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For context, I'm a Guardian reader, not overly partial to mining and love the Australian outback. The earlier Rio Tinto issue appeared to concern an older and m
by prawn 6y ago
For context, I'm a Guardian reader, not overly partial to mining and love the Australian outback. The earlier Rio Tinto issue appeared to concern an older and more significant site. With this BHP case, it's hard to get a real idea of what sort of heritage sites we're talking about without details/images. If there were evocative images, I think we'd be seeing them in the article. I wondered if many in this case are not so much caves as people think of them, but very small alcoves you could store food in or maybe lie down in. The areas mined seem flatter than some of the more exciting formations in the northern WA region that don't make national park designation.
I'm torn because if you need to mine somewhere, remote parts of Australia might as well be the place. But on the other hand, once you give over these truly wild areas to development, they're not coming back, especially from mining.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoI live in Tasmania, grew up in South Australia. Someone once pointed out to me the scale of Australia by showing me this: https://goo.gl/maps/XuwPjHfLmqAYaRwa6 https://goo.gl/maps/XuwPjHfLmqAYaRwa6 This is the open pit iron ore mine Iron Duke in the Middleback Ranges. He quipped the plan is to “keep digging north forever.”
- prawn 6y agoI've driven past there a couple of times in the last few months (filming on Eyre Peninsula) and even something of that scale is a blip. Take away mining and grazing and absolutely massive areas of Australia would barely be of interest to humans. Iron Knob is an eyesore, but if it weren't for the roadside warning signs for the others in that locale, you might not know they were there.
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoWhat have you been filming? I grew up in Port Lincoln.
- prawn 6y agoI was born in Port Lincoln, though moved to Adelaide before I was one. I'm a web developer, but I fly a drone on the side filming for tourism. Last trip over that way was to film from an oyster boat in Coffin Bay for the tourism commission. Shots from other locations in the area: https://serio.com.au/prints/eyre-peninsula/ https://serio.com.au/prints/eyre-peninsula/
- TheSpiceIsLife 6y agoHeh, good one. I was born in Adelaide but moved to Port Lincoln before I was one. So yeah, familiar with Coffin Bay, and don’t mind me the odd oyster or twelve. If you’re ever done this way shoot me a msg, email in profile.
- prawn 6y agoWill do. In-laws have recently bought a property in northern Tasmania actually so inevitable we'll head over at some point.
- jl6 6y agoMines do eventually come back. I live in an area with many historical quarries which are now nature reserves. Only took a hundred years or so...
- prawn 6y agoThing with some of these Australian areas is that I don't know that we have the geological and weather forces to reclaim them in any hurry. And they're too remote or contaminated to be of much use for an intentional project to repurpose them for adventure (quad bikes, etc), tourism, art, etc.
- vermilingua 6y agoOne hundred years ago, mining didn’t use the same chemical or terraforming processes it does today. The Iron Duke mine linked nearby in the comments is a nearly 5km gash in the Earth. I don’t think it will be a nature reserve in 2120.
- roenxi 6y agoYou might be undercalling just how bad mines were 100 years ago. The pollution they caused would be total non-starter in modern Australia. Wouldn't even be an option on the table.
- olliej 6y agoHere the thing, if you sold a bunch of land that contain “just” a 1k year old European ruin that site would have immediately been protected from destruction for mining.
- pnako 6y agoAnd that's why we don't have any airport or car park in Europe.
- prawn 6y agoI can appreciate that. And while evidence of Aboriginal life at some sites might be scant (age and geology being big factors), I don't think it would be an insane inconvenience to work around them for many things outside of very massive operations like mines, even if there are loads of sites. I suspect the significance of these sites is being overplayed as a negotiating tactic on the back of the Rio Tinto incident. As it was, one of the authorities demoted half of the sites. On the other hand, if there was a broad area of historical interest (heavily frequented by nomads, or well-preserved), usually it'd be set aside. It's possible that the best examples already have been.
- orwin 6y agoNot really true, old structures are found at least every decade, sometime stops parking construction for a year or two, then the construction resume.
- neximo64 6y agoStonehenge is just a couple of turned rocks too. Its not a great rationalisation to downplay the significance of the meaning of the sites for future generations to see. You can't exactly have a taj mahal 15k years ago..
- triggercut 6y agoI don't see how images (assuming photographs) are necessarily important here. Traditional owners have been passing down stories of country for tens of thousands of years, passing them down by oral history and experiencing place. Marking history with physical presence of permanence is a primarily western phenomenon (for example: not all cultures had access to hard stone for construction, be it either locally, or via trade - wood succumbs to the elements eventually - the physical record of built form in Japan doesn't go back very far because buildings and structures were more impermanent. Some argue this is why they have such a strong written tradition and a focus on gardens, similar for areas of china and many island nations). "Evocative" images are irrelevant.
- prawn 6y agoFWIW, BHP has since said they will consult the traditional owners and not disturb the 40 heritage sites. Often the oral histories are general or associated with distinct features. If we're talking about broader areas, I think the key ones would be protected already or not signed over to a mining company. My point was that these don't sound like distinct places, else I'd guess images would aid the public cause in pressuring mining companies. The Rio Tinto story was accompanied by a photograph of the gorge/cave.