The Gathering Place is so busy it is bursting at the seams, but the Werribee clinic feels that neither the council nor the state government cares.
The not-for-profit clinic has provided wide-ranging health services to indigenous Australians from across the western suburbs for more than seven years. It also offers drug and alcohol rehabilitation, domestic violence and food drive services.
The group’s chief executive, Colleen Marion, said the clinic was in dire need of a new centre. It was seeing more than 150 clients a week but had reached a point where services were being cancelled, she said.
“We are providing an effective service to the local indigenous community, but they just don’t care.”
Ms Marion said she had lobbied Werribee MP Tim Pallas and presented Aboriginal Affairs Minister Natalie Hutchins with a 300-signature petition calling for a new centre, but her pleas were falling on deaf ears.
“I’m angry and I’m frustrated,” Ms Marion said.
“It would be great if [Pallas and Hutchins] actually came down here and saw our centre, and saw just how we have out-grown this building.We are providing an effective service to the local indigenous community, but they just don’t care.”
Ms Marion added that Wyndham council had offered no support to the centre.
Council chief executive Kelly Grigsby said local government did not have a core role in funding health services, which were the responsibility of state and federal governments.
A spokesman for Mr Pallas said the MP was briefed by Ms Marion on the centre’s services in April last year and he appreciated “the great work” the centre did.
The spokesman said Mr Pallas understood the Aboriginal Affairs Minister was working through the issue with the council.
Ms Hutchins said she was “acutely aware of the challenges facing community groups and Wyndham City Council as the demand for community facilities and services grows”.
