Top silks weigh in

By Russell Bennett
A HOST of Australia’s top legal minds threw their weight behind the local push to heritage-list Cockatoo’s famed symbol of bushfire survival.
Local residents’ plight was strengthened by letters of support from human rights barrister Julian McMahon and high-profile QC Julian Burnside.
In a letter addressed to the Heritage Council of Victoria – before which hills residents will appear this Friday – Mr McMahon said one of the most important factors in guiding it “should be to listen to the community affected by its decisions”.
“To all of us in Victoria who remember those fires, and especially to our Victorian community in Cockatoo who represent all of us in that memory, this building is one of those to which we attach the beautiful word ‘saved’,” he said.
“It was saved, it saved others.
“It was already a place of sacred memory, that mattered, that had a meaning in the hearts of the community that went well beyond mere bricks and mortar.
“A community which forgets what matters becomes barren and forlorn.”
Mr Burnside’s appeal was just as stirring.
“The families that survived (the Ash Wednesday fires) and the 120 children who were saved show how that building impacted the community and the future,” he said.