Whitehaven denies Elders and Gomeroi people’s rights to
care for their ancestors burials and salvage cultural materials
Destruction of culture and heritage continues
Whitehaven Coal
Whitehaven Maules Creek Coal have had a rocky history with community challenges by local landholders,
environmentalists and Aboriginal community. Their ongoing corporate response is concerning.
Their approach to undertaking works and their relationships with Aboriginal communities which respect Elders
and traditional people has plummeted to an all-time low.
 Elders and Aboriginal people are being denied access to sites and participation in decisions
about their culture
 Desecration of sites including burials and ignoring of Elders concerns are continuing.
We have been seeking State Minister urgent intervention and provided on more than two occasions now
lengthy and detailed documentation in relation to areas of potential breaches requesting urgent investigation.
To date our Elders and community are being ignored and silenced by buaeocracy receiving instead of a serious
investigation to address our concerns - a letter informing us to “work constructively with Whitehaven.”
The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management Plan is being implemented under the guidance of
archaeologists UniQuest a branch of the University of Queensland. We do not believe the management plan is
being implemented adequately and as a result a formal dispute process has been requested by Elders and
community to have an independent review of UniQuest practices and Whitehaven’s obligations under the
management plan and conditions of approval.
Whitehaven Coal won’t even allow our Elders and community to access our burial sites for ceremony and to
collect cultural materials of importance for us even though we have offered to do so at no cost to the
company. And we are told by government that we are not working constructively with Whitehaven despite
our attempts to have these concerns addressed….
ITS BEYOND REPREHENSIBLE……….
Communication has broken down completely with Whitehaven Coal with Brian Cole as their primary contact.
Despite our repeated approaches to Whitehaven the culture within the company we feel this does not allow
for collaborative, respectful dialogue and joint decision making.
We are continually labelled marginalised and profiled as dysfunctional and aggressive…… yes we are angry,
frustrated and sick with worry about our culture ….. but not without cause.
It would be easier to work with toxic waste…… at least you know its hazardous to the environment and to the
wellbeing of people and it would be taken seriously and actions put into place to know deal with it…. The way
we are treated now and the failure of Whitehaven and the silence of government to protect and investigate
our issues properly is a disgrace. We feel that we are treated with disrespect and contempt
We also ask -What role is Warren Mundine taking with Whitehaven Coal? Whitehaven Coal engaged Warren
Mundine to come into this community in August 2013 and was asked by our Elders and community to leave.
Warren Mundine is indigenous affairs advisor to the Prime minister and needs to declare any conflicts
of interest. Rumour has it that Warren Mundine has been back in our community- if this is the case- what role
if any is he taking with Whitehaven now?
Section 9 and 10 application lodged against Whitehaven
As a final resort Gomeroi Traditional Custodians on behalf of Gomeroi Elders and other Aboriginal families in
the community are seeking Commonwealth government intervention to protect specific areas of importance.
A Section 9 immediate protection and section 10 permanent protection application under the ATSHIP Act has
been lodged
We are still awaiting an outcome from the Federal Government to protect our sites and ancestors burials and
we are calling for Environment Minister Greg Hunt to protect our places and sites of cultural importance in
accordance with the ATSHIP Act. Vegetation clearance works have commenced and the impending impact and
threat is imminent.
We stress that we are not seeking to stop the mine …we are only seeking to protect sacred and cultural areas
which are very important to us as a people.
We remain concerned and fearful that political and government and corporate self-interests may impact on
our community receiving justice and our burials and culture protected.
Boggabri Coal
Unfortunately the positive relationship our community has had with Boggabri Coal local representatives is now
becoming affected by Idemitsu Australia Resources Pty Ltd and Whitehaven joint partnership interests
influencing the cultural values and archaeological salvage program approach.
This week has been a particularly disheartening one with Boggabri Coal adopting stand over tactics and
ignoring our concerns and our rights to have our cultural values recorded in a way in which we feel
comfortable. Instead we experienced a dominating and dictatorship role has been adopted
The relationship between our Elders and community and Boggabri Coal is now in crisis. .
