Aboriginal intangible values relating to a place and cultural landscapes
Physical places and objects are critical for understanding the human past. However, it is the relationship between these places and Traditional Owners which make these places significant in the first place. Where known, and subject to Traditional Owner permissions, cultural heritage management plans should document, integrate and consider the cultural elements which make places significant and factor these into rationales for management conditions.
Cultural heritage significance
CHMP conditions should be explicitly linked to the cultural heritage significance of the Aboriginal cultural heritage which is the subject of the condition.
CHMP role demarcation
Participants in the CHMP process need to be mindful of their own powers, responsibilities, expertise, rights and those of others. RAPs have the power to approve or refuse CHMPs, HAs have the duty to provide Sponsors with their own best possible advice and information, Sponsors are entitled to expect high quality work within reasonable costs and timelines but factor in the possibility that significant Aboriginal cultural heritage may affect delivery.
Isolated and low-density artefact scatters, including dispersed shell midden material in coastal environments
Isolated and low-density stone artefact distributions, and dispersed shell midden material in coastal environments, should be recorded, but in most cases should not require further subsurface investigation and may be managed via conditions and contingencies.
Complex assessment in such cases may still be desirable and reasonable in the development of predictive models, in order to best understand the likely heritage of the activity area. But this should not normally be undertaken to investigate isolated or low-density artefact scatters. Decisions to either proceed to complex assessment, or not, should be reasoned and documented in the CHMP.
CHMP contingencies for the discovery of Aboriginal cultural heritage during the activity
The Aboriginal Heritage Regulations 2018 (the Regulations) require CHMPs to include contingency plans for the discovery of Aboriginal cultural heritage during works. Contingency plans should balance the need to adequately manage and avoid harm to Aboriginal cultural heritage unearthed during the activity with minimising unnecessary costs and delays to the Sponsor, plus other matters required by section 61 and item 13 of schedule 2 to the Regulations.
Contingency plans should be consistent with DPC’s example contingencies published on the First Peoples - State Relations (FPSR) website.
RAP Right of Refusal under Section 63(4) on the basis of Section 61 matters
RAPs are empowered under the Act to refuse to approve CHMPs when they are not satisfied the measures proposed are adequate. The RAP should consider the measures themselves and the cultural heritage significance of the Aboriginal heritage to be impacted when making this determination.
Salvage
Salvage should only be a condition of a CHMP when there is no other way (including preservation in situ) to minimise or prevent harm occurring to Aboriginal cultural heritage of particular cultural heritage significance, such as dense deposits of cultural material that includes temporal and contextual features. Salvage must be guided by clear reason and purpose. Salvage solely for the purpose of artefact collection is never an appropriate CHMP condition.
CHMP induction requirements
CHMP inductions should be conducted as two distinct presentations with different purposes in mind. The first is a cultural awareness induction, the second is a site induction. Only inductions necessary for protecting and managing the Aboriginal heritage of the activity area need be included as conditions in a CHMP. Note that an induction should not be required when no heritage has been identified during the assessment.
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