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Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
All NSW	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

potential new bouldering area in NW sydney 21-May-2009 At 10:39:57 AM climberman

Message

Regardless of the (surprising) view of many on here about the relative values of Aboriginal heritage, such items are protected by law.

Inorder to beef up this law, there is an exposure bill out at present looking to amend the NPW Act to remove the issue of prior knowledge and make it a strict liability offence to damage items of Aboriginal Heritage (ie, the defence of not knowing they were items will be removed). The Act does not discuss degrees of damage, or impact, or even of significance. An Aboriginal object in NSW is:

Aboriginal object means any deposit, object or material evidence (not being a handicraft made for sale) relating to the Aboriginal habitation of the area that comprises New South Wales, being habitation before or concurrent with (or both) the occupation of that area by persons of non-Aboriginal extraction, and includes Aboriginal remains.

if it's of Aboriginal origin, it's protected, significance does not come into it.

monkeyboy - no, the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System is not available for general perusal. It can be accesssed, for a fee, with a good reason. Undertaking an activity likely to be prohibited in a Reserve is unlikely to be considered a good reason.