<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/aug/07/the-descendants-arsenic-in-the-damper-campers-driven-off-a-cliff-murky-history-beef-producer-aaco-ntwnfb>
"In a bustling Newcastle suburb there is a large park where families gather
under giant fig trees. Few know it is named after a man who killed Aboriginal
people.
Gregson Park was given to the local council in 1889 by Jesse Gregson, then the
head of one of the nation’s most important enterprises, the Australian
Agricultural Company.
AACo, today worth about $830m, is still Australia’s largest beef producer, with
stations covering almost 1% of the nation’s land mass. Its majority shareholder
is the UK billionaire Joe Lewis, whose family own Tottenham Hotspur, followed
by the Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest and his ex-wife, Nicola
Forrest.
An investigation as part of
Guardian Australia’s the Descendants series has
revealed the company’s historical links with the dispossession, shooting and
poisoning of Aboriginal people – through the exploits of Gregson before he
joined the company, and others who helped establish its farming operations in
the 19th century.
The discoveries raise complex questions about how longstanding Australian
companies can reckon with past harms."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
