ABORIGINAL BID TO STOP DRUG ROOM IN CROSS

Australia's first sanctioned drug injecting centre faces a new legal
challenge with Aboriginal people claiming it is situated inappropriately in
a sacred area.

Indigenous elder and undertaker Allan Murray has filed a caveat with the
Land Titles Office seeking to bar the injecting room from opening because
it is close to an Aboriginal burial ground.

He argues the traditional Aboriginal inhabitants of the Kings Cross area
have a right to veto the facility.

A similar caveat placed on a proposed drug rehabilitation centre in Redfern
contributed to development on that project stalling a decade ago.

"All of Kings Cross is an ancient Aboriginal burial ground," Mr Murray said
yesterday.

"It was chosen because it is on high land and there is no flooding.

"[To open the injecting room] is contrary to Aboriginal law and the spirit
of reconciliation."

The move follows the State Government's gazetting legislation three weeks
ago to allow the centre to operate from May 1.

Mr Murray and Kings Cross Aboriginal resident Gary Simon Jagamarra lodged
the caveat with land title authorities on Friday.

They argue there was no proper consultation with Aboriginal custodians.

The Uniting Church, which has established the injecting room amid fierce
controversy, has 21 days to respond to the Aboriginal claim.

Mr Murray said that if the church failed to respect the caveat he would
take the matter to the NSW Supreme Court.

But the Reverend Harry Herbert, executive director of Uniting Care, said he
was not troubled by the move and was confident the centre would be able to
open.

"It seems to me to be a somewhat odd claim," Mr Herbert said. "It doesn't
seem to me to have any legal validity whatsoever."

Mr Herbert said he was puzzled that Mr Murray had not come forward with the
claim earlier and why the caveat should apply to the injecting room and not
nearby stripclubs.

"No-one has ever raised any matter vaguely like this," he said.

Mr Herbert declined to say when the injecting room would open. The church
has said it does not want a flood of publicity on the first day.

Mr Murray has been involved in lodging a similar caveat on land at Callan
Park, which he argues is the most significant Aboriginal site in inner Sydney.

In 1991 the Land and Environment Court refused to strike out a claim of
ownership of a site in Redfern by an Aboriginal group with which Mr Murray
was associated.

A proposal had been in place to establish a drug rehabilitation centre but
Mr Murray said hundreds of Aborigines had been cremated on it.

Mr Murray said yesterday that he had objected to those premises on the
grounds that the centre would have included a bar.