The Indigenous community at Mona Mona, a former mission near Kuranda, 30 kilometres west of Cairns, are continuing their remarkable four-decade-long occupation.
The Queensland government announced on December 9 that it would not replace housing or build new infrastructure at Mona Mona.
The government wants everyone to move out, with 1500 hectares of the mission site to come under the control of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and just 100 hectares of vacant land left for the community.
Green Left Weekly spoke with three community members, Rhonda Brim, Anthony Campbell and Glenis Grogan about their struggle.
Brim said that Mona Mona, which was founded a century ago, had once been "like a concentration camp". The Indigenous people "were treated very badly".
Grogan, who works for the community housing organisation, the Ngoonbi Co-operative Society, explained that subsequently Mona Mona came to be "seen by most of us in Kuranda as home. It's where our roots began, especially after our parents and grandparents were forcibly removed to there" from tribes all over northern Queensland.
Brim added: "In 1962, the government forced us off, over a proposal for a [never-built] dam ... They removed our people off the mission that they loved. They broke a lot of people's hearts."
From 1964 onwards "a lot of people went back to squat because we think we belong to the land".
Grogan told GLW that government consultation with people living at Mona Mona had ceased and funds for infrastructure had dwindled away in the last decade.
Before a meeting in October 2007, the government developed its plan "for a long time, without consulting the community". It then decided to continue consultations because of the strong community connection to Mona Mona, but maintained that everybody should move off the mission.
Brim argued that the government is working against the desires of the community: "Our top priority in the community is housing and we want all the housing to be built at Mona Mona. But this didn't happen. The government just don't want us to be happy". she said.
Grogan continued: "All of last year we've had weekly visits from State Housing offering the people living out there homes in Cairns and Mareeba", which is a regional centre 50 kilometres to the south-west. "They're getting everyone to sign documents to move."
Eleven families had moved so far, Grogan said. "But as they move out, other people are moving into the mission."
As well, Grogan said, "three families have already come back to Kuranda, because they've literally plonked the residents of Mona Mona, members of this community, into a foreign land ... they're culturally out of water".
Grogan said the Queensland housing department has $4 million available to build homes for people resident in Mona Mona, but won't consider building homes in Kuranda, citing a lack of available land and higher construction costs.
"It's buying in Mareeba, Cairns or anywhere else". including old government houses. Meanwhile in Kuranda, "we have a population of 1000 people and cannot supply enough houses to accommodate all of our people."
"We're not moving from the mission. We're staying there. We consider that as home. We certainly don't agree with 1500 hectares going to Parks and Wildlife", Grogan said.
The community is still negotiating with the government with the aim of maintaining all the land. "But", said Grogan, "we'll have to set up our own infrastructure with or without them ... and develop enterprise out there".
Grogan described the government's plan as "a new form of genocide, of relocation of Aboriginal people ... If we were another cultural group they would put in power lines, or maintain roads, or maintain a community".
Campbell has set up a Facebook group, "Save the town of Mona Mona". He hopes people will join it, send messages of encouragement, and will offer to share expertise and resources through it.
Grogan explained: "We can't do it on our own, although we're certainly going to give it a good go ... We need help to create enterprises, to create employment, and to create and sustain the community that we're going to live in."
She envisages a series of new community activities including revegetation, house-building, a fishery, and establishing alternative energy sources. "But it all must be where the environment gets looked after. Aboriginal people have for centuries looked after the environment."
Grogan added: "We need to, maybe, get assistance from people down south to keep the government honest ... to remember what happened to Aboriginal people years ago and make sure it never happens again."
And, Brim added, people should remember the young children of the community and the struggle to maintain their culture.