Important Aboriginal heritage has been overlooked by City of Gosnells in a rush to approve clearing for the Maddington Kenwick Strategic Employment Area, the WA Greens say.
“Numerous stone artefacts dating back thousands of years have been found within the MKSEA development area and within living memory, people were camping at Yule Brook in the vicinity of the MKSEA,” Greens East Metropolitan MLC Tim Clifford said.
“City of Gosnells received explicit advice in a report it commissioned in 2009 that there were eight registered Aboriginal heritage sites within the MKSEA and potential for more sites to be uncovered during earthworks.
“The report, by consultancy Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management, also warned the City risked breaching the Aboriginal Heritage Act if it allowed development without archaeological and ethnographic surveys occurring first.
“However, in answer to my questions in Parliament, the Aboriginal Affairs Minister has confirmed that Precinct 3a of the MKSEA was allowed to be cleared by City of Gosnells without either of such surveys taking place.
“I understand that City of Gosnells plans to present to the Whadjuk Working Party at the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council about the MKSEA development, but this does not fix the fact that clearing has already occurred.
“The City’s Precinct 3a Structure Plan reveals that in January 2016, another consultant visited registered site number 4340, shown on the Aboriginal Heritage Sites Register to be located within Precinct 3a, and concluded the site was actually located 100 metres to the south-east.
“On this flimsy basis, the Structure Plan concludes; ‘no further consideration of Indigenous heritage is required’ for Precinct 3a, although anyone who has read the 2009 report by ACHM would be aware that this was incorrect.
“The Greens call on the McGowan Government to investigate whether City of Gosnells knowingly breached the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act, and we further call for a halt to all planning and development across the whole MKSEA until a thorough Aboriginal heritage management strategy has been developed through consultation with all relevant Traditional Owners.”