Traditional owners said they were “devastated and traumatized” by the alleged damage to a 1,500-year-old heritage-listed stone arrangement that curved up the hill in the shape of an eel, and was a significant ceremonial and meeting site prior to European colonization of Australia.
The Kuyang stone arrangement stretched across 176m of private farmland at Lake Bolac in southwestern Victoria, about 230km west of Melbourne.
It is visible from the Glenelg Highway, and the tail end of the structure was reportedly damaged when the highway was created.
On Sunday, a non-Indigenous local living in the Lake Bolac area reported that a section of the stone arrangement appeared to have been damaged by a grader.
Inspectors from the regulator, Aboriginal Victoria, yesterday traveled to Lake Bolac to assess the reported damage.
The registered Aboriginal party, the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corp, said up to 60m of the stone arrangement appears to have been destroyed.
Company chief executive officer Marcus Clarke, a Gunditjmara-Kirrae Whurrong man, said it was “pretty devastating” to hear that the site had been damaged.
“We can’t underestimate the importance of the site or the devastation the destruction has caused,” he said. “The Lake Bolac site has been an important gathering site prior to European colonization and is steeped in cultural and historical importance.”
The stone arrangement sits on private farmland that has been owned by the same family for more than 120 years.
Clarke said members of Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corp viewed the site from the roadside after the damage was reported.
He said they do not have the authority to go onto private land and would wait for the Aboriginal Victoria heritage assessment team to provide its initial report.
“[We are] devastated, it’s pretty traumatic,” he said. “Cultural heritage in the landscape underpins pretty much everything that we do, and that’s our role — to protect cultural heritage. [Damage to] something as significant as that site, it’s pretty traumatic.”
He said the site was “very well known” by both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the area, due to the annual eel festival at Lake Bolac and because the site is visible from the road.
It is just 100km from the world heritage-listed Budj Bim eel traps.
Clarke said the destruction by Rio Tinto of the Juukan Gorge Aboriginal heritage site in Western Australia had raised the profile of protecting Aboriginal heritage in the national psyche, and Aboriginal Victoria had also worked with landowners to ensure they were aware of their obligations to protect heritage.
Paul Paton, the chief executive of the Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Councils, said he was “heartbroken” for the Eastern Maar people.
He said the alleged damage to the site would affect traditional owners throughout Victoria.
“They’ll be thinking about their heritage sites which are on private land, hoping this won’t happen to them and wishing they could do more to protect them,” he said.
A member of the family that owns the land on which the stone arrangement sits told Australian Broadcasting Corp that he was not sure if people doing work on the property knew the significance of the site.
“The idea that private land holders might not be aware that such important sites exist, despite being registered with the state government, is horrifying,” Paton said.
“It really comes down to education and respect. The best way to moderate people’s behavior is to educate them on what’s out there, the importance of those sites to us as traditional owners and then everyone should be just as proud of preserving that rich history as we are,” he said.
A spokesperson from Aboriginal Victoria confirmed that the regulator was investigating the allegations.
“It is an offense to cause harm to Aboriginal cultural heritage under the Aboriginal Heritage Act and substantial penalties can apply,” they said.
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