Forum: Forest due for clearing in Woodlands deserves heritage impact assessment
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I refer to the article “ 10.4ha of forest in Woodlands to be cleared from 2026 for industrial, mixed-use developments
Much of the report focused on the environmental impact assessment done by JTC. The site’s communal history would qualify as hidden or undiscovered history in Singapore. For some people in Singapore, it was a lived history.
During a recent visit to the site with a local heritage group, I learnt that inside the forested area was the site of a former refugee camp called “Hawkins Road Refugee Camp”. The camp once housed Vietnamese refugees from the late 1970s to 1996. A former refugee in our group recalled the days living at the camp, and was grateful for the support Singaporeans have given him.
At the time, Singaporeans living in the Marsiling area volunteered at the camp to teach the refugees English, or helped in other ways to comfort the refugees and prepare them for onward journeys to host nations such as Australia and the US.
As for the former View Road Building, it was a pre-war building and part of the Singapore British Naval Base. During the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, it served as a headquarters building for the Imperial Japanese Navy. They even constructed an air-raid bunker near the refugee camp. After the war, it was used to house families of the British Naval Police.
Several years ago, I had the privilege of listening to stories of family life at the building from a former local resident during a tour there conducted by the National Heritage Board. The building later became a mental hospital run by Woodbridge Hospital from 1975 to 2001. It was later used as a foreign workers’ dormitory before it was left vacant, remaining so to this day.
Now that the site is earmarked for future development, a heritage impact assessment should also be done to document the many layers of the site’s past so that some of its histories, and stories, can be reflected in the area’s new identity in the future.
Kwok Jung Yun
