"We cannot get this wrong and we are absolutely committed to doing everything we can with Banjima to achieve that," Ms Ferrari said. She said the company was in "daily contact" with Banjima representatives over the South Flank project. "At the time we were working under the basis of the agreement and the consents that we had in place," Ms Ferrari said. "That's why the heritage council we have set up is so important - because it provides a forum for an ongoing dialogue between BHP and the traditional owners after the Section 18 has been lodged," Mr Bunting said.īHP's head of indigenous engagement Libby Ferrari said the company would have "possibly" done things differently with the benefit of hindsight. The company has since created a heritage advisory council with Banjima elders to give the traditional owners a greater say in operations. The inquiry heard BHP has been granted 57 Section 18 permissions by the WA Government since 1975. The company also committed to reviewing all of its existing Section 18 approvals, and said it would not act on them without further extensive consultation with traditional owners. ( ABC News: Hugh Sando)īut in June, following the national backlash over the destruction of the Juukan Gorge caves, BHP announced it would put plans to destroy 40 sites at the South Flank expansion project on hold. The destruction of the Juukan Gorge heritage site by Rio Tinto prompted a national backlash. However, he added the Banjima representatives said they did not object to the Section 18 application being lodged. "You're right that concerns were raised at that time." "At that time the traditional owners raised their thoughts on the significance of those sites and also talked about mitigation around those sites," Mr Bunting said. Section 18 of WA's Aboriginal Heritage Act legalises the destruction of Aboriginal sites, and the state's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt has since started a review of the act.īHP's David Bunting said the concerns were first raised when mine planners, heritage staff and traditional owners were in the field discussing the potential heritage impacts ahead of the company's application. The WA Government granted approval to destroy dozens of sites just days after Rio Tinto destroyed 46,000-year-old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara.īHP is the second major miner to appear at a federal parliamentary inquiry investigating Rio Tinto's destruction of the ancient sites.īHP on Thursday told the inquiry that representatives of the Banjima traditional owners "raised concerns in the field" ahead of the Section 18 application last October, and also wrote to the WA Government in April saying they were opposed to archaeological sites being damaged.
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