{"id":19211,"date":"2026-05-27T03:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/19211\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T03:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T03:32:17","slug":"wiradjuri-community-devastated-by-destruction-of-rock-shelter-by-acerez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/19211\/","title":{"rendered":"Wiradjuri community devastated by destruction of rock shelter by ACEREZ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Wiradjuri community say a renewable energy company must be held to account for the “inexcusable” destruction of an Aboriginal rock shelter it promised to protect.<\/p>\n

ACEREZ has apologised for demolishing the site beyond repair<\/a> while its workers cleared land near Mudgee to build power lines for the NSW Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).<\/p>\n

Wiradjuri, Tubba-Gah and Gamilaraay man Thomas Dahlstrom worked on the larger REZ site, conducting Aboriginal cultural heritage assessments.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Thomas Dahlstrom says a cultural management plan was put out to protect the site. (Supplied: Thomas Dahlstrom)<\/p>\n

He said he was devastated to learn the company knew about the shelter but destroyed it anyway.<\/p>\n

“This is one of the hardest parts to digest. When you know better, there’s absolutely no excuse,” Mr Dahlstrom said.<\/p>\n

“A cultural management plan was put out to prevent disasters such as this.”<\/p>\n

Mr Dahlstrom said he discussed the cultural sites with the company several times, and stressed the need to block them off and barricade them from construction work.<\/p>\n

“We were told they wouldn’t be harmed,” he said.<\/p>\n

Shelter for women and children<\/p>\n

Mr Dahlstrom said the shelter would likely have been a refuge for a mother with children while they were gathering food.<\/p>\n

He described the east-facing cave mouth as protecting those inside from the westerly winds.<\/p>\n

“If they were caught in rain or couldn’t get back to camp, it’s a handy little cave,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/p>\n

Thomas Dahlstrom says the cave would likely have fit a woman and two children while they were gathering food. (Supplied: NSW EnergyCo)<\/p>\n

The Aboriginal Site Recording Form that logged the rock shelter for the project’s planning documents found that it could have had potential archaeological deposits at a depth of at least 50 centimetres in the soil.<\/p>\n

“If it had been tested, we’d have more answers of what conclusively would’ve been there,” Mr Dahlstrom said.<\/p>\n

Federal bid to protect the area<\/p>\n

The destruction of the shelter pushed Mr Dahlstrom to apply for federal protection over the site after seeking advice from his family and community.<\/p>\n

He lodged a section 9 emergency protection order application under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act.<\/p>\n

He also submitted a longer-term section 10 bid simultaneously.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the federal environment department confirmed it was assessing the requests.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

Thomas Dahlstrom says he felt compelled to apply for the protection orders after seeking advice from his family and Wiradjuri community. (Supplied: Thomas Dahlstrom)<\/p>\n

“I hope they accept the application and work with Wiradjuri to prevent any further damage across the whole footprint of the project,” Mr Dahlstrom said.<\/p>\n

Call for compensation<\/p>\n

A Wiradjuri Elder from the Lithgow area, Aunty Sharon Riley, is a descendent from the Talbragar Reserve where the shelter was located.<\/p>\n

She questioned what went “terribly wrong” in the process that allowed a mapped cultural site to be demolished.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Aunty Sharon Riley says ACEREZ needs to consider compensating the community for destroying the shelter. (ABC News: Lani Oataway)<\/p>\n

“You would’ve thought after previous things that went on in Western Australia [Juukan Gorge<\/a>] that lessons would’ve been learnt and the values would’ve been respected a hell of a lot more,” she said.<\/p>\n

“To let us know and to just say sorry is really not good enough.”<\/p>\n

Ms Riley said the company should take further action.<\/p>\n

“What about thinking about compensation because that’s more trauma to Aboriginal people today,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s thousands and thousands of years of knowledge and our history for this part of Wiradjuri country, and once they’re destroyed they’re gone forever.”<\/p>\n

\"Rock<\/p>\n

The shelter had a potential archaeological deposit of at least 50cm in the soil floor. (Supplied: NSW EnergyCo)<\/p>\n

The chief executive of ACEREZ, Steve Masters, told ABC 702 Radio on Tuesday that he was “bitterly disappointed” by the incident.<\/p>\n

He said there had not yet been any discussion about compensation for the shelter’s destruction.<\/p>\n

“We will sit down with the traditional owners and be guided by their feedback,” Mr Masters said.<\/p>\n

He said no-one had been sacked over the incident, but it would be “considered” during the company’s review.<\/p>\n

In a press conference on Tuesday, NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said “appropriate penalties” for the company would be looked at once the state’s own investigation concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the Wiradjuri community say a renewable energy company must be held to account for the “inexcusable”…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17905,22,21,17906,17907,17908,1628,7875,18704,17911,18705,11469],"class_list":["post-19211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-acerez","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-central-west-orana-renewable-energy-zone","tag-central-west-orana-rez","tag-mudgee","tag-power-lines","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rez","tag-rock-shelter","tag-transmission-lines","tag-wiradjuri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}