Figures involved in the process fear the project will hit a dead end

The duplication of the Western Highway between Ararat and Buangor is facing fresh delays and cost blowouts, with fears activists will exploiting findings to prevent it from progressing.

A $157m project to fix a deadly highway in Victoria’s west that is already four years late faces fresh delays and cost blowouts amid a stalled Aboriginal heritage assessment.

Sixteen years after planning started on the Western Highway duplication between Ararat and Buangor, heritage experts and archaeologists are excavating land along the latest proposed route to check for items of cultural significance.

And figures involved in the process fear the project will hit a dead end if activists exploit findings to prevent it from progressing – despite the fact there have been 160 car crashes and 18 deaths along the highway in the past decade.

The assessment, part of a Cultural Heritage Management Plan, was ordered nearly three years ago, in April 2021, after protesters blockaded duplication works and went to court to argue the route cut through sensitive land.

Hundreds of protesters rallied against the Western Highway upgrade.

The legal dispute was sparked by claims in 2017 that the project require the destruction of two “birthing” gum trees, where some First Nations groups said ancestors came to have children.

A new route was then proposed, leading to the current heritage review, which is at the “complex assessment” stage and which one Aboriginal figure said could uncover further issues and trigger more protests.

The $157m Ararat to Buangor duplication is part of a $656m Western Hwy upgrade between Ballarat and Stawell, which is funded by state and Commonwealth governments.

Last year, the Albanese government provided an extra $100m to the overall project due to cost blowouts, which include the requirement that security remain on the Buangor site.

Major Road Projects Victoria, the Allan government agency in charge of the build, has refused to reveal what it expects the project to cost after years of delays.

On Tuesday, Premier Jacinta Allan couldn’t say when the major road project was expected to finally be delivered.

She said a heritage adviser had been engaged to ensure the cultural heritage management plan would meet the standard expected by the Federal Court.

“We, the state government, have been working for some time now through the cultural heritage processes at a federal level,” she said.

“We need to go through that federal process before any works can continue on this project.”

Planning started on the Western Highway duplication between Ararat and Buangor 16 years ago.

In 2020, the state Ombudsman investigated the saga, finding parties involved in the planning appeared to have acted in “good faith” but recognising that this would “not satisfy those for whom every tree and contour on Country must be preserved”.

The Ombudsman’s report also noted that planning for the Western Hwy duplication began in 2008, and an initial Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP) was completed between 2011 and 2013.

The “Registered Aboriginal Party” in the area that was in charge of that process, Martang, did not recognise the claims of birthing trees.

The fresh CHMP will be evaluated by a different Aboriginal group called the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation.

Eastern Maar’s general manager of cultural landscapes, John Clarke, said the group had yet to receive reports from heritage advisers hired by the project.

“With the draft CHMP only being at the Complex Assessment stage, EMAC (Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation) is not in an informed position about any cultural heritage value that may or may not exist,” he said.

“EMAC can only consider next appropriate steps when the final draft of the CHMP is submitted for evaluation.”

When asked whether a finalised plan would enable the road project to get back on track, Mr Clarke said: “We cannot pre-empt any decisions until the final drafted CHMP has been submitted for evaluation”.

A Major Road Projects Victoria spokesperson said the agency was “continuing to work with Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation on the preparation of a Cultural Heritage Management Plan for the Western Highway between Buangor and Ararat”.

“The Cultural Heritage Management Plan will comprehensively detail the results of cultural heritage assessments, potential impacts and management to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage,” they said.

“We have engaged a qualified heritage adviser to ensure that, while working collaboratively with EMAC, we record values associated with the project area.”

A spokesman for the Allan government said it was working closely with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation to prepare the heritage plan.