Weemala

Come back into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

William Wordsowrth

This is a picture of the lane just down the road; where I walk most mornings to get my coffee.

Weemala has been back in the news and I remember the place vividly from 20 years ago. Weemala means, so I'm told, white house on the hill, and it was a huge old institution for the severely disabled. It always had a very striking, Dickensian atmosphere about it; of secret lives passing by inside. They couldn't go anywhere else.

Weemala was packed full of characters; and if you looked through doors you could see the profoundly hopeless, flopping on their plastic mattresses. It was a disturbing and fascinating place to be. There were all sorts, from the days when the disabled were locked away for life. There was a woman there; she had been 16 when she had jumped off the side of the pool at Coogee and been permanently disabled after injuring her spine. Here she was; still here, her bright intelligent eyes meeting mine. Wanting her story, their story, told by someone with some empathy. They had been waiting so long to get their points across; for someone to retell their tales of triumph and adversity in this strange place.

I was working for the Sydney Morning Herald at the time. Everyone knew the Herald, which in those days was regularly ranked as one of the top 20 newspapers in the world and was an exciting place to be. Everyone wanted to talk to you. Weemala had been a centre of disabled activism; a book had just been published about it; and everyone wanted to tell me everything. Those were the days, pre the Richardson report, when there was a lot of debate about closing down institutions and putting these people out in the community. A cheap option for the government, who embraced the idea wholeheartedly. A disaster for many of the mentally and physically disabled, who subsequently were to be found fending for themselves on the streets of Sydney.

I forget what the original story was that took us there; it was a dull but worthy of some kind about the disability debate. I didn't want to be dragged into some fascinating story; I just wanted in and out. Then work rang. We're desperate for a front page pic tomorrow; is there anything there?

Not that I could see, I told them. The disabled don't make natural front page stories.

But the photographer Rick Stevens took the request seriously; and spotted a young woman waiting in the same foyer we were to see the management. She was very pretty, very 16, but disabled, in a wheel chair, no doubt a hand full to look after. Her mother, of a certain age, had brought her there because she apparently couldn't handle her any more, wanted to get on with her own life - the lipstick said everything.

It was a horror story I had to write to the photograph, the daughter being dumped at the place. She was being brought there for the first time to see if she could live there. The look on her face said it all. She didn't want to go in, that was for sure. But the mother, clearly, had had enough. The story ran on the front page the next day; and evoked enormous sympathy. It was an amazing picture; of the exact moment when this girl was literally being dumped in an institution by greedy, selfish relatives. We couldn't have been more relieved, we had kept work happy; and debate swirled for days.

There were several books within the walls of Weemala, of tragedy and the brutality of nature; of triumph; of courage built out of bizarre lives and strange physical afflictions, most of all, human nature in extreme; the dignity of small things; while our society did its best to ignore the profoundly disabled and the world outside moved on; into the computer age.

Despite all the controversy and the publicity; the girl was left at Weemala. For all I know she's still there.

THE BIGGER STORY:

SMH:

Weemala disabled residents' future 'secured'

August 14, 2007

The group behind the controversial redevelopment of a Sydney disability home has promised to accommodate its most profoundly disabled residents, NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor says.

He has accused Prime Minister John Howard of lying about his representations to the State Government about the Weemala home in Ryde for his own political gain.

Mr Howard has attacked the proposed redevelopment of the facility in his north-west Sydney electorate of Bennelong over fears 40 of its residents - 16 of whom are profoundly disabled and need constant care - will lose their home and be moved into the community.

The concept plan proposes a $45 million redeveloped rehabilitation centre for 900 severely injured patients a year to be funded by the sale of 16 of its 18 hectares of land for residential development.

The proposal was rejected by Ryde Council but later conditionally approved by Mr Sartor.

He said today he had yesterday met the board of the not-for-profit Royal Rehabilitation Centre, which had provided him with a written undertaking to accommodate the 16 most disabled residents on site.

"As a result of its considerations - and I quote: 'The board has now reassessed its position and will proceed to develop a small purpose-built residential accommodation on site and adjacent to the new rehabilitation campus,' " Mr Sartor told Macquarie Radio.

He rejected Mr Howard's claims that his letters to him had been ignored.

eemala disabled residents' future 'secured'
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 13 Aug 2007
He has accused Prime Minister John Howard of lying about his representations to the State Government about the Weemala home in Ryde for his own political ...
PM "remains concerned" about Weemala development
IBN News, Australia - 14 Aug 2007
He has announced plans to offer an independent assessment to Weemala residents who will be relocated permanently or temporarily because of the development ...

Sydney Morning Herald
Turfed from the only home they know
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 12 Aug 2007
Today he lies motionless while being fed through a tube to his stomach in Weemala, a place he and 40 other profoundly disabled residents - many of whom are ...
PM 'exploiting disabled to save own hide'
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia - 14 Aug 2007
Mr Sartor said the Prime Minister wrote to him in January, making no mention about Weemala, and in a second letter in June, only mentioned the facility as ...
Backdown on home for disabled
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 14 Aug 2007
The news prompted the spokesman for the Weemala Residents and Advocates Committee, Michael Matthews, to say: "I think we're fortunate that it's an election ...
Hospital conflict of interest denied
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 13 Aug 2007
Families of profoundly disabled residents who live in Weemala, an institution on the site, have been fighting the redevelopment. ...
Howard seeks assurance for disabled
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - 13 Aug 2007
Under the $295 million redevelopment plan, the Weemala home in Ryde would be demolished and about 40 of its severely disabled residents moved. ...
Concerns continue over fate of disabled residents
ABC Online, Australia - 14 Aug 2007
A New South Wales MP, Anthony Roberts, says he still has concerns about the plight of a number of profoundly disabled residents of the Weemala home in his ...
PM denies playing politics over nursing home
ABC Online, Australia - 14 Aug 2007
It had been feared that 16 disabled residents of the Weemala nursing home in Mr Howard's seat of Bennelong would be shifted into the community so the home ...
Disabled residents to remain at redeveloped Sydney site
ABC Online, Australia - 13 Aug 2007
The New South Wales Government has approved a $295 million plan for the site, which will see the Weemala Home demolished. Families of the residents are ...