“We’ve been writing stories about Redfern station and we made up this character called RL in our stories. RL is a superhero at Redfern station who helps people get up the stairs”, says Elaine Zhong, introducing the character the students at Alexandria Park Community School created with graphic artist Erin Dullard.
When Playgroups in the Park set up in Redfern Park in the middle of June the class took the opportunity to distribute copies of the zine containing stories starring RL to parents of toddlers in strollers who experience the inconvenience of a station without lifts.
Local mother Kate Montague was extremely impressed that Alexandria Park was encouraging the children to be involved in a local community campaign. She said the boys who spoke to her were very articulate and explained that they were trying to get lifts for people with disabilities, and then, looking at her with her young daughter wriggling in her stroller she said they added: “Oh yes, and for people like you too with your pram.”
The class has also been writing letters to the Planning Minister and the Transport Minister pointing out the huge number of people who use the station – 42,000 per day – and that after Central, the station is second for interchange possibilities and the number of steps for different platforms. One of their letters can be found on page 9 (see online for hand-written letters).
