longwall mining - rock carvings - sharpening grooves - giant marsupials - water - emu - waratah rivulet

Aboriginal sites under threat from longwall mining

The Waratah Rivulet Aboriginal Camp Site - 1st Sept 2010

The photographs on this page record the sharpening grooves, rock carving and other activities of the Wadi Wadi tribe of the Illawarra on top of the cliffs overlooking the Waratah Rivulet near Helensburg NSW.

The first photograph shows an ancient giant emu carving in the rock. Allan Carriage is using water to follow the outline for the camera. Allan has spoken of this particular rock carving in the past as pre-historic.

Scientists now tell us that prior to 10,000 years ago many large species of Kangaroo, Wallaby, Wombat, Emu and other fauna existed in Australia. Signs of aboriginal tools have been found around newly discovered cooking fires where the young of these animals were eaten.

The assessment of aboriginal sites for destruction

Since Allan Carriage joined the Macarthur Bushwalkers and we have been exposed to and recorded the destruction of aboriginal sites we have wondered what the criteria was for their grading. We found this information in a document with the following warning on its back page.

Bulli Seam Operations DRAFT Aboriginal Cultural Heritage BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal Assessment

Page 161 - Appendix 3: Detailed Aboriginal Site Information

This information includes culturally sensitive material. The information is reserved for use by:

• The aboriginal stakeholders
• The proponents and their agents
• Determining and advising Government Agencies and their agents
• other parties approved by the above

This document was prepared for BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal by BIOSIS Research of Alexandria NSW and is dated March 2009.

Thousands of aboriginal sites in proposed mining area

The document contains maps clearly showing thousands of aboriginal sites throughout the Bulli Coal Seam Project area and methods of assessing aboriginal sites.

The sites are rated:

1. PAD / Sandstone Shelter with PAD only
2. Sandstone Platform with Grinding Groove / Engraving
3. Sandstone Shelter with Art / Grinding Groove / Engraving / Deposit
4. Sandstone Shelter with Deposit only
5. Scarred tree
6. Stone Artifact(s)
7. Stone Arrangement - outside Study Area
8. Site of Cultural Significance -- outside Study Area

Longwall mining damage

The following four photographs show two new cracks 40 paces apart, a distance of approximately 40 metres. The two cracks which bisect this ancient camp site were not expected by any of the group at this location.

The question must be asked "is this a significant site?" If so, how is that determined? Will it be repaired should the damage progressively worsen?

It would seem that the answer would come from advice given by academic archeologists, heritage managers and the indigenous communities. We asked Allan Carriage if he knew of anyone from his community who had been consulted by the mining companies about the value and importance of the sites on their lands to his people. The answer was an emphatic NO!

Archeological Significance

Page 119 - Table 8 is the Risk Impact Assessment for sites of High and Moderate archeological significance. This page and others publish columns containing:

1. Site number - example 52-2-3027
2. Site name - example BC 3 or Upper Georges River 1
3. Site type - description ie Sandstone platform with grinding groove / engraving
4. Archeological significance - examples Moderate or Low
5. Risk of impact - examples Negligible, Very Low, Low, Moderate with the odd High impact rating

In the past we have experienced these low or negligible ratings from BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal. One only has to visit Simpsons Creek near Appin to view negligible damage. View the damage to Sydney's Upper Canal. Simpsons Creek was totally destroyed with its rock bed being shattered, its cliffs collapsing and total loss of water flow. Both Simpsons Creek and the Upper Canal can be seen on this website.

Monitoring of sandstone overhangs for subsidence movement

BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal talks about the monitoring of sandstone overhangs for the detection of subsidence movement in the Southern Coalfield. An example of this is already documented with Simpsons Creek which features on this website along with supporting photographs.see Simpsons Creek

Lets discuss the Whale Cave found on the Whale Cave link, a cave of great significance to the Illawarra tribes according to Allan

We visited the Whale Cave earlier this year and found the cave in shocking condition. The Whale cave which is home to significant art simply collapsing taking the art with it. The complete overhang on one side and not part of the cave has completely collapsed. The cave is completely unsafe to enter. The roof was shored up by BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal with props and mesh in the 90's, BHP Billiton was the organisation which caused the damage in the first place.

We were informed that it is doubtful that the cave can be saved. Another example of too little too late. see Whale Cave

The cave is adjacent to BHP Billiton Illawarra Coal's Dendrobium mine.

NSW Government attitude to aboriginal culture

Macarthur Bushwalkers have raised the issue of the Whale cave and other issues embracing cracked rivers beds, loss of water from Sydney's catchment and damage to aboriginal sites. We have written to ministers, shadow ministers, the NSW premier Kristina Keneally and local MP's.

From their responses we have determined that the man in the hot seat is NSW Government Minister for the Environment Frank Sartor. Mr Sartor appears to have adopted the attitude that "if there is coal underneath the ground that the mining industry wants then they are welcome to take it irrespective of the long term cost to the population of NSW."

One would think that by far the greatest reason to stop the mining under Sydney's water supply is a population of 5,000,000 people, a number which is increasing. With this in mind the fact that aboriginal culture is being regularly destroyed comes as no surprise.

• Sixty eight thousand years ago the aboriginal people may have arrived in Australia from the Great Rift Valley. A few items of rock art in the north record a migration down through Indonesia from Asia when the sea levels were much lower, a small window of opportunity.
• Ten thousand years ago Australian aborigines hunted giant marsupials whilst man was killing the last of thee Woolly Mammoths in North America.
• At the same time the Great Lakes and Niagara Fall was forming after an ice age.
• Two thundered years ago white man arrived and with the arrogance of the western powers of that time considerably reduced the aboriginal population.
• Approximately twenty years ago the NSW Labor government came into power and to this day is still causing massive damage to the states river, creeks and environment.

Examples of the value of ancient art in areas other than Australia

The Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and south west Asia. It began about 40,000 to 36,000 years ago, and lasted until about 28,000 to 26,000 years ago. The name originates from the type site Aurignac Haute Garonne area of France. The Aurignacian culture is considered by some archaeologists to have co-existed with the Périgordian culture of tool making.

For more details please visit Cave paintings - Wikipedia

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