Gold mine for lawyers: Blayney Council spends $30k on legal advice over Indigenous heritage law call on road

Blayney Shire Council fears it could breach Indigenous heritage laws simply by maintaining a public road captured within the federal Environment Minister’s 11th-hour ban on a proposed gold mine site in the state’s Central West.

A tiny council fears it could breach Indigenous heritage laws – drawing a potential $165,000 penalty - by merely maintaining a public road captured within Tanya Plibersek’s eleventh-hour ban on a proposed gold mine site.

Blayney Shire Council will spend at least $30,000 for senior legal advice on the status of Dungeon Road, while the authority will also write to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition leader Peter Dutton asking them to exclude the road from the section 10 ban issued on the proposed McPhillamys gold mine site.

The council says it is preparing to stump up more than $150,000 extra for legal costs if it takes the environment department to court.

“Why is a small regional community having to put its hand in our pockets, to fix something it wasn’t engaged on?” Blayney Council general manager Mark Dicker said.

Mr Dicker said the council feared basic maintenance on the road – including maintain drains, grading the road or repairing a bridge – could place them at risk of breaching the section 10, given it was handed down to protect Indigenous heritage within the site.

“(In) ten years’ time, someone could take offence to what we’re doing on the road, and actually takes legal action against the council,” Blayney Mayor Bruce Reynolds, a Nationals Party member, said.

Blayney Shire Council will seek legal advice on the status of Dungeon Rd. Picture: Rohan Kelly

The federal government maintains a “guidance note” issued over the section 10 protects the council from breaching the section 10, but legal advice gathered by the council states it “appears to have no legal standing, and it provides minimal protection to Council”.

A spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek said concerns the council could be hit with penalties “are nonsense”.

“The department wrote to the Council last year confirming that the use and maintenance of the road was unaffected. The Council was given the chance to comment on all of this before a final decision was made, and for reasons only they can explain, they didn’t do so.

“This is all just a desperate political stunt from the National Party.”

The council’s legal advice also warns risk of prosecution for breaching the section 10 “might increase in the future if there is a change in policy” by the environment department.

The advice notes breaching the section 10 could attract penalties worth up to $165,000.

NSW Minerals Council CEO Steve Galilee said the section 10 not only blocked the mine, but a public road.

“The Albanese Government’s rushed decision to appease the Greens by blocking the McPhillamys Gold Mine last year cost the local community around 800 jobs and millions in local investment,” he said.

“Now it appears the community will be even more impacted through an inability for local infrastructure improvements.”

Originally published as Gold mine for lawyers: Blayney Council spends $30k on legal advice over Indigenous heritage law call on road