Important Aboriginal cultural heritage including burial sites could be at risk under a draft government plan to return horse-training to more than five kilometres of the Belfast Coastal Reserve, details in the plan reveal.
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It says the reserve contains at least two known burial sites containing Aboriginal ancestral remains, and is of “outstanding cultural heritage value for the high density of middens and other Aboriginal places it contains”.
Shell middens reveal information about Aboriginal people who lived in the area for thousands of years.
Eastern Marr Aboriginal Corporation chief executive officer (CEO) and director Jamie Lowe said his organisation had been engaged with the process and would continue to deal with relevant stakeholders.
The government report says in 2017 the Warrnambool Racing Club sponsored a Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP), approved by Aboriginal Victoria, that examined a proposal for up to 280 horses per week in the dunes area between Levys Beach and Hoon Hill.
Club CEO Peter Downs said the plan was commissioned after a September 2016 ban on horse trainers using the dunes.
“The CHMP has determined the proposed activity cannot be conducted in a way that minimises harm to Aboriginal cultural heritage and proposed the salvage and storage of artefacts from the area before the activity commences,” the plan reads.
In February 2017, before the report’s release, Mr Downs told The Standard it found “no significant cultural areas at Levys Point” and would open the door to trainers using the dunes again.
