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Aboriginal protesters stop road work near Hobart

Felicity Ogilvie reported this story on Thursday, April 14, 2011 18:48:00

MARK COLVIN: Aboriginal protesters have forced work to stop on a road that's going to be built over a historic site near Hobart.

The site contains 42,000-year-old Aboriginal relics. Archaeologists say it's the southernmost old site habitation in the hemisphere.*

But the site is in the path of a bypass, and the State Government has decided not to divert the road around the relics, instead it is building a bridge over the site.

Felicity Ogilvie reports from the site at Brighton, north of Hobart.

(chanting)

PROTESTERS: Cultural vandalism; shame, shame, shame!

FELICITY OGILVIE: It might look like an ordinary paddock, but beneath the grass here are stone tools, 42,000 years old.

And this group of Aboriginal protestors want those artefacts protected. So this afternoon, they walked into the fenced off construction site and asked the workers to leave.

AARON EVERETT: This is Aboriginal land here so I'd like you to please get into your vehicle and leave the site.

(chanting)

PROTESTERS: Cultural vandalism; shame, shame, shame!

FELICITY OGILVIE: As the worker drove off in his ute, the protest leader, the Aboriginal Heritage Officer, Aaron Everett, locked the gate behind him.

AARON EVERETT: I don't think it's going to be any major hiccup to his pay cheque but the fact is he's got to realise what he's doing when he's coming here to work and I believe the only people that are getting interfered with here is the Government and the major development for this road to go through this sacred site.

FELICITY OGILVIE: And how significant is the site that you want to protect?

AARON EVERETT: It's as significant as Tasmania. But the point is we have our right to continue learning our history and our culture and if these areas continue to be destroyed, what else will we have left?

Forty-two thousand years; is that significant in Australian history, world history? I believe it is. And if you can't protect the oldest site in the Southern Hemisphere, when will it say that we'll be able to protect anything again, let alone in Tasmania, probably in this country.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The workers only got permission to start work on the site on Monday.

That's when the State Government announced that instead of building a highway around the site, like the Aboriginal community requested, they would build a bridge over it.

The Minister, who made the decision, Brian Wightman, wouldn't speak to PM today, but earlier this week, he insisted the new design would protect the artefacts. But the protesters say that's impossible.

PROTESTOR (on loudspeaker): What are they doing? They are destroying 42,000-year-old Aboriginal heritage. Now this is a treasure not only for Aborigines but for all of Tasmania.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The workers called the police, who turned up but didn't arrest anyone.

PROTESTER: Now the police are saying that they respect our right to protest; they're refusing to let us lock the gates to stop the destruction of our land. They're refusing to let us protect Aboriginal land and we'll be doing whatever we can to stop them won't we Packi-narh (phonetic)

FELICITY OGILVIE: The protesters say they'll stay at Brighton for as long as it takes to stop the bridge being built on what they say is a sacred site.

(chanting)

PROTESTERS: ... reroute the road ..

MARK COLVIN: Felicity Ogilvie.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: 19.4.11 The introduction to this story has been amended to remove an incorrect reference to the site being the "oldest site of human habitation in the southern hemisphere" . It should read the "southernmost old occupation site in the hemisphere."