Traditional owners of a popular tourist destination in Victoria's north west are calling on the federal environment department to urgently intervene and protect the area from further desecration.
Lake Tyrrell, an ancient saltwater lake that is dry most of the year, is a tourist drawcard for the small but vibrant town of Sea Lake.
Indigenous elders from Wemba Wamba Aboriginal Corporation made the application to Tanya Plibersek's office after the local council approved plans to build a tourist park and put its in-principle support behind the resumption of the Mallee Rally, an off-road dune buggy race.
The rally that runs around the lake, also known to traditional owners as Direl, started in 1973 but was discontinued in 2019 after Victoria's Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) recommended it stop because of heritage concerns.
Preventing further damage
The report found hearths, flaked stone material, directly on the race track indicating the presence of culturally significant artefacts.
Direl, meaning 'sky' because of its mirror-like reflections of the sky when wet, is also an ancient meeting place for traditional owners and home to burial grounds, artefacts, mounds, and middens.
One of the lead applicants, Gary Murray, a Wemba Wamba and Wergaia elder, said Direl is culturally significant because it is the home to creator spirits like the dark emu that was also central to First Nations astronomy used for foraging.
He said while the report recommended the race stop, there was a chance it could resume as the report did not offer the same protections from private development that a Cultural Heritage Management Plan did.
"The root cause of our concerns is the Mallee Rally, the lack of heritage protection progress, and poor planning and development regimes around Direl by the Shire of Buloke and [the] state," Mr Murray said in the application.
He also said the DELWP report did not analyse the salt mining activities and tourism park, even though water and electricity infrastructure that had been installed — according to a specialist First Nations archaeologist who visited the site in November 2021 — had already caused damage.
He said traditional owners were worried that tourism, while encouraged, would be unregulated and lead to damage, pollution, and desecration of sacred sites.
Mr Murray criticised the DELWP conservation plan for failing to survey large portions of the lake and shoreline.
Organisers of the rally, the Sea Lake Off Road Club, had offered to modify the route but fellow applicant and Wergaia elder Bobby Nicholls said the rally in any form made it incompatible with preserving cultural heritage because it was an uncontrolled environment.
"They tear around open county … and given there are some very sensitive areas where we need protection … [the buggies] can go anywhere off the track," Mr Nicholls said.
"We have no choice but to engage the Commonwealth as a last resort."
An eco-tourism alternative
Mr Murray said traditional owners had proposed an eco-tourism precinct that would preserve the cultural heritage of the site and bring greater economic benefit to the region than the Mallee Rally.
The rally was estimated to bring in $250,000 over a single long weekend.
Mr Murray said the precinct would also include a planetarium for the study of First Nations astronomy and culture, and a research facility on the history of First Nations of the Mallee.
He said the cultural heritage values of Direl were comparable to Uluru, Kakadu, and Lake Condah, which were UNESCO World Heritage-listed.
"The concept would attract schools, universities, government agencies, domestic and international tourists on a major scale," Mr Murray said.
He compared the rally to running a bulldozer through the MCG or local cemeteries.
"There'd be a massive outcry, yet when we talk about preserving and protecting our sites whether they be burial sites, middens, mounds or whatever, people don't take that into consideration."
Mr Nicholls and Mr Murray said hearing the state Opposition Aboriginal affairs spokesperson and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, voice his support for the rally was concerning.
Buloke Shire Council said development works for the caravan park were halted until a cultural heritage management plan was completed.
The Victorian government confirmed that a Cultural Heritage Management Plan had not been lodged buy the caravan park developers.
It also confirmed that the Lake Tyrrell Conservation Management Plan recommended the Mallee Rally not continue and that a Cultural Heritage Permit would be required for the rally to proceed.
Mr Walsh declined to comment.
