THE MALONEY SCRAPBOOK

Speech 13 - The Launch of Hepburn Matters    (written and presented by Warren Maloney at the Daylesford Town Hall on Wednesday, 22 June 2022) Friends and Neighbours, A Brief Word from and for our Community before we indulge in scones, jam, cream and a cuppa.   This Evening, we have celebrated a fine Performance by Lyall Brooks in “A Prudent Man”, a Production made possible by our local, distinguished Production Company, Lab Kelpie, under the Leadership of Adam Fawcett.   This Production generously segues into our Launch, this evening, of a vital Community advocacy Group, Hepburn Matters.   When our Community was told that the Vision for the Rex Theatre site of preserving the main street heritage building, delivering an expanded Library, preserving the Daylesford Community Cinema, and providing exciting Community Spaces for our Youth and our Arts were cancelled, we felt more than lost. We felt hopeless in the face of silent Bureaucracy and distant Politics.   A few of us start

 MABO Day Today, June 3rd, celebrates a decision of our High Court (equiv. USA Supreme Court or UK Privy Council) that overturned 222 years of an English Law that said in essence that there was no right to land ownership in Australia before Captain Cook arrived and claimed it for the United Kingdom.  For 222 years, English & Colonial & Australian laws had worked on the principle they called " Terra Nullius " - no right to land. It denied any rights to the land occupied by the oldest continuing civilization on Earth - the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders had occupied this Continent for 40,000 years. Eddie Mabo was a 56 yr old Torres Strait Islander who used his education and tenacity to force a case to the High Court to challenge the notion of " Terra Nullius ". He won but he died before hearing the judgement. We now publicly at Sports events, in Community meetings, in our Parliament begin our formalities by the recognising " the traditional owner