Farmers in the Boort area have queried the expense of carrying out cultural heritage works, associated with the Connections irrigation project.
Darren Allison and Jack Cain own adjoining properties, just north of Boort. As part of the Connections upgrade, a 20 megalitre a day (ML/day) irrigation channel, on the bank of an old lake bed, was constructed on Mr Allison’s property.
Mr Cain said when work started, there was no indication the area could have heritage significance.
“Some of the maps have got it on, other maps haven’t - when they first said they were going to do this channel, there was nothing on the map they showed us,” Mr Cain said.
“It wasn’t until after they were ready to start that the bloke in charge said ‘I have this map here, which has got this heritage thing’,” he said.
He said he had no objection to investigation for Aboriginal artefacts, prior to the channel works being carried out; his main concern was the cost of the survey, at $39,000.
Mr Allison said the original cost of the project was $278,000, which included bringing in soil to build up the channel; that plan was later dropped.
“The money they saved got gobbled up in the 40 grand, which wasn’t in the budget to start with,” Mr Cain said. The studies were paid for, by the State government. “It’s great, it’s good, it was just the money involved, which I thought was wrong,” Mr Cain said.
Investigations for the eventual Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP), prepared by Advanced Environmental Solutions, centred on the lunette.
“Acccording to the Victorian Heritage Register (VAHR) no Aboriginal places have been located previously in the proposed activity area,” report authors, cultural heritage advisor Tim Stone and soil scientist Peter Clinnick said in their report.
“The closest know places cluster on the southern shore of Lake Leaghur, eight kilometres north east of the proposed activity area.
“However, the potential for Aboriginal cultural heritage in the proposed activity area is high because it is located on a very similar lake shore, that includes a lunette.”
A thorough assessments undertaken in February, 2016.
The final report – “a complex assessment of a medium sized activity” – found one Aboriginal cultural heritage place, a stone artefact scatter, on the surface of the lunette, the authors said.
“Construction of a new channel along existing farm channels will further harm this place, although the items of Aboriginal cultural heritage that comprise the place are already in a heavily disturbed, secondary context.
“Accordingly 7625-05456 (VAHR) is assessed as being of low scientific significance.”
Mr Cain said the researchers said they had found ‘a couple of flints, off quartz, and they reckon they were chips off old stone axes.
“We thought it was just busted up quartz, off the side of the road, that the slasher has hit and sprayed it out.” Machinery and livestock could have carried the chips, or they could have been transported in mud.
Mr Allison said a full search found 121 stone artefacts, which were marked with a GPS. “They said they were coming back to pick them up, as they had just marked them (initially) with the GPS coordinates,” he said. “When they came back, they could only find 20 of them.”
Connections project director Frank Fisseler said it engaged in best practice cultural heritage management. “The project operates across the whole of the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District (GMID), within which there are many areas of cultural heritage sensitivity,” Mr Fisseler said.
The Aboriginal Heritage Act required the preparation of a Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP) for high impact activities in areas of cultural heritage sensitivity.
“Areas of cultural heritage sensitivity can include known Aboriginal places or heritage and landforms predicted to have a high potential for cultural heritage artefacts,” Mr Fisseler said.
The cost and complexity of cultural heritage management varied, according to the sensitivity of the site, the extent and type of works and the potential for those works to harm Aboriginal Cultural Heritage.”
He said the site, north of Boort, was subject to a a competitive tender process and was appropriate for what was a complex site.
