Bondi Memorial Project

ACON and Waverley Council are calling on community members to have their say on shortlisted designs for the Bondi Memorial public artwork in Tamarama’s Marks Park, which will honour victims and survivors targeted in homophobic and transphobic attacks. 

The following is a statement from Nicolas Parkhill, CEO of NSW’s largest LGBTQ health organisation, ACON, on the arrest of a suspect in the Scott Johnson murder case made on 12 May:

Waverley Council and LGBTQ+ health organisation ACON have reached another milestone in the Bondi Memorial Project through the commencement of design concept development for the site-specific public artwork.

Health and legal advocates are once again calling on community members to participate in the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into gay and transgender hate crimes 1970 – 2010, which has been re-opened.

Waverley Council and LGBTQ health organisation ACON are now inviting artists to submit their expressions of interest for the first phase of the Bondi Memorial Project at Marks Park, Tamarama.

Waverley Council and LGBTI health organisation ACON have reached another milestone in the Bondi Memorial Project after Council last night endorsed Tamarama’s Marks Park as the next site for the commissioning and installation of public art in the Waverley local government area.

Today’s announcement of a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into historic hate crimes committed against members of the NSW LGBTIQ community has been welcomed by ACON.

The NSW Police Force has released the final report into Strike Force Parrabell, which reviewed 88 deaths between 1976 and 2000, and focused on whether gay-hate bias were a factor in these deaths.

"Today ACON welcomes, albeit with a great sense of sadness, the NSW State Corner’s finding that Scott Johnson was likely to have been murdered in a gay hate-related crime in Sydney in December 1988.

With SBS set to profile on Sunday the real story behind its Deep Water drama series, a campaign launched today to raise funds to produce a memorial artwork in Bondi to victims of the gay hate crimes on which the TV programs are based.

With SBS TV’s eagerly anticipated Deep Water drama series and documentary set to go to air this week, progress is being made in relation to a memorial artwork in Bondi to victims of the gay hate crimes on which the TV programs are based.

With SBS’s Deep Water programs bringing a dark chapter of NSW’s history into sharp focus over the next two weeks, local LGBTI* organisations are ramping up efforts to deliver justice for the victims of historic gay hate crimes.

A decision by Waverley Council to begin planning for the construction of a memorial to the victims of historical gay hate crimes has been welcomed by LGBTI* health, safety and rights advocates.