‘Where’s the accountability?’: Indigenous elders decry ‘irreparable’ coalmine damage to heritage site

A monitoring site near Dendrobium coalmine in NSW where excavation has damaged a ‘significant’ Indigenous cultural site. Photograph: Peter Hanman/The Guardian

A mine excavating coal beneath greater Sydney’s water catchment has damaged a site of “significant” cultural heritage, prompting an investigation by the New South Wales government and warnings from Indigenous elders about “a second Juukan Gorge”.

A routine inspection at the Dendrobium coalmine near Cordeaux dam in March found fracturing and associated rock falls beneath an overhang that features culturally significant artwork, authorities say. Subsidence, as soil and rocks sank into the void left by the mining, is blamed for the cracking.