There are calls for authorised traditional owners to be given greater power to access culturally significant sites on private land in the wake of substantial damage being done to an ancient stone arrangement in western Victoria.
Key points:
- A review into Victoria's Aboriginal Heritage Act is underway
- There are concerns authorised traditional owners don't have enough power to access sites at risk of harm, or that have been damaged
- Recent damage to an ancient stone arrangement at Lake Bolac has sparked the discussion
A landowner from Lake Bolac who moved the stones over the Easter weekend has apologised for his actions and Aboriginal Victoria has inspected the site.
But representatives from the Registered Aboriginal Party for the area, Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, have not stepped foot on the property in the days since finding out that the Kooyang Stone Arrangement — one of the only formations of its kind left — has been partially destroyed.
Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council chair Rodney Carter said in cases where culturally significant sites were at risk of harm or had been harmed, authorised traditional owners needed to be given greater power to inspect the affected areas.
"When Aboriginal cultural heritage, like the stone arrangement, has been disturbed and messed with, it's not easy to fix what's happened," he said.
"The quicker people can respond in an appropriate manner, the better it is for everyone."
A review into the Aboriginal Heritage Act is underway, and the council is due to release its full recommendations in the next few weeks.
'On the other side of the fence, looking in'
Mr Carter said the public should better understand how the disconnection with the land itself is "extremely traumatic" for Aboriginal people.
"Aside from the event of the destruction of heritage, as people, we're obligated as traditional owners and custodians to care for these places so when something bad happens you feel so terrible that you've failed," he said.
"You haven't been able to do something that is of the highest importance.
"We need people to understand that that in itself is a really terrible trauma to the individual and to the community."
He said owners of private property with sites of cultural importance on their land should be better informed and take responsibility for looking after heritage.
In cases like the Lake Bolac eel stone arrangement, Mr Carter said the lack of access to the land created hurdles for traditional owners.
"You're on the other side of the fence, looking in," he said.
"And a lot of the time you're not even on the other side of the fence, you're out taking care of something else."
Mr Carter said Registered Aboriginal Parties across Victoria were dealing with intrusions, threats of harm or actual damage to cultural heritage on a weekly basis.
Scarred tree felled by chainsaw a fortnight ago
At the Lake Bolac property where a large section of a stone eel was partially destroyed, an order has been issued under the Aboriginal Heritage Act to stop any further damage from occurring.
But the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation's John Clarke, who is charged with protecting cultural heritage in the area, has not yet been allowed to inspect the property in person.
Mr Clarke has been out to Lake Bolac multiple times over the past few days to look at what's been done from the side of the road.
He said he believed he should have the power to access a private property in such a situation.
"Where it's certainly demonstrable that there is immediate threat or risk to cultural heritage values, there certainly is a case for that," he said.
"It is frustrating and it adds to the trauma of this whole process."
Mr Clarke said it was important for people to understand that high profile incidents of damage to cultural heritage were just one part of a bigger problem.
"There's still challenges that are being worked through in Gariwerd [the Grampians]," he said.
He said a culturally modified tree was found felled in western Victoria and reported to Eastern Maar a fortnight ago.
"It was on public land but someone had put a chainsaw through the scar and left the tree on the ground," he said.
"It was the only tree that had been cut down."
Mr Clarke said each incident added to a sense of "accumulated loss".