Plibersek’s Blayney goldmine call proves double standards of Indigenous heritage

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek during Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

Back in October, I wrote a piece in these pages about Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s decision to block the development of a tailings dam for the $1bn Blayney goldmine project on the basis it was a significant Indigenous area requiring cultural protection.

I was engaged to conduct extensive cultural mapping of the area four years ago and concluded – contrary to the minister’s decision in 2024 – that the tailings dam and McPhillamys goldmine project posed no threat of desecration to Aboriginal heritage.

Since October, further information concerning the cultural heritage of the Belubula River, its headwaters and springs has come to light; this new information deserves fresh scrutiny, as do the ­justifications of Plibersek.

Earlier this week The Australian reported that an account of Koorn-koo-inyah – an ancestor of the so-called blue-banded bee from southwest Queensland ­published in Alice Duncan-Kemp’s book Our Channel Country (1961) – shares striking similarities with the story of the blue-banded bee artwork on the wall of the Bathurst Post Office. Crucially, this artwork was cited by Plibersek as part of the evidence preventing the development of the goldmine.

Passages in the Duncan-Kemp book on the Koorn-koo-inyah bear an uncanny resemblance to the account of the blue-banded bee dreaming that the Wiradyuri traditional owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation provided to Plibersek in its bid to secure heritage protection for the goldmine site.

There are important anthropological reasons why Duncan-Kemp’s books are not generally cited by scholars, chief among them is the author’s habit of borrowing information from other parts of Australia, along with the apparent poetic licence sometimes taken.

The blue-banded bee mural by Birrunga Wiradyuri on the Bathurst Local Post Office. Picture: James Dowling/The Australian

If we do assume it to be a correct account, then it is unclear how beliefs from the country of a southwest Queensland desert culture could relate to that of the ­Wiradjuri peoples of central NSW, given the vast distance involved and the major cultural and environmental differences between the regions.

There is no apparent link between the solitary blue-banded bee and Wiradjuri totems. Added to this, the detailed anthropological accounts of Wiradjuri initiation ceremonies primarily involve supreme male ancestors, such as Baiami and Dharumulan, and do not mention a blue-banded bee ancestor.

A recent statement by senior Wiradjuri man Neil Ingram said that the blue-banded bee ancestor was not part of his culture and has only recently emerged. Furthermore, members from the family of the deceased Aboriginal man, cited as the source of the story, have recently asserted they have no knowledge of it.

This begs the obvious question of how these areas can be considered sacred to all Wiradjuri people. Given the uncertain origin of the blue-banded bee narrative, it is difficult to see how it can be considered compelling evidence by Plibersek. As well as the original reasons used to support the section 10 declaration to shut down the project was an assertion that the Belubula River was in an area where initiations for an entire region were held, presumably when the last Bora ceremonies occurred over a century ago.

But, again, this is not supported by the historical record and seems implausible given that the Wiradjuri have always existed as a set of politically diverse groups which happened to speak related dialects. The area for the proposed mine development is part of rural NSW with scant remaining Indigenous vegetation; it is located away from the places where Aboriginal people have lived and worked since European settlement. It is, therefore, difficult to see how the Belubula River, headwaters and springs have remained sacred to Wiradjuri people as part of a broad cultural landscape.

The labelling of crucial heritage knowledge given in support of the section 10 declaration as being “Wiradjuri” is also problematic. The applicant for the declaration, Nyree Reynolds, had earlier acknowledged on the internet that she has a birth connection to Wollongong and is Kamilaroi, with “my Ancestral Country of the Warrumbungles”. Through her art, Nyree connects with the Stolen Generations, but it’s unclear whether any of her ancestors were forcibly taken away. Other websites say Nyree is descended from an unnamed Wiradjuri woman from the 1820s, although there is no explanation for how any cultural knowledge from that time was passed down to her since there is no evidence to suggest her immediate forbears lived within an Aboriginal community.

Indigenous statements in the media suggest her credentials as a Wiradjuri “Elder and Knowledge Holder” are not recognised by the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council. It’s unlikely that any cultural heritage evidence with an uncertain provenance would go unchallenged if presented in the Federal Court as part of a native title case. In contrast, for the section 10 declaration the bar for the acceptance of oral evidence has proven to be much lower.

Indigenous artist Nyree Reynolds.

In the department’s 52-page advice to the minister, now available in redacted form on the web through freedom of information, there is only one reference to my December 2023 report, which is minor and leaves out my main arguments, while there is much discussion and broad acceptance of evidence from the applicant and others. The designated reporter for the section 10 application provided her report in May 2022, with the blue-banded bee evidence emerging after her involvement with the assessment process had finished. The lateness of this last effort to support the declaration with fresh information is not treated by the department as suspicious and the acceptance of it not seen as procedurally unfair to all those who had adhered to the mandated timelines.

In my view, there is clearly a need to change the procedures for determining the Aboriginal heritage importance of places. In the case of the Belubula River, headwaters and springs, the use of commonwealth legislation to stop the building of a tailings dam and the goldmine has effectively undercut the heritage role of the Local Aboriginal Land Councils as established by the NSW state government.

Philip A. Clarke is an anthropologist and historian. For three decades he worked at the South Australia Museum. He works as a consultant on native title and heritage.