You know it’s a blatant myth when even your mayor is peddling it. As recently as 2 December 2021, Ballina’s mayor, Sharon Cadwallader, when referring to Rous County Council’s previously proposed Dunoon dam stated publicly: ‘There is no cultural heritage registered in the dam’s footprint’. Yet, a basic search of the NSW Government’s own Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIMS) clearly shows there is in fact a site registered. By constantly demanding more investigations, Cadwallader is ignoring Aboriginal heritage and perpetuating colonisation.
During this week of all weeks, when we celebrate/mourn Australia/Invasion Day, I call on local government councillors, and in particular mayor Sharon Cadwallader, to acknowledge the Aboriginal significance of the proposed-dam footprint and the sites that have been registered there. If the significance of the registered burials site in particular can be recognised by distinguished archaeologist Douglas Hobbs, then surely Cadwallader can do so also?
A publicly available copy of Rous County Council’s (RCC) 2013 ‘preliminary’ Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment is available on RCC website, and it says: ‘Sixteen Aboriginal sites were located, consisting of scarred trees, grinding grooves, artefacts and a collection of 25 burials. The collection of Aboriginal sites together is generally of State significance, allowing assumptions on how the Widjabul utilised and accessed the valley over time’ (page 7). Though perhaps RCC can explain why this 2013 report was titled ‘preliminary’, while their 2011 Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment was not?
John Roberts Snr, elder of the Widjabul Wia-bal, said: ‘I was one of the stakeholders consulted in 2011 about the impact of the Dunoon Dam on cultural heritage. In the 2011 Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment prepared for Rous, we stakeholders said with one voice that no level of disturbance was acceptable to us. We still say that. Nothing has changed. There is no need for another study. Our opinion has not changed.’
Will Mayor Cadwallader bring herself to set the record straight for ALL the people of Ballina? Or will she continue to push this lie all the way past ‘Australia’ Day?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
