Australia's colonial past haunts major Sydney tram project
|Cultural heritage manager Danny Franks inspects the excavation site where he had |
discovered Aboriginal artifacts in the ground at a construction site for a light
railway in Sydney, March 31, 2016 [Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed]
"What we want to see is a stop work order to fully understand this," the consultant, Scott Franks, who is aboriginal, told reporters. "If it's going to be torn up, the whole site has got to be treated as a thorough and proper archaeological investigation, and time and expertise is needed."
|Some of the more than 20,000 artefacts located at the proposed stabling yard |
Franks said the site may be linked to one of the most famous clashes between U.K. settlers and Aborigines in 1790, when a garrison of first fleet soldiers was sent to kill or capture six aborigines in retaliation for spearing a colonial ranger. The troops returned empty-handed.
|Heritage consultants have estimated there may be around 50,000 artefacts |
at the site [Credit: Tocomwall]
A NSW government spokesman did not answer a Reuters question about whether the government would stop or alter the project, but said in an email that "the social value of the site to the local Aboriginal community is very high".
|The site intended to be used as a stabling yard for light rail vehicles |
[Credit: Christopher Pearce]
"We've worked with our aboriginal stakeholders every step of the way," he said, noting that excavators were hand-digging the artifacts. He said the objects appeared to be stone and tool chippings.
"What we've got to do is put together the pieces of the puzzle to find out what exactly did happen on this site. We've got to do some more research to determine that."
Author: Byron Kaye | Source: Reuters [March 31, 2016]