The Water Northern Rivers Alliance have accused Rous County Council (Rous) of being 'wrong' concerning heritage protection, water security and governance.

The accusation comes as Rous has commissioned a heritage and biodiversity study in the Rocky Creek valley between Dunoon and The Channon.

"However, this time, Rous’s heritage study is specifically seeking to excavate the registered, ancient, and sacred Widjabul Wia-bal cemetery," says the Alliance.

The Alliance also states that, for the first time, landholders are now ‘locking their gate’ by not allowing Rous or their consultants (Everick & Ecosure) physical access to their properties.

Jan Petroff is refusing access to her property: “Considering there have already been extensive studies into the biodiversity and cultural heritage aspects, we regard this (the 2024 study) as a totally unnecessary waste of taxpayers’ money and a great inconvenience to all concerned, as this has already been going on for close to twenty years now. Widjabul Wia-bal elders have made it very clear that they regard any intrusion or destruction of their sacred burial grounds as completely unacceptable. My family and I respect this, and will not be willing to allow access to Rous Water on our property now or in the future”.

(Jan Petroff on her property at Dunoon. Photo: supplied)

According to the Alliance, Rous’s tender document (p5) claims they received a request from Widjabul Wia-bal People to commission an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment for the proposed Dunoon Dam project area.

However, the following statement has been provided from the Widjabul Wia-bal Gurrumbil Aboriginal Corporation on behalf of Widjabul Wia-bal: “Widjabul Wia-bal Gurrumbil Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC strongly oppose the Dunoon Dam project. Widjabul Wia-bal Gurrumbil Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC do not support Rous County Council engaging Everick Heritage to undertake a further Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Survey of the area. If a further Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Survey is undertaken by Rous County Council, this must be done in direct consultation with Widjabul Wia-bal Gurrumbil Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC and adopt all recommendations made by the RNTBC on behalf of Widjabul Wia-bal.”

The Water Northern Rivers Alliance says: “There is no support from Traditional Owners nor is there a social licence. We now challenge Rous to show our whole community justcause as to why they’re prepared to waste more of our public funds on a dead-end pipe dream. We believe this is yet another shameful waste of public resources in a long liturgy of abusing cultural heritage”.

The Water Northern Rivers Alliance are asking Rous to please explain, so the Lismore App approached Rous County Council for that explanation.

Rous' spokesperson Tanya Burle, said the new assessment, dates back to a council motion in February 2022 when a motion was moved to "undertake a comprehensive cultural heritage and biodiversity assessments for the proposed Dunoon Dam."

"This has really been in response to that. I think it's also important to note, that while council has requested this, they have also been partly informed, by correspondence that council received from NTS Corp, who are the representative body that are acting on behalf of the Widjabul Wia-bal Native Title Claim group, specifically requesting that the council undertake a cultural heritage assessment. They wanted another one done by appropriately qualified archaeologists.

"This was communication that was sent through to council in June of 2021. So these assessments have been on the cards for a couple of years now. So really, it is now just getting that process going. They commenced in March of this year, and they'll be going for approximately 12 months, at which point comprehensive reports will be provided to the counsellors, and they will use those to help inform their decision-making from there."

Tanya explained the complex structure around the NTS Corp request.

"When a native title claim group is going through a process of getting a representative body corporate, up until the point that they have an appointed representative group that's been nominated and elected and all of that, we are directed under federal court legislation to actually deal with the representative body. And that representative body up until that point is NTS Corp. Now, in terms of the level of relationship, agreement, and consensus between all of the members of the native title claim group and NTS Corp itself, I'm not in a position to comment on. But from the perspective of an organisation taking directions, we are required to respect the directions that NTS Corp provide to us on behalf of that claim group."

As far as the Dunoon Dam itself is concerned, Tanya explained that it is one of a number of options that are on the table for Rous to explore in ensuring water security for our region.

"It is in the stage three options, of which also extended groundwater, desalination and purified recycled water are also part of the mix. We are at the absolute beginning of this. There is absolutely no decision that's been made at this point. This is the very, very initial stage of getting some assessments done, and even if there was any sort of result from that that might show an interest in having more information to work with, the subsequent investigations and studies are really very exhaustive, we're talking years."

"I think the other thing worth noting here is that in that (Water Northern Rivers Alliance) article, there was specifically a reference made to test excavations. I think it's really important for the community to know that any comprehensive cultural heritage assessment always has the scope to undertake test excavations. It is one of the many options open to the archaeologists, but it is by no means saying that that is going to happen."

"So, does a cultural heritage assessment provide scope for that? Yes, it does. But it definitely is not saying that we're certainly going to do that. It is going to be very much dependent on all of the information that's gathered."

"The other thing I think is important for the community to be aware of, is there's actually a specific permit process required if there was a decision that some test excavations are required. So, commencing the assessment does not mean that you automatically can go and do excavations anyway. There's an additional permitting process that would be required and very strict regulations, codes of practise and guidelines that surround this that mean that it wouldn't actually be disturbing the direct burial artefacts themselves as well."

"There's a lot more to this, and I think, that it's unfortunate that the way that it was framed in that article, it seems to be indicating that this is definitely going to happen and that it's actually directly impacting potentially the remains of people that could or could not be present in that location."