Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth)
Notice of an application for the protection of significant traditional areas located within the Abbot Point State Development Area, Queensland.
Invitation to make representations
I, Daniel Leo, hereby give notice as follows:
The Minister for the Environment, responsible for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth) (the Act), has received an application made under section 10 of the Act. The application is seeking long term preservation and protection of significant Aboriginal areas located within the Abbot Point State Development Area, Queensland, and appointed me to provide a report to her under section 10(1)(c) of the Act.
The Applicant
The application is made by Mr Andrew Morrell, who identifies himself as a “Traditonal Owner, Juru Common Law Holder, Chairman of Juru Enterprises Ltd, and Advisory Committee member to Administrator of Kyburra Munda Yalga RNTBC”.
The purpose of the application
The application seeks the preservation or protection of the three areas specified in the application, shown at Figure 1 below, from injury or desecration. Section 10 of the Act enables the Minister to decide whether to make a declaration to preserve and protect the specified area, if the Minister is satisfied that the area is a significant Aboriginal area and is under threat of injury or desecration. In the Act, the term ‘significant Aboriginal area’ refers to an area that is of particular significance to Aboriginal people in accordance with Aboriginal tradition. Section 3 of the Act provides definitions of ‘significant Aboriginal area’ and other relevant terms including ‘Aboriginal tradition’ and ‘injured or desecrated’. The area specified for protection, the claimed significance of the area, and the claimed nature of the threat of injury or desecration, are set out below.
Matters the report is required to deal with
The Minister will consider my report under section 10 of the Act in relation to the area specified for protection before deciding whether to make a declaration. Under section 10(4) of the Act, the report is required to deal with the following matters:
(a) the particular significance of the area to Aboriginal people;
(b) the nature and extent of the threat of injury to, or desecration of the area;
(c) the extent of the area that should be protected;
(d) the prohibitions and restrictions to be made with respect to the area;
(e) the effects the making of a declaration may have on the proprietary or pecuniary interests of persons other than the applicants on whose behalf the application is made;
(f) the duration of any declaration;
(g) the extent to which the area is or may be protected by or under a law of a State or Territory, and the effectiveness of any remedies available under any such law; and
(h) such other matters (if any) as are prescribed.
The area sought to be protected (the 'specified area')
The Applicant specifies three areas for which protection is sought as traditional areas located within the Abbot Point State Development Area, Queensland. These include:
- Mt Roundback, which is known to the Juru People as Deeryunga, and which contains rock art / rock carving sites and a sacred ochre ground (see the large, bottom-left oval shape in Figure 1 below).
- Burial sites and middens (the middle oval shape in Figure 1 below)
- Burial site and major midden site (the top oval shape in Figure 1 below)
Figure 1: Map showing the specified area within the Abbot Point State Development Area, Queensland
Claimed nature of particular significance
The Applicant states that the three specified areas are of particular significance in accordance with Aboriginal tradition because they have long been recognised to be significant Aboriginal areas. Other statements made by the Applicant include that:
- The specified areas are part of Juru traditional homelands and as such retain immeasurable cultural and spiritual values.
- Deeryunga (Mt Roundback) is surrounded by areas named Worrul Burrul (plains area) and Bobbawobba (wetland area) and Nulla (Saltwater Creek).
- The painted rock art depicts our history/stories and the carved art sites depict mapping to water, hunting or fishing spots or they depict the overlapping areas of tribal boundaries.
- The sacred ochre ground is the only source of ochre within approximately a 100km radius. The ochre is used for rock art and body paint for ceremonies. The ochre is used on paintings in the Whitsunday Islands, and for trade between Juru people and the neighbouring language groups of Gia, Ngaro and Birriah.
- The two other specified areas contain highly significant cultural sites and values in the form of extensive Aboriginal shell middens and campsites (that also contain stone artefacts and shell artefacts) along the foredunes and beach ridges, plus an adjacent stone-wall fish trap in the intertidal zone.
- The specified areas and surrounding landscape were economically important to the Juru people in traditional times as a major fishing ground, and for hunting and gathering both animal and plant resources.
- Local Elders continue to visit the Abbot Point area to collect shellfish, fish, turtle and other bush tucker.
- Elders are today actively involved in ‘caring for country’ along the Abbot Point coastline (for example, through turtle conservation and monitoring programs, Coast Care and native plant re‐vegetation programs).
Claimed threat of injury or desecration
The Application states that the specified area would be injured or desecrated by the proposed future construction and further operation of the Adani Rail and Port developments or any future developments within the declared Abbot Point State Development Area, Queensland, including the Port Expansion Project and Rail Project.
Invitation to make representations
Interested persons are invited to make representations on this matter to:
Mr Daniel Leo
Director, Leo Anthropological Services Pty Ltd
PO Box 1453
Ballina NSW 2478
Ph: 0487 266 622
Email: danleo@mail.com
Representations must be made in writing by close of business on Thursday 14 February 2019 or within such further period as may be allowed. You should not send your representations directly to the Minister.
If you wish to claim confidentiality over any part of your representation, please identify why you are claiming confidentiality and how you want confidentiality to apply. All representations, whether or not they are provided in confidence, will be provided to the Minister for the Environment, and the Department of the Environment and Energy, along with the section 10 report. Representations, even those subject to confidentiality, may be disclosed where it is authorised or required by law, to meet procedural fairness requirements, and in response to a request by a House or Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth.