Kulaluk Heritage Totem Road Preliminary Survey 2017

30 Aug 2017
"Area B" of Lot 5182 of the Kulaluk Lease is subject to a development application by the Jape family. On maps prepared by the Aboriginal Sacred Sites Authority (Henderson 1983) the area is shown as a "Pukumani Burial Ground". The site is on Totem Road, a street named after the Tiwi people's carved burial posts, earlier described as "totem poles". It is scandalous that NO detailed anthropological or archaeological survey has been conducted over the 301 hectare Kulaluk Lease Area granted to Larrakia in 1979, although almost the whole 301ha has been signed over to developers. In 1996, 5ha was excavated to construct ponds for an aquaculture project, extended in 2006 for a crab farm, including infrastructure and easements for water and power. Since at least 2006 another area has become a dumping ground for construction waste.
In 2009, Gwelo Investments proposed the "Arafura Harbour" marina and canal housing estate which covered almost all the mangrove and beach areas. $1.17 million has been paid to the leaseholders by Arafura Harbour P/L, and yet no known scientific and thorough survey has been conducted for heritage and cultural sites. Jape has cleared large areas and in 2014 Ernie Chin cleared land adjoining an active Aboriginal burial ground. Apart from Henderson's "Kulaluk land use field study (1983), no scientific clearance work has been done on the lease. As a result of protests by Larrakia people, eight archaeological trenches were dug on the Chin block, but only AFTER all vegetation had been bulldozed and mulched and the surface flattened.
The 301 hectares was selected for an Aboriginal reservation by elders in 1938 because of the area's totemic and cultural significance. During its years as a reserve the land, mangroves and tidal areas had been used extensively by Aboriginal people extensively, and after 1965 when the original reserve was revoked. An Aboriginal land claim over the area was begun in 1971 and the lease granted after an eight year struggle. There area also contains unsurveyed World War II sites and a wide variety of flora and fauna never scientifically recorded, despite being threatened by clearing and excavation works in secret deals with developers made by the leaseholders of Crown Lease in Perpetuity 00671.In 2015 the Larrakia people nominated the whole area as a heritage site under the NT Heritage Act, and this process is ongoing in 2017.
There were 225 submissions to the Heritage Council.
The Heritage Council quickly recommended Heritage Listing of Kulaluk.
Then Heritage Minister Dave Tollner refused their recommendation, largely rejecting the Ritchie Report.
David Tollner’s Reasons for the decision not to declare Kulaluk as a Heritage site:
1. Areas of natural significance within the Lease Area (including the coastal mangrove community) and places of cultural significance (including sacred sites and human burials) can be adequately conserved and protected by the Heritage Act and other applicable legislation, noting that: - the vast majority of the Lease Area is zoned ‘Conservation’ under the terms of the NT Planning Scheme, and that the purpose of this zone is ‘to conserve and protect the flora, fauna and character of natural areas’ ; and - all Aboriginal archaeological places and objects (including human skeletal remains) are automatically protected under 17 and 18 of the Heritage Act; and that all sacred sites are protected under the terms of the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act.
2. Concerns about what constitutes appropriate development within the Lease Area can be dealt with and adequately addressed under the terms of the Planning Act and other relevant legislation such as the NT Planning Scheme.
3. Given the protections noted above, the Relevant Areas of the lease area can be adequately conserved and protected without permanently declaring it as a heritage place.
Link to Bill Day's Film
• Kulaluk Heritage Totem...