A Canberra developer planning to build luxury apartments on land allegedly used for “sacred” men’s business has been told it can be built because there is not enough remaining of the site’s Indigenous history to warrant protection.
Key points:
- A proposed luxury development was paused after concerns the land was a sacred men’s business site
- A local Ngambri man claimed several artefacts pointed to the site’s history and needed to be preserved
- An assessment commissioned by developers determined the site was too damaged for conservation, paving the way for construction to begin
Doma Group’s ‘The Foothills’ luxury apartments were set to be built at the former CSIRO headquarters in Campbell, ACT, until local Ngambri man Shane Mortimer raised concerns of the land’s special Indigenous history.
The Environment Minister ordered a halt to development after it was revealed a 2013 desktop assessment of the land never consulted local Indigenous groups and did not include a field survey of the site.
Now, a new heritage assessment commissioned by Doma Group has confirmed the presence of an Aboriginal artefact scatter at the site.
But the assessors, Navin Officer Heritage Consultants, say it holds little heritage value.
“Although constituting evidence of past local Aboriginal occupation, the lack of rare or exceptional characteristics, its disturbed context, and the low artefact incidence provides little opportunity for gaining valuable information from further archaeological investigation,” Navin Officer said.
Following the report, a delegate for the Environment Minister wrote to Mr Mortimer yesterday to confirm the development had been approved under the Conservation Act, allowing the development proposal to go ahead.
Consultants say kangaroo engraving made by machine
Mr Mortimer had pointed to two pieces of evidence in particular that, according to him, proved the site’s history as a sacred place for men’s business: a ‘pointer rock’ used as a navigational marker to locate Tidbinbilla Mountain, and a ‘petroglyph’ of a kangaroo carved onto a dacite boulder.
The presence of the reported kangaroo petroglyph had previously been kept secret for fear of vandalism.
But consultants said neither confirmed claims of the site’s history for men’s business.
It found the ‘pointer rock’ was a natural formation, and that the petroglyph had been made mechanically using metal tools, and likely moved to the site from elsewhere in recent decades.
“The boulder, together with a further five in the nearby area, appear to have been moved to their current positions sometime between 1958 and 1961, as evidenced by aerial photography. This may have been a result of land clearance and/or nearby road works,” Navin Officer said.
Consultants said the style of the engraving was also inconsistent with known petroglyphs in the region, and that a petroglyph on dacitic rock had never before been recorded in the south-east NSW region.
Mr Mortimer disputed their findings, citing the findings of his own-commissioned report by heritage consultants Huonbrook, which concluded the boulder had been in its current spot for “centuries or millennia”.
“The surface of the set of linear markings towards the base of the boulder has weathered to a degree which is virtually indistinguishable from the weathered and slightly pitted original surface, suggesting these markings are not of recent (i.e. post-European settlement) age,” the Huonbrook report found.
Palaeontologist Brad Opdyke, from the Australian National University, also said the weathering and patina of the engraving indicated it, too, was thousands of years old.
“It pre-dates European arrival by a lot, and there can be no doubt about that … it is not a fresh carving at all, by any stretch of the imagination,” Professor Opdyke said.
“It has been there for a long time, and you can tell,” Mr Mortimer said.
Navin Officer reviewed the Huonbrook report but said it did not prove the Ngambri claim.
Conflict of interest compromises findings, Mortimer says
Consultants said even if these artefacts confirmed the site’s Ngambri history, its modern history as the home of the CSIRO had left it so badly impacted that very little of the ‘pre-European’ landscape remained.
“The study area contains Indigenous heritage values … which is assessed as having low archaeological significance due to the sparseness of artefacts and its disturbed context,” Navin Officer said.
“The site does not meet threshold for inclusion on either the national or commonwealth lists.”
Mr Mortimer said Navin Officer’s conclusion was irrelevant because it was inevitably going to draw conclusions that favoured the developer.
“The Navin Officer report was commissioned by Doma, the developer … they’re going to report what the developer wants, they’re being paid by the developer to do so,” Mr Mortimer said.
He said heritage consultants had not listened to Ngambri concerns.
“They haven’t taken into account the cultural significance of the site, they have only considered the archaeology,” Mr Mortimer said.
“There’s a lot more to the site than just the archaeology.”
The heritage consultants visited the site on five separate occasions, including a visit alongside Mr Mortimer, and two visits alongside other Aboriginal community representatives.
The consultants have recommended Doma Group collect what artefacts can be seen before construction and re-position them nearby, in consultation with Aboriginal community representatives.
Doma was also advised to preserve the rocky outcroppings where possible, despite technically not being required to do so under the Conservation Act.
In a statement, Doma Group said it accepted the recommendations.
It is awaiting a final approval from the National Capital Authority before it can begin construction.
