A controversial Aboriginal group that previously blocked plans for a billion-dollar mining project has been slammed as ‘crazy’ by an Indigenous elder for seeking to have the peak of Mount Panorama declared a sacred site.
If successful, the move would restrict public access and prevent any new development at Mount Panorama, in NSW’s central-west, which is the home of the world famous Bathurst 1000 and Bathurst 12 Hour car races.
The Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation wants to register the peak as a heritage site, after it scattered the ashes of former member Uncle Brian Grant there in 2022.
Under the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System, the peak is registered as the ‘burial site and ceremonial site for Wiradjuri Lore Man Mallyan Merriganoury (Grant’s Wiradjuri name)’.
This was recorded by Uncle Jade Flynn, a prominent member of the Wiradyuri group, but its current status is not deemed significant, The n reported.
But Roy Ah-See, a Wiradyuri elder and former chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, slammed the group’s proposal as ‘crazy’.
‘It really does undermine the legitimacy of our Aboriginal heritage, particularly when they’re not listening to the local Aboriginal land council,’ he said.
Mr Ah-See told 2GB’s Ben Fordham that Bathurst Local Aboriginal Land Council, not the Wiradyuri group, ‘is the cultural authority’ for the area.
‘When are these people going to understand that if you want to put claim to a piece of land, go through the Commonwealth Native Title Act and legislation and put a claim on it. Be legitimate,’ he told the show on Tuesday.
He added that ‘under the NSW Land Rights legislation section 36, when land is lawfully used and occupied you can not put a claim on it’.
Mr Ah-See was concerned about using the spreading of ashes on a site as the basis of a rights claim.
‘To utilise and use it in this way is disrespectful to the people that have gone before us. You can’t do this,’ he said.
McPhillamy Park, on the summit, has a viewpoint over Bathurst and the Mount Panorama Circuit race track and is owned by the local council.
The Bathurst Local Aboriginal Land Council said it was not informed of the proposal made by the fringe Wiradyuri group, which wants the site recognised as ‘significant’.
Mr Grant’s family reportedly wants a federal order that would restrict public access to one of Mount Panorama’s best viewpoints and stop any new development there.
The group made headlines last year when Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek blocked the proposed site of a tailings dam for a goldmine in Blayney, just 37km west of Bathurst.
The Wiradjuri corporation demanded Ms Plibersek protect the springs of the Belubula River as a site central to Creation stories.
That was despite the NSW Independent Planning Commission originally approving the mine in March 2023, a process that involved consultation with the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council, the elected body for local Indigenous leaders.
Ms Plibersek’s decision – effectively ending the billion-dollar mine proposal – came after artist Nyree Reynolds put in a submission saying the dam would destroy sacred land.
Ms Reynolds said she is the descendant of a Wiradjuri woman born in the 1820s, but local Aboriginal groups said they had never heard of her,and were furious at the intrusion on the dam project which would have been lucrative for their people.
Bathurst Regional Council said there had been no indicaiton that heritage status would be sought in the Wiradyuri group’s Mount Panorama submission.
‘Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation contacted council in November 2022 seeking access to the top of the mountain for a final goodbye ceremony. This was negotiated and agreed to,’ general manager David Sherley said.
Toni-Lee Scott, the CEO of Bathurst Local Aboriginal Land Council, slammed the proposed site declaration, which her group had not been consulted on.
She said the scattering of Mr Grant’s ashes was ‘a traditional ceremony, but for a person that was not born and raised here, I find it a little bit uneasy’.
Ms Scott added that most of the local Indigenous community probably ‘aren’t aware of the claim by the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation.
‘These government politicians listen to their every word,’ she said.
When the Wiradyuri group successfully stopped the Blayney mine, Ms Reynolds said she heard her ancestors’ voices talking to her about it.
‘Every time I drove past (the site), I could feel the ancestors saying “help us”, and I thought, if I can do work with everyone, and the ancestors, to stop this (I will), because to kill the Belubula by putting cement in the springs was unthinkable.’
The Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation declined to comment when contacted by Daily Mail .