The Pacific Highway town of Bulahdelah will change forever when it’s bypassed midway through next year, but it won’t disappear off the map.
A sizeable chunk of the town’s history is bound for a unique museum in Canberra.
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The Pacific Highway town of Bulahdelah will change forever when it’s bypassed midway through next year, but it won’t disappear off the map.
A sizeable chunk of the town’s history is bound for a unique museum in Canberra.
So I dont get this…parts of the Sacred Alumn Mountain Rocks area are free to get tossed to a Canberra Museum. ‘If anyone has space in the back of a truck’ ? Yet in Lake Macquarie they just returned the geological (,European & Aboriginal)significant rocks to their original place..! Why on earth would someone want to remove their countries history?
‘Just lucky that the boys up there had their big trucks & bobcats to rearrange the landcape’ I dont think so, doesnt that rock contains harmful silica when exposed? Safety precautions from the dust while filming. working & living in Buladelah I would hope~!
Absolutely disgusting. How dare the person interviewed think that this is a wonderful thing. The historical society should be ashamed of themselves, very ashamed. Rock stone or pebble should not be moved from a sacred mountain containing sacred sites, it should never have been taken from the ground. The person interviewed needs to learn about culture and tradition and maybe pass these learnings on to the rest of the historical society, if they are capable of learning or understanding. No white want-to-be historical society president should have anything to do with Aboriginal cultural and significant material such as this rock. SHAME SHAME SHAME time he stood down.
The mutilation and desecration of this VERY sacred mountain continues unabated, despite everyone in government KNOWING FULL WELL that what they have done/are doing is the very worst eco-cultural vandalism in Australia’s history. The ‘rock garden’ in Canberra will be an absolute abomination and will show the world just how ignorant and arrogant our governments are. I can only say with my heart full of grief for the inevitable death of Bulahdelah: Do not forgive them Lord, for they know EXACTLY what they do.
Naturally quarried out of the mountain? nothing “NATURALLY QUARRIED” with this rock!. This person is with the local historical society? think he would know his history a little better!. This rock was blasted out of its place of being by the RMS/Baulderstone spreading deadly crystalline silica all over the town and residents below nothing “NATURAL” in that either. As the person interviewed worked formerly with Forests NSW and the NPWS he should have a better knowledge regarding Aboriginal traditions and beliefs regarding the removal of rock from sacred sites. How would he feel if we demolished the old courthouse building which is home to the local historical society and shipped the sandstone blocks to Canberra? bet he wouldn’t be smiling and smirking about that. This rock was obtained by “killing Bulahdelah residents”, at least have the decency to return it to the place it belongs, not a rock garden in Canberra.
For people unsure why this is such an act of desecration please read my article
http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/australian-identity/worimi-worobung-custodian-and-the-guardian-healing-tree/
I think this is disgraceful to say the least. The rocks should remain on the Alum Mountain and not be taken away to Canberra. What right do RMS have giving these rocks to a local Historical Society? No rocks should be taken from any area to be placed on display at a rock garden. I’m very sure that the Custodians of the Alum Mountain are very upset about this news. I am a believer in Aboriginal traditions and customs and know of the consequences that will occur to all involved with the moving of the rocks.
A friend of mine kept having this post rejected. Jon Carter wrote:
Naturally quarried out of the mountain? nothing “NATURALLY QUARRIED” with this rock!. This person is with the local historical society? think he would know his history a little better!. This rock was blasted out of its place of being by the RMS/Baulderstone spreading deadly crystalline silica all over the town and residents below nothing “NATURAL” in that either. As the person interviewed worked formerly with Forests NSW and the NPWS he should have a better knowledge regarding Aboriginal traditions and beliefs regarding the removal of rock from sacred sites. How would he feel if we demolished the old courthouse building which is home to the local historical society and shipped the sandstone blocks to Canberra? bet he wouldn’t be smiling and smirking about that. This rock was obtained by “killing Bulahdelah residents”, at least have the decency to return it to the place it belongs, not a rock garden in Canberra.
