Aboriginals who helped get rock-climbers banned from vast swathes of the world-famous Mount Arapiles State Park are now complaining they’ve suffered “racial abuse” as a result.
Victoria’s Labor government announced in November that up to half of all rock-climbing areas would be closed following a due to a secretive aboriginal cultural heritage investigation that found tens of thousands of artefacts, scarred trees and rock art, angering climbers, local residents and business owners.
Opponents of the ban say they were never consulted about the new management plan drawn up after four years of surveys conducted by Parks Victoria and the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, and say the changes will destroy climbing in the area, which attracts visitors from around the globe.
The ban was pushed by some members of the Wotjobaluk indigenous community, who claim they have lived in the area for tens of thousands of years, in order to protect their “cultural heritage”, even though the artefacts are mainly stone chips, scar trees are common in the region, and much of the rock art is not visible to the naked eye.
But now some are complaining that have been targeted by racists, and one man says he is now too afraid to go to the local shops, even though there have been no attacks or physical assaults. Victoria Police said they had one official report of “threats to damage property”.
Brett Harrison told ABC News he was upset by social media posts he described as “derogatory” and “demeaning”.
“The amount of times I’ve seen the comment, ‘We voted No in the referendum, why are all these aboriginal issues still a thing?'” he said.
Mr Harrison and another Wotjobaluk man, Johnny Gorton, claimed dead animals were left on the doorstep of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, workers’ cars were spat on, and local businesses had refused service to people wearing aboriginal organisation clothing.
Mr Gorton also claimed his brother was “intimidated and singled out” by an elderly couple who told him: “Look, there’s a hollow in the tree. The aborigines will see that and ban parking here and we can no longer come down here”.
Victoria Police have now developed a “safety plan” for the land council as a result of the complaints.
Australian’s Indian-born far-left $385,000/year Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, who sparked fury last year by declaring that antiwhite racism is “not a significant issue”, told the ABC that the Voice referendum has “mainstreamed a torrent of racism”.
He said as a result Australians felt they could “immediately challenge” what he called indigenous “self-determination and sovereignty” – referring to efforts to ban the majority of the population from national parks and mountains, and claim native title over land that belongs to all Australians.
Header image credit: Visit Victoria
