Heard of this place before? Photo: James Coleman.
The ACT Government has agreed to develop a “strategic plan” to tackle the rampant crime and poor services said to have riddled one of the Territory’s little-known suburbs for decades.
Oaks Estate – nestled like an island between the Molonglo River and Queanbeyan railway on the edge of the ACT’s eastern border – is home to about 375 residents. It forms part of the Kurrajong electorate, along with Inner South suburbs Ainslie, Dickson and Narrabundah.
But residents say they’ve been neglected by their politicians for decades, dubbing themselves “the forgotten suburb of Canberra”.
Earlier last month, Oaks Estate Residents Association president Fiona McGregor recounted to Region cases of drive-by shootings and car fires, and physical attacks involving samurai swords and hammers – all in the past year.
Then there is the lack of direct bus connections into Canberra and a local community hall that’s been unusable for months.
Ms McGregor said “things have never been worse”, to the point she refused to walk her two dogs in the street.
In response to invitations to visit and see for themselves the state of the suburb, Canberra Liberals’ Elizabeth Lee, the ACT Greens’ Shane Rattenbury and independent Thomas Emerson agreed to join forces and petition the government for action.
The official motion, presented by Ms Lee this week, asked the ACT Government to “develop a strategic plan to holistically address the issues that have entrenched Oaks Estate residents for decades”.
“The people of Oaks Estate rightly feel they have been forgotten by this ACT Labor government,” she said.
“For years, they have been forced to deal with issues and a lack of basic government services that Canberrans in any other part of our Territory would not accept.
“Issues such as community safety, the lack of basic government services including adequate public transport, access to schools near to where they live and neglected maintenance throughout the suburb have all been raised over many, many years.”
Mr Rattenbury recounted instances of “deteriorating” roads, footpaths “incomplete or missing altogether” and public transport “almost non-existent”.
“How is it that in the capital city of one of the world’s wealthiest countries, we still have a suburb where residents can’t even catch a bus?”
Oaks Estate Residents Association president Fiona McGregor and Inner South Canberra Community Council chair Colin Walters. Photo: James Coleman.
Mr Emerson said “it’s just not good enough to pass the buck to NSW” and Oaks Estate residents “are part of our community and should be treated as such”.
Oaks Estate also has the highest proportion of public housing of any suburb in the ACT – up to 47 per cent of all dwellings – which Mr Emerson said “means a huge proportion of residents are facing significant disadvantage – people who rely on public infrastructure like social services, public schools and public transport”.
In response to the deluge, Deputy Chief Minister Yvette Berry said she had “visited Oaks Estate a number of times … to check in with the residents and visit some of the support services who visit there regularly”.
“I do want to make it clear that this suburb is not neglected,” she said.
“Of course, everybody wants the absolute best outcomes for their suburb, and so we’re happy to work across a range of different areas.”
Ms Berry said the government provided hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in funding to the St Vincent de Paul Society, which looked after 50 of the public housing properties as part of its Community Inclusion Program and provided two dedicated caseworkers “who actively work to stabilise the community”.
A handful of other units are used for similar purposes by Havelock House and Everyman Australia, while another 14 are managed by the government’s “more intensive public housing service team”.
She said Housing ACT had made a number of refurbishments to properties previously gutted by fire that now “really are beautiful homes”, even if “it has taken some time to complete the necessary repairs”.
While Oaks Estate falls within the catchment of the Red Hill and Forest primary schools, as well as Telopea High and Narrabundah College, Ms Berry promised to write to the NSW Education Department to see if closer Queanbeyan schools would be willing to take students from Oaks Estate.
Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith maintained ACT Health hadn’t forgotten about Oaks Estate either and had hosted fortnightly barbecues with the Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation and Advocacy (CAHMA) and biannual hepatitis testing sessions with Hepatitis ACT.
Thomas Emerson, Elizabeth Lee and Shane Rattenbury visit Oaks Estate in early April. Photo: James Coleman.
Minister for Transport Chris Steel said “it’s not quite true to say there are no transport services in Oaks Estate” and while residents didn’t have their own Transport Canberra (TC) services, they did have access to cross-border services run by CDC Canberra.
This includes an arrangement that allows passengers to transfer to a TC bus within 90 minutes for no extra charge, provided the traveller presents a CDC ticket to the driver and shows proof of residency in Oaks Estate.
“That’s not to say we won’t continue to have conversations about what can be done to improve services there,” Mr Steel said.
The motion to develop a strategic plan was passed. The government is now required to table the plan within six months and report back to the Assembly on its progress within 12 months, and every year after.
