Heritage sites ‘lost’ to Government burn

Elders in southwest WA want a say on how prescribed burns are conducted after a recent burn went ahead in an area where cultural heritage sites are believed to exist.

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions carried out the burn on a 15,108-hectare block in Mount Roe National Park on September 24.

But nine elders warned DBCA director general Stuart Smith and Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn in a letter on October 13 that the burn area contained unregistered heritage sites.

Risk to cultural values

The Environment Centre in nearby Denmark also wrote to the government, warning that the burn posed a high risk to cultural values.

“You didn’t think that we were good enough to talk to before destroying this country,” elder Lynette Knapp wrote.

“These sites in here are very sacred — those lizard traps, those gnamma holes are there for our survival.”

Ms Knapp told the ABC there could have been artefacts in the area they did not get the chance to check out.

More consultation needed

A DBCA spokesperson defended the department’s consultation process.

“As part of this process, no registered Aboriginal sites were identified within the prescribed burn,” the spokesperson said.

Wagyl Kaip Southern Noongar Aboriginal Corporation spokesman Sean Winter who acts as a cultural and statutory fire co-ordinator, told the ABC he had informed the DBCA that cultural sites were present in August – a month before the burn took place.

“Just because it’s not on the register, doesn’t mean that there’s not sites in there,” he said.

While upset about being excluded from the decision-making process, elders hope they will be consulted on future burns.