Bega Valley Shire Council believes preliminary drilling work at the site of the new Cuttagee Bridge shouldn’t have come as a surprise to the local indigenous community.
Merrimans Aboriginal Lands Council Chair Gary Campbell had complained he and the Merrimans Local Aboriginal Lands Council were given no prior warning about the activity in the culturally sensitive area.
But Council CEO Anthony McMahon said staff tried to let them know.
“We have been attempting to engage with the Merriman’s Land Council and Council does have a Bega, Eden and Merriman’s Land Council Committee in place but they haven’t regularly been attending that so it’s been a little bit difficult to try and engage with them and talk through this,” Mr McMahon said.
“The CEO has had a couple of meetings with council staff, including myself and transport for New South Wales representatives as well. We have been trying to engage with them previously when the environmental assessment works for being done,” he said.
“There was representatives from Merriman’s on site with the consultants doing that work.
“I don’t really want to go in the back and forth. Our staff have tried to contact Merriman’s. They’re, they’re not as easy to get hold of as it might sound in the media.
We reported last week that contractors had been on site drilling holes up to 50 feet deep to identify the location of bedrock that could be used to anchor the new concrete bridge to.
“The reason for the recent drilling out there at Cottage Bridge was to support the detailed design of the final bridge, which involves understanding where or what the soil profile is,” Mr McMahon said.
“100 millimetre diameter bore holes went down and just looking for what the soil profile was down there so nothing, nothing too major just to really verify what the ground conditions are there,” he said.
“A cultural heritage assessment was done on the site, and that did involve representing some Merriman’s land council inspecting the site earlier, much earlier this year with the consultants doing that work and it was made sure that the area that they went into was not the area that was more identified as sort of high risk, and the contractors were aware of the protocols.
“It was ensured that they were outside of the higher sensitivity zone that was identified through the cultural heritage assessment that was done at the site.
“If they did discover anything on site as well and what they needed to do and stop work and who to notify.”
