By Wakool Indigenous Corporation
The destruction of dozens of ancient heritage sites including unregistered burials looks set to be assured as the NSW Office of Water continues to blunder through the $10 billion Water for the Future Initiative.
The local community is up in arms over the complete disregard for heritage and human rights shown by the NSW Government. Nearby burial sites have previously been dated by The Australian National University as older than 42,000 years; making the area home to the oldest human remains in Australia.
West Abercrombie Project Engineer Boama Amaofo was confronted last Friday by the Indigenous Knowledge holders but instead of listening to their concerns he continued to site without them- in clear breach of NSW heritage guidelines. Previously Mr Amaofo had told the community that a complete heritage survey was out of the question as there was “no money in the budget” even though the project budget stands at $136 million.
Traditional Owner Gary Pappin asks “What on earth are they spending the money on? It’s preposterous that such a simple process can be ignored by a government that should know better”. An offer by the community to provide a qualified archaeologist to undertake a watching brief for free, was counteracted by Mr Amaofo with a flat out “No”.
An urgent Stop Work Order has been requested from the NSW Government to prevent these sacred sites from disappearing forever.
From Wakool Indigenous Corporation: http://www.wakool.com.au/