Dan Murphy’s Darwin Megastore Axed After Years Of Community Outcry
The proposed liquor outlet would have been in close proximity to three Indigenous dry communities.
Controversial plans to build a Dan Murphy’s megastore near Darwin Airport have been scrapped, parent company Woolworths Group announced today.
The proposed liquor outlet would have been one of the biggest in the country, and located close to Bagot, Kulaluk and Minmarama Park — three alcohol-free Aboriginal communities.
Indigenous groups have been protesting against the plans for nearly six years. Today’s win came after Woolies’ Endeavour Group was found by an independent panel to have not consulted stakeholders sufficiently enough.
“The Gilbert Review has made it clear that we did not do enough in this community to live up to the best practice engagement to which we hold ourselves accountable,” Woolworths Group Chairman, Gordon Cairns said in a statement.
It seems like it took far too long for Woolworths to reach this decision on the Dan Murphy's in Darwin. pic.twitter.com/i9OcD3YMG7
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) April 28, 2021
A petition with over 155,000 signatures by Blak Business had identified alcohol-fuelled violence, pedestrian safety, and the erosion of culture as possible risks.
“We’ve got enough alcohol outlets at the moment around Darwin and even around here at Bagot where we are,” community elder Helen Fejo-Frith had told The Point last month.
“We don’t need a big megastore like that because it will just cause more violence, more people getting killed, people dying and children not being looked after.”
Alcohol-related harm costs the Northern Territory an estimated $1.3 billion each year, the ABC reported last year.
The bid was originally rejected in 2019 by the Northern Territory Liquor Commission over its inappropriate location.
In September last year, the NT’s Labor government introduced new legislation that sidestepped the independent commission’s decision.
A month later, the state’s Director of Liquor Licensing, Philip Timney then approved the plans under added conditions that he said would “not result in an increase in the level of public drinking and antisocial behaviour”.
“What we have announced today is that we will not be proceeding on the current location,” Woolworths Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Brad Banducci told reporters.
“As to whether there’s a future Dan Murphy’s in Darwin would be up to the Endeavour Group but certainly in any engagement process going forward we will take on board the Gilbert Review findings and adjust how we consult on those matters,” he said.