Murray River back on the Aboriginal heritage protected list

The river was protected as a significant Aboriginal site from 2000, but was removed from the list in 2013 before a recent Supreme Court decision forced the department to reassess sites for which protection was refused.

Property owners along the river were concerned about the possibility they would be again subject to restrictions which would have required them to seek permission before undertaking work within 30 metres of the riverbank.

But the latest decision only protects the river to the high water mark.

A spokesperson for the department said the Aboriginal Cultural Materials Committee (ACMC), which has responsibility for heritage listings, found both the Murray and Hotham rivers should protected.

“In making this determination, the ACMC also considered the site boundaries, and resolved that the Rivers should only be considered a site up to and including the high water mark, not the 100-year flood line that previously marked the site boundaries,” he said.

“This decision ensures that the land owners along the Murray and Hotham Rivers can continue to use their land without the requirement to seek approval for works, whilst recognising and protecting the mythological significance that the Murray River has for Aboriginal people of the South West.”

But local Liberal branch president Rob Filmer said the listing would mean more red tape for property owners.

“We have seen enough of these processes to understand that heritage listings bring a new mountain of red tape and often crippling, costly, anti-development terms and conditions,” he said.

“This time, the re-listing has been activated by a Supreme Court recommendation only by Justice John Chaney, following threats of a class action by Aboriginal people in Port Hedland, backed by Labor and the Greens.

“The charade continues behind the back of the current minister, drawing more and more innocent landowners into a bureaucratic black hole.”

In August, Harry Nannup, an Aboriginal elder from the region’s Bindjareb people, urged the Department of Aboriginal Affairs to return the Murray River to its list of protected significant sites.

“It was disgraceful that they took it off the list,” he said.

“Our tribe the Bindjareb people has been mainly known as a river people; I grew up on the Serpentine and I lived on this river.

“I take my kids out there and tell my grandkids where I came from.”

Mr Nannup said the Murray River was the site of the Pinjarra massacre, where as many as 80 Bindjareb men, women and children were attacked by a detachment of soldiers led by Captain James Stirling.