily recognised by their characteristic flower spikes and fruiting "cones" and heads. When it comes to size, banksias range from prostrate woody shrubs to trees up...
, with scattered jarrah.
Cullacabardee Aboriginal Community
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
s of bushland has existed since about 1980, and was designed for four different groups who the Western Australian Government perceived to be "having difficulty surviving in suburbia" and who would otherwise be homeless. Families were first moved into the homes on 8 October 1980 and the Cullacabardee Aboriginal Corporation was registered and incorporated on 21 March 1984 under paragraph 45(1) of the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976, and is vested in the Aboriginal Lands Trust. The community's housing is managed by the state's Department of Housing, but local programs and maintenance are managed by the Aboriginal Corporation and funded by federal and state governments.
Alleged problems
Some discussion in local media has focussed on alleged problems within the community. In 1999, The AustralianThe Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
reported that many of Cullacabardee's residents were unemployed, had no public transport despite 20 years of State Government management and no access to jobs, shops, education or health services. The article noted that "residents have to walk up to 6 km along a dangerously busy road or through a bush track to reach a shop or bus stop", and that the nearest primary school is 8 km away. Nine derelict homes in the community were being refurbished under a training scheme to assist young community members to gain skills, although the community claimed that funding was only available for 12-month periods, making apprenticeships (which run for several years) impossible to offer. A review report into the community in 2000 identified these and other issues such as the land being zoned General Rural, effectively prohibiting residential development, and the illegal dumping of concrete demolition rubble and other refuse near the community.
In 2003, a series of articles in The West Australian
The West Australian
The West Australian is the only locally-edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, and is owned by ASX-listed Seven West Media . The West is published in tabloid format, as is the state's other major newspaper, The Sunday Times, a News Limited publication...
newspaper claimed that gun violence
Gun violence
Gun violence defined literally means the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm. Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may or may not include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or...
, threats to women and children and other social problems were widespread at Cullacabardee and at similar camps at Gnangara
Gnangara, Western Australia
Gnangara is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Wanneroo. Gnangara is also the name for an underground water mound with a 117-hectare surface feature called Lake Gnangara.-Facilities:...
and at Saunders Street, Henley Brook
Henley Brook, Western Australia
Henley Brook is an outer rural suburb of Perth, Western Australia, part of the Swan Valley wine region. The Ellen brook and Swan River meet in the northeastern corner of the suburb. This is also the farthest upstream Captain Stirling's 1827 exploration reached before deciding on the settlement...
, and reported some residents' criticism of the community's long-time manager, Ivy Quartermaine. Reporting to a government select committee into the operation of the reserves later the same year, Homeswest director Greg Joyce defended Quartermaine: "She has done her best over a long time to run the place. One of the dilemmas we always get involved with is that when families are dysfunctional in the normal community, the tendency is for the system to ask Mrs Quartermaine to take them." He said the department were "legitimately ambivalent" towards the future of the camp.
A press report in The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
newspaper in August 2006, which also noted the passing of Mrs Quartermaine, suggested that following the withdrawal of funding by the Federal Government, which had provided most of the Corporation's income since 1997, the state's Department of Housing and Works intended to close the camp down and relocate the 15 families still resident in the village to "better housing in suburban Perth". However, there has been no mention of the community in Hansard
Hansard
Hansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
since 2004, and the Department of Housing and Works's website does not mention any impending action.
Perth International Telecommunications Centre
The 133.5 hectares (329.9 acre) site was originally home to a radio station which was used until 1986 by the Overseas Telecommunications CommissionOverseas Telecommunications Commission
The Overseas Telecommunications Commission was established by an Act of Parliament in August 1946. It inherited facilities and resources from Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited and Cable & Wireless, and was charged with responsibility for all international telecommunications services into,...
(OTC), one of two entities which later merged and formed the Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
telecommunications company. Most government agencies refer to the site's location as Landsdale
Landsdale, Western Australia
Landsdale is a northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia located within the local government area of the City of Wanneroo. It is mixed use, with residential, commercial and light manufacturing areas.-History:...
or Landsdale-Gnangara. In July 1984, an international meeting agreed to construct an undersea cable between Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, spanning 4473 kilometres (2,415.2 nmi) and connecting with cable systems in Malaysia, the Philippines, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The Perth International Telecommissions Centre (PITC) commenced operations in November 1986. To this day, it handles a large percentage of Telstra
Telstra
Telstra Corporation Limited is an Australian telecommunications and media company, building and operating telecommunications networks and marketing voice, mobile, internet access and pay television products and services....
's satellite communications.
Recent debate in the community and in State and Federal parliaments has focussed on residential development near the previously isolated site. The PITC had maintained for many years that there should be a 1 km buffer surrounding its land in which no residential development should occur, and from the mid-1990s onwards, several members of parliament for the area tried to resolve this issue on behalf of neighbouring landowners. Some Landsdale residents in the already-developed section had also complained that the PITC facility interfered with their domestic appliances.
In October 2005, the WA Planning Commission presented Metropolitan Region Scheme
Metropolitan Region Scheme
The Metropolitan Region Scheme is the legal land plan covering urban planning throughout the Perth Metropolitan Region. It classifies land into broad zones and reservations and is administered by the Western Australian Planning Commission....
Amendment 1089/33 to the Western Australian parliament, which was approved and took effect from 2 April 2006. The amendment rezoned an area known as East Landsdale
Landsdale, Western Australia
Landsdale is a northern suburb of Perth, Western Australia located within the local government area of the City of Wanneroo. It is mixed use, with residential, commercial and light manufacturing areas.-History:...
Precinct 64, west of Alexander Drive, from rural to urban. In August 2006, Wanneroo City Council, the local government area responsible for Landsdale, submitted corresponding changes to the District Plan for approval. It is unknown at this time whether PITC will eventually have to relocate as a medium-to-long-term result of the rezoning.
Cyrenian House Residential Program
Cyrenian House, the trading arm of WA Council on Addictions Inc, is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation specialising in treatment of drug and alcohol addictions and is based in North PerthNorth Perth, Western Australia
North Perth is a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, located within the City of Vincent.This old, established suburb just three kilometres north of Perth’s CBD is a place of mainly solid brick homes built from the early 1900s, many of which are now undergoing extensive renovations in line with the...
. They operate two facilities off Gnangara Road in Cullacabardee, both of which were established in 1991 - the Rick Hamersley Centre, a therapeutic community where residents spend 10 weeks, followed by a two-week community re-entry skills development program, and the Saranna Women's Program, a residential village for women affected by addictive or compulsive behaviour and their children, where residents spend a minimum of three months and also receive assistance for re-entry into the general community.
Transport
Cullacabardee is not served by public transport. The nearest stop is at Kingfisher Drive, Ballajura, about a 6 km walk from the Cullacabardee Aboriginal community through regional bushland.External links
- Cyrenian House (Home page)
- Gnangara Mound (Department of Water)