Community Consultation

As part of the preparation of the draft PoM for The Gully Aboriginal Place consultation with the Gully Aboriginal community and the broader community was undertaken. This included communications and engagement with:

• Aboriginal families of former Gully residents and their descendants;
• NAIDOC Week participants in The Gully (2018); and
• People who visit and use The Gully through the Have Your Say survey.

Common to all these communications, the Council sought to understand the view of stakeholders on:

• What’s important?
• What needs to be protected?
• How should be The Gully be in the future?

The outcome of this consultation is presented in Chapter 5 of the Draft Plan of Management Talking with the Community. A complete summary of stakeholder engagement is presented in Talking with the Community Stakeholder Engagement Report - The Gully Aboriginal Place Katoomba. Plan of Management review.

The Council acknowledges the importance of community participation in the preparation of Plans of Management for community land. While the Council has received a wide range of responses and ideas for the future management of The Gully, decisions on whether a suggestion can be included in the PoM is measured against the core cultural values of The Gully as an Aboriginal Place, and whether the ideas are supportive of these core values. This direction has also been guided through the Council’s formal relationship with The Gully Traditional Owners Inc, The Gully Cooperative Management Agreement.