Rock art, mining and Indigenous well-being in the Lower Hunter Valley: the outlook from Baiame Cave

Abstract

In the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia, a deeply worrying trend hasn emerged where the approval of major mining projects is predicated on the rescinding of areas previously set aside to conserve environmental, including heritage, values. Here, I want to explore the juxtaposition of a landmark dual listing for the well-known and highly culturally significant rock art site of Baiame Cave, against the devastating impacts on community well-being posed by the extension of the Mt Thorley Walkworth Mine. The long-awaited judicial recognition of place attachment and the acknowledgment of negative consequences for community well-being via landscape-scale transformations from mining at the village of Bulga appear at odds with the almost simultaneous dual listing of the nearby Baiame Cave as an Aboriginal Place and a place of State Significance (inscribed on the NSW Heritage List). This case study adds to a burgeoning global literature on the complex impacts mining and other large-scale industrial activities have on indigenous heritage. The frightening example given here should serve to raise scrutiny for legislative processes and decision-making frameworks governing heritage protection everywhere.