Our Elders and other Aboriginal parties within our community are particularly concerned that despite repeated
requests for an urgent meeting with Boggabri Coal executives.- Boggabri Coal executives have chosen to ignore
our requests nor address our concerns.
Unfortunately Boggabri Coal will now be receiving the brunt of this relationships breakdown and we as a
people will take all measures available to us to have our culture and heritage protected and the dignity of our
people and rights to share our knowledge appropriately respected.
A review of all of Boggabri Coals practices is currently being scrutinised in order to work through a more
positive way forward.
We don’t want to be a community in conflict with mines but if Boggabri Coal do not change their approach and
choose instead to adopt the practices of Whitehaven Coal then we will have no other choice.
Boggabri Coal Executive have a serious immediate decision to make to avert deepening conflict.
If Boggabri Coal want a war on culture …….a war on culture is what they will get as fundamentally we need to
protect our culture and heritage. And will take all steps necessary to protect our ancestors’ footprints. We will
have no other choice.
Our Elders, our rights and our culture need to be protected. We have been here since millennium and are not
going anywhere.
Fears of Government Failure and call for enquiry
We believe that the community needs to have greater confidence in our Ministers and government agencies
who are supposed to protect culture and heritage not destroy it.
We also should be able to have the support of archaeologists to ensure our culture and heritage is protected.
Once it’s gone its gone forever.
We call for a broad-ranging inquiry into the management of coal and coal seam gas mining in NSW, after
Mineral Resources Minister Chris Hartcher resigned from Cabinet in December 2013, following reports of an
ICAC raid on his office.
We believe that Whitehaven should be one of the first companies to be ‘the first cab off the rank’ for enquiry.
We simply do not understand how their assessment met adequacy- we find burials. Women’s areas and sacred
ceremonial materials within the mine site that were not identified and assessed.
AECOM undertook the assessment supported by Hansen Bailey- and here we are in 2014 in conflict with
Whitehaven trying to save the important areas we have been concerned about since the project concept
begun. The assessment process is a farce- we fear that the Department of Planning and Infrastructure and its
Minister has simply failed our people and continue to do so.
We also fear that The Office of Environment and Heritage and its Minister have also failed our people- their
role is to advise Department of Planning about assessment adequacy- how can they justify adequacy and
compliance against their own policies and Act?
We have tried:
 raising our concerns,
 protesting,
 meeting with executive
 meeting with government representatives
 working with the company to try and get better outcomes….all to no avail.
We fear that the system and our government will fail us and we fear that they will fail our children and our
culture. We have the oldest living culture on the planet! Our ancestors are buried out at Maules Creek mine
site and mining simply do not care. We appeal to the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community for support to
have our concerns seriously addressed
We have tried to use the system available to us and we fear that government will not apply their own policies
and conditions of approval and protect that areas so important to us.
Additional information
The cultural destruction-Whitehaven fails Aboriginal people
Gomeroi Elders, concerned Aboriginal Traditional Owners and local Aboriginal people weep that sacred place
including burial sites will be destroyed as a result of the approved Whitehaven Coal Maules Creek project.
In July 2013 Aboriginal parties walked off site because of concerns that cultural and spiritual sites and objects
were not being appropriately protected and conserved.
Elders and others who have actively sought to protect sites and places of importance and challenged the failed
management plan have been labelled ‘the difficult group, the problem group and the bad Black group” in an
attempt to marginalise our voice, our concerns and our rights.
In recent weeks there has been continuing and escalating tensions and anxieties as the realisation of the
intended areas of destruction have become obvious. Elders are particularly shocked, upset and distressed at
Whitehaven’s approach to consultation and feel disrespected and gagged from the archaeological and cultural
program.
