By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) -A group representing Brisbane’s two Indigenous peoples lodged an application with the Australian federal government on Tuesday for the permanent protection of the site where the city plans to build the main stadium for the 2032 Olympics.
The Yagara and Magandjin peoples want the inner city Victoria Park, known to them as Barrambin, to be protected for perpetuity under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act as a “significant Aboriginal area”.
“Barrambin is living country, possessing sacred, ancient and significant relationships within our cultural heritage systems,” elder Gaja Kerry Charlton said in a statement on behalf of the Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC).
“It was a complete shock when the Premier came out with his stadium plans … I thought the park was safe. Now the government wants to destroy it. We are very concerned there are ancient trees, artefacts and very important eco-systems existing there. There may be ancestral remains.
“We stand resolute in our responsibility to protect it.”
No one at the organising committee for the Games, or the Office for the Deputy Premier of Queensland Jarrod Bleijie, who is responsible for Olympic construction, was immediately available for comment.
After years of political wrangling, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced in March that a 63,000-seat stadium would be constructed and Victoria Park’s Centenary Pool rebuilt to provide a 25,000-seat aquatics centre for the Olympics.
In June, Crisafulli’s government enacted legislation to exempt the Olympic building projects from normal planning rules.
The Save Victoria Park campaign, which released a shared statement with YMAC on Tuesday, said June’s legislation was “unprecedented” and overrode existing acts of parliament on environmental protection and First Nations rights.
“We estimate the majority of the parkland and hundreds of mature trees will now be sacrificed,” Save Victoria Park spokesperson Sue Bremner said.
“And as we face this profound and irreversible loss of cultural heritage and human rights, Olympic organisers continue to promote 2032 as being the first Games with a Reconciliation Action Plan. It is simply astounding.”
Organising committee President Andrew Liveris told Reuters last month that anyone who objected to the development would be heard, but that June’s legislation was essential to keep the project on track to deliver the venues before 2032.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Saad Sayeed)
