On August 8th – McDonalds “Day of Shame” began. Once again under the watchful eye of police, the community was forced to stand by and watch Bernie wield the excavator to destroy the buildings we have fought so hard and long to defend. I
In heartbreaking scenes we watched first Saffron Cottage crumble, to be followed by the rest of the building including the former Hippy Haven.
The day was full of many sad moments including watching the excavator rip through the Aboriginal Art on the walls of Hippy Haven. The artwork were painted by two Aboriginal artists, Pitjanjatjara artist Jonathan Kumantjara Brown and Tasmanian born Max Mansel
Throughout the day, Bernie Rafferty, the owner of BR Demolition who employed non-Union labor to break the Trades Hall stance to keep workers off site on behalf of McDonalds, seem to relish the distress he was causing the community through demolishing our historic streetscape.
The trauma of the day was also added to by the assault by police on a protestor who dared to take photos of the demolition whilst on a pair of stilts. In a justification given after the event, police claimed the protestor was “attempting to scale the fence” in his stilts which was a literal physical impossibility!
Like every other act of bastardy and corporate vandalism perpetrated by the McDonald’s corporation in the name of their “Family Restaurants”, the destruction of these historic buildings received massive media coverage television and radio.
Poignantly – the Southern Cross Flag flew almost to the end of the day representing our continuing struggle for the rights of local communities to have a voice within our democratic system.
The next morning the community again gathered on the site to hold a candlelight vigil to greive the loss of the Old Hazelvale Dairy buildings. The vigil was also part of a life cross to the Channel 9 “Today” program.
MEDIA
Channel 10 Report with footage of both demolition and police assualting man on stilts