The removal of this large rock from the Alum Mountain is part of the continuous desecration of a Sacred Mountain. For the last 200 years this abuse has been unrelenting. Despite the efforts of so many culturally and spiritually sensitive people to protect this unique mountain we now have another example of callous desregard for Aboriginal culture.
As a former Archives Officer and Vice President of the Bulahdelah and Districts Historical Society Inc, I can say that I am so glad not to be associated with this organisation any longer. There is no way that I would ever have voted for the rocks from the Alum Mountain to be given to the Historical Society and definitely no way would have voted for the decision to send them to a rock garden in Canberra. I find it very sickening that the Historical Society have made such decisions. Obviously they have no concern or interest in Aboriginal history, heritage or culture. The Alum Mountain is now a gazetted Aboriginal Place, by the actions of the Bulahdelah Historical Society happily accepting and trying to ship off sacred rocks to another area out of country I know now how they actually feel about Aboriginal culture.
This strangely titled NBN news video is actually about the intended removal of rock from Bulahdelah (the Alum) Mountain to the National Rock Garden in Canberra.
In September, 2011, National Rock Garden Steering Committee representative, Dr. Doug Finlayson, stated: ‘… let me assure you that the National Rock Garden has no plans to collect rocks from the Alum Mountain area. I know that such specimens may have been the subject of discussion locally on the north coast NSW and I am also aware of controversy associated with main road construction in the area’. Furthermore, the Indigenous Australia – Input to the National Rock Garden Project, September, 2011, draft states: ‘Specimens must be large (10-20 tonnes)’.
The interviewee, Kevin Carter (who is running for Great Lakes Council in today’s local government elections), is a former State Forests manager at Bulahdelah. As such, he was aware of the fact that the mountain section of the fraudulently named Bulahdelah Bypass (route Option E) would be located within a registered Public Reserve: Bulahdelah Mountain Park.
While in a (later) managerial position with the National Parks & Wildlife Service, he participated as a ‘community representative’ in closed meetings with the RTA (now renamed Roads & Maritime Services, RMS).
Kevin Carter could have used his knowledge of the Public Reserve status of the mountain to prevent the destruction of internationally significant heritage and culture and the numerous other depravities which would be engendered by Option E. He instead chose to withhold that vital information.
People’s homes have now been damaged by blasting, some severely, and innumerable lives have now been knowingly and deliberately jeopardised with noxious substances, including crystalline silica dust. Silica dust is a listed hazardous substance, a Group 1 human carcinogen and the only cause of silicosis. Silicosis is terminal – it cannot be cured.
Completion of the corruptly processed and fraudulently named Bulahdelah Bypass is not due until August, 2013 – weather permitting. Opposition to it and to Kevin Carter’s brutally ignorant scheme to relocate rock taken from the mountain’s Public Reserve area, now also a declared Aboriginal Place, will remain ongoing.
This is genocide. Genocide is not the outright murder of a group of people alone, it is also the removal of members of the group, destruction of their burial grounds, culture sites and initiation grounds. If bits of a church were being treated in this manner police would be called, people would be jailed. Heads would roll. As must happen here. What gives the historic society or the government the right and permission to destroy another people’s sacred places. For other examples check out what FMG, andrew twiggy forrest, Billionaire Miner, is doing to the Yindjibarndi sacred sites. He runs the Genocide One, I mean the Generation One site. While he takes BILLIONS of dollars of iron ore from Yindjibarndi country and offers them $4 million and jobs in the mine destroying their sacred country and culture. Twiggy justifies not paying the Yindjibarndi a pittance by saying he doesn’t believe in Mining Welfare. There is also Woodside, currently destroying James Price Point, the last pristine place in the world. By the way, people “who were just following orders” are still guilty and will be charged with, genocide.
The area from which the rock has been taken is within the boundary of a declared ‘Aboriginal Place’ (and a registered Public Reserve).
NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 – SECT 86
Harming or desecrating Aboriginal objects and Aboriginal places
86 (4) A person must not harm or desecrate an Aboriginal place.
Maximum penalty:
(a) in the case of an individual – 5,000 penalty units [$550,000.00] or imprisonment for 2 years, or both, or
(b) in the case of a corporation – 10,000 penalty units [$1,100,000.00].