“We have been asking for access to specific sites of importance and Whitehaven appear to ignore our
requests. We have asked to be able to undertake a cultural retrieval of materials important to us before
they are to be destroyed even seeking to do this voluntarily and we have been ignored”. Gomeroi Elders
“We have been trying to protect our sacred sites – our burials women’s sites and special places such as
Lawlers well and Valyama. The approved destruction of the Leard State forests our cultural resources the
aquifers and plants and animals is a disgrace our culture is used and abused and treated as a worthless
commodity. Our Elders and others in our community are devastated.” Gomeroi people
The State Government appear to have failed to protect places important to our people. They approved the
project without understanding our cultural values. They appear to have failed their own policy to include
values assessment which then places Mining and community in direct conflict.
The mine then aggressively impacts on our culture and heritage and divides our people- Aboriginal culture is
the oldest culture on the planet. Gomeroi people especially our Elders deserve respect and our places and
footprints of our ancestors should not be destroyed.
“We will fight generationally to save our places of importance” Gomeroi Traditional Owner
We fear that there is little to no accounting or public reporting of the cumulative impact of the destruction of
Aboriginal heritage. We fear that our cultural landscape look like this image below and for some this is the
landscape that will be our legacy to our children.
We refuse to let our lands and waters and our sacred sites be destroyed and become the landscape of
Gomeroi Country.
The current approvals process is a disgrace and affords the Aboriginal community little to no scope of saving
cultural places and objects of importance. The system simply fails to protect and sacred sites and cultural
objects are being destroyed.
It is also a disgrace- “the State Government have custodial obligations developed using their LAWS yet they
approve the destruction and this results in a fail to protect … For mines it’s all about money not about the
wellbeing of communities and the future for our children and our rights to protect important cultural and
spiritual sites.“ Gomeroi Elders“Our families and culture go back more than 40,0000 years, we have had to survive dispossession, practices
to try and destroy our cultural and spiritual practices and rights to ceremony and cultural places of
importance, the scarred experiences of the stolen generations, deaths in custody and lack of recognition for
our men and women who died and fought for this country. We have also survived generational failed
policies.” Gomeroi Elders
“For our people…..Not a lot has changed…. Corporates like Whitehaven are conducting cultural destruction
under the disguise of policy and approvals. They are trying to legitimatise the destruction and desecration of
our culture and heritage.” Gomeroi Elders and Traditional Owner community members.
“But we are not going anywhere and we will continue to fight for our rights, our culture, our ancestors and
our children.
Our message is simple………….we are not going anywhere and our families we will continue to work towards
having our concerns heard and taken seriously. “ Gomeroi Elders
“We want respect, we want our ceremonial rights protected and supported and we want to save specific
sites important to us. We also want a positive relationship with government and corporations that is honest,
transparent and respects our custodial rights and needs. We also demand that our Elders are treated
appropriately ……to date this is not the experience….” Gomeroi Elders
There has been recent desecration of our burial sites because we have been denied access to the area to
conduct ceremony before ground penetrating radar is used.
We were told that we could only have two elder men and two elder females attend site. This is completely
against our lores and customs. Our people should be able to attend and undertake cultural practices in
accordance with out lores and customs and anyone in our community who feel they need to be there should
be allowed to do so- we even sought to do so in a voluntary basis and have been ignored. Our ancestors’
burial site has been disturbed using western science as the excuse. It’s just disgusting. its cultural genocide
by a corporate culture that does not care. Once it’s gone it’s gone forever………..Gomeroi Elders
Our Elders and members of our community will not give in. We will not turn a blind eye to our culture and
heritage and dishonour our ancestors. We will continue to seek protection of our ancestors and of our
culture and heritage.
Whitehaven Coal Maules Creek project- is little more than the cultural destruction. Gomeroi Elders and
Traditional Owner communities
“We may be old and some of us frail but we will fight the destruction of our culture and heritage ...What
else can we do- they (Whitehaven and beaurocrasy) are not listening? It’s not question of should we fight
……..it’s a matter that we have no other choice.” Gomeroi Elders