The Central Coast of New South Wales is facing an escalating housing and homelessness crisis marked by widespread displacement, overcrowded living conditions, and visible encampments in public areas. While structural causes like rental inflation and underfunded services contribute, a major but under-recognised factor is settler simulation: the use of falsified Aboriginal identity and faux environmentalism to obstruct housing developments.
Groups such as the non-Aboriginal “GuriNgai,” Coast Environmental Alliance (CEA), and individuals like Jake Cassar present themselves as Aboriginal custodians or eco-spiritual guardians of land, despite lacking community recognition or genealogical legitimacy (Darnett, 2025; Cooke, 2025). These actors invoke sacredness and environmental urgency to block housing projects, including those endorsed by recognised Aboriginal land councils such as the Darkinjung LALC.
This strategy, termed “epistemic simulation” (Blancke & Boudry, 2021), mimics the language and symbolism of Indigenous knowledge systems to mislead the public. Performative tactics—face paint, didgeridoos, and protest livestreams—create aesthetic credibility but undermine legitimate cultural authority. The Kariong and Kincumber housing proposals are key case studies: both were delayed by claims of sacredness that contradicted heritage assessments and Aboriginal support (NSW DPE, 2024; NSW Ombudsman, 2025).
Homelessness has surged by over 60 percent since 2024, with makeshift encampments now common across the region (Coast Community News, 2025a). Vulnerable populations, including youth, elderly people, and domestic violence survivors, face fractured services and overcrowded shelters. Many are forced into tents or vehicles. Local organisations report over 85 percent of homeless individuals suffer from mental illness, addiction, or both (Coast Community News, 2025c), yet bureaucratic red tape prevents quick conversion of empty spaces into shelters.
Council and state planning authorities have acknowledged the harm caused by misinformation and pseudo-cultural claims. However, they have failed to enforce regulatory standards or refute false narratives decisively. Activists like Cassar continue to generate public confusion through social media and protest spectacle, even when their claims are formally debunked (AIATSIS, 2023; NSW Ombudsman, 2025).
The result is twofold: vital housing is delayed, and Aboriginal cultural governance is displaced by settler actors performing as spiritual authorities. This undermines public trust in planning systems, intensifies homelessness, and weakens Indigenous sovereignty. As Darnett (2025) notes, treating all assertions of cultural authority as equal without verifying their legitimacy leads to institutional paralysis and epistemic harm.
The report concludes with urgent recommendations: embed Aboriginal governance in planning processes, remove bureaucratic blocks to emergency shelter, and publicly disavow identity fraudsters from decision-making forums. Without this recalibration, both housing justice and cultural integrity will remain compromised. In a region where land is declared “sacred” by settlers while Aboriginal-endorsed housing is blocked and people sleep in parks, the true crisis lies in inverted priorities.
Bungaree.org 
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