Sydney suburb on edge as Cronulla race riot anniversary looms

It is 10 years since a race riot blew up in the usually tranquil Sydney suburb of Cronulla. An anti-immigration group's plan to hold a "memorial" rally has locals fearing a new outbreak of violence.

The proposed rally has been widely opposed - police have refused to issue it a permit and injunctions to block the event are before the Australian Human Rights Commission and New South Wales Supreme Court.

But anti-multiculturalism group Party for Freedom still plans to go ahead with its event on Saturday.

The party's spokesman, Nick Folkes, told the BBC his group respected the local community and had complied with requests from authorities to stage the rally at a park away from the intended site at Cronulla beach.

"We're not going down to start a riot, that's not our intention at all. We understand that Cronulla is a beautiful place," Mr Folkes said.

"What happened 10 years ago protected [it], Cronulla's remained pretty peaceful and they haven't had gangs coming in," Mr Folkes said.

Mr Folkes says that some locals support his point of view, but community leaders are adamant that the views of the Party for Freedom are not widely held in Cronulla.

Chamber of commerce spokeswoman Annette Tasker said the rally would be disastrous for local businesses.

Business owners blamed the riots for a sharp drop in business in the years following 2005, with some reporting drops in trade of up to 50%.

"The trauma that business owners suffered 10 years ago is of no concern to [Party for Freedom] whatsoever," Ms Tasker said.

"Some people didn't make it, they just didn't make it. You can only suffer financial loss for so long.

"It's very hard to overcome fear in a business."

Sutherland Shire Deputy Mayor Hassan Awada, a Muslim who came to Australia from Lebanon, ran a barber shop in Cronulla at the time of the riot.

He said in the wake of the riots he was inundated with support.

"I could not count the number of people who walked into my shop to basically let me know and reassure me that after what happened they were just as disappointed as I was," Mr Awada said.

"They destroyed the local area's reputation [then] and this group is doing exactly the same, claiming to come to the area to support the Australian way of life, but ... destroying it."

Police say there will be a large police presence in Cronulla on Saturday. New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione will make an official statement later in the week.

Referring to the events of 2005, Mr Scipione told Australia's 60 Minutes in November: "The place was just swimming with alcohol, large crowds, a lot of emotion and then the build of the heat. All of those together, it's almost like a perfect storm."

The Party for Freedom follows an agenda largely focused on preventing Muslims from immigrating to Australia. It was one of the groups involved with Reclaim Australia.

The Reclaim Australia movement has pushed anti-immigration groups into the media spotlight recently with several series of rallies held in major cities this year.

A loose coalition of groups with widely varying agendas, the common in the movement's Australia's ideology is opposition to Islam and a perception that the government kowtows to minority groups.