Plans for a $200 million hotel and villa complex fronting a Darwin beach have sparked concerns about potential encroachment on local Indigenous sacred sites and the overdevelopment of the city’s foreshore.
Designed by architecture firm Hachem, the resort complex at 25 Gilruth Avenue, The Gardens would include a 168-room hotel, 53 serviced apartments and a 277-space parking lot.
It would occupy a site known as Little Mindil, between the Mindil Beach Casino and the Myilly Point Heritage Precinct, which includes the 1938 Burnett House designed by architect Beni Burnett.
Planning documents describe a “biophilic” design, centred around subtle layering of elements.
“This principle of cascading design reflects the textures of the ocean and the topography of the gentle grade of the site itself,” states Hachem.
25 Gilruth Avenue, The Gardens by Hachem.
The complex would be planned around four integrated components – the hotel, foreshore villas and serviced apartments, lagoon villas and garden villas, offering views to Little Mindil Beach, Little Mindil Creek (also known as Casino Creek) and the southern escarpment. The buildings would include green roofs and
“It is our primary goal to maximize the natural gifts of this special tract of land,” Hachem notes. “Through considered design, we will create a luxury haven that provides guests with their own private outlook, inviting them to bask in these unique and glorious surroundings.”
However, the beachfront is a registered sacred site that may have been used for burial purposes, and Larrakia Development Corporation chief executive Nigel Browne has told local media that despite consultation with traditional owners the plans appeared to encroach on sacred sites.
“Now we’ve gone back and looked at what they’ve actually submitted to the planning authority and the concern is that the provisions for ensuring the integrity of the sacred site areas within that lot and the sacred site that runs the length and breadth of the Mindil beachfront have not been adequately addressed,” he said.
An archaeological survey of the proposed hotel site completed as part of the development application found no surface finds, but historical assessment of the site indicates that “the entire length of Mindil Beach may have been used for burial purposes.”
The project’s developers Arthur Winston Investment and Kita Group plan to instigate an archaeological monitoring program in case prehistoric burials still exist at the site, and they say they are committed to ongoing consultation with traditional owners.
The development application is currently on public exhibition.
