Mansell Calls for Removal of Arthur Pieman Management Group

Media release – Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, 2 August 2021

MANSELL REJECTS BIAS IN VERY PROFESSIONAL GOVERNMENT HERITAGE REPORT FOR ARTHUR-PIEMAN

CALLS ON 4WDS TO MOVE ON

Land Council Chairman Michael Mansell has rejected claims that the Tasmanian government’s cultural heritage assessment was biased in any way.

“It is a very professional report, done by professional people asked to report what they found. They found that the areas where the ORVs wanted to drive contained irreplaceable Aboriginal history. The report also found that opening tracks 501,503 and 601 south of Sandy Cape would damage Aboriginal history and be inconsistent and at odds with the APCA management protections for Aboriginal heritage. The report further found that sites destroyed by ORVs, and retain no structural integrity, are effectively lost to science for all time.”

Mr Mansell said it was time for the government to remove the APCA management group.

“Anyone who doubted the APCA management and advisory body was just another front for ORVs only had to read the comments of its members. Chairman Lock Avery, Daryl Quilliam and Peter Benson are all on the record as wanting ORV access regardless of Aboriginal heritage. There is bias alright,” Mr Mansell said, ‘not in the government report but within the APCA Advisory management group.”

“What these ORV advocates fail to acknowledge is that there is an existing 80 kilometres of off-road access on 94 tracks that already smash through Aboriginal middens and destroy the fragile environment. In addition is the Great Western highway that runs beside and beyond the Arthur-Pieman. Where would these people say enough is enough?” he asked.

Mr Mansell, who was re-elected on Saturday as Chair of the Land Council for the next three years, said: “The Aboriginal community are waiting for Minister Jacqui Petrusma to offer talks about next step, in accordance with the recommendations of the government report. We would like to work through the details with the minister of a joint government-Aboriginal approach to protecting irreplaceable Aboriginal heritage in the Arthur-Pieman conservation area.”