In 2018 Jabree Ltd was engaged by Logan Water Infrastructure Alliance to undertake an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Assessment for a pipeline construction in Bahrs Scrub. After an initial assessment in October Jabree concluded that two separate subsurface investigations were necessary and proceeded with these during 2019, the first investigation is detailed here.
The first stage of assessment was focused on a strip of land elevated above Windaroo Creek. In total 67 stone artefacts were produced as well as one historical artefact and two surface finds. Of these 70 artefacts only two were found to be cores, while the majority was composed of flakes and flake fragments. The historical artefact was identified as a shotgun shell cap.
Over the course of the excavation it was found that the tested site had an artefact density of just under two artefacts per square metre, when considering the size of the area to be affected by the project this extrapolates out to 6120 artefacts within the Windaroo Creek area.
Given the volume of artefacts and the location, being both on a level strip of land and close to a water source, the Windaroo Creek site has been classified as an artefact scatter and possible camp site location. It is assessed as having high cultural heritage significance, though no further cultural assessment is required.
The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003(Qld) places all persons in Queensland under a duty of care to take all reasonable and practical measures to ensure they do not harm Aboriginal cultural heritage whenever they undertake an activity. In accordance with these guidelines Jabree has made recommendations including the following:
- Ensuring Logan Water Infrastructure Alliance and its contractors are aware of their duty of care obligations under the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2003(Qld).
- Implementation and compliance with the Cultural Heritage Management Agreement including;
- The Chance Finds Protocol in the case that any cultural heritage objects are exposed during the project
