Government declines to protect Indigenous sacred site to be bulldozed for Brisbane Olympic stadium

Dancers at the Save Victoria Park rally in Brisbane on the final day before the 64-hectare site is handed over to build the 63,000-seat Olympic stadium. Photograph: Joe Hinchliffe/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Dancers at the Save Victoria Park rally in Brisbane on the final day before the 64-hectare site is handed over to build the 63,000-seat Olympic stadium. Photograph: Joe Hinchliffe/The Guardian Government declines to protect Indigenous sacred site to be bulldozed for Brisbane Olympic stadium Environment minister Murray Watt decides against emergency declaration to halt construction but does not rule out ‘longer term protections’ Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast The federal government has decided against an 11th-hour intervention to halt construction of an Olympic stadium and aquatic centre in the heart of Brisbane, in a park that traditional owners say is a First Nations sacred site . The environment minister, Murray Watt, issued a statement on Sunday afternoon to say he had considered applications made under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act for him to stop construction in Victoria Park. The application said a “significant Aboriginal area was under serious and imminent threat of injury or desecration”. Rocky row: is a river 600km north of Brisbane really the best place to host an Olympic event? Read more Watt said he had decided against making that emergency declaration, but he had appointed a reporter to review further applications and to “determine if longer term protections are required”. “Today’s decisions follow consultation with interested parties, and I acknowledge the importance of the area to the Turrbal and Yagara Peoples,” Watt said. As the statement was issued, hundreds of protesters were gathered in Victoria Park on the final day before the 64-hectare site was transferred from trust land held by Brisbane city council to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA). GIICA is responsible for building the 63,000-seat stadium, which will afterwards be used for Australian rules football and cricket. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Sue Bremner, the Save Victoria Park president, said she expected fences to enclose the site would be completed by Monday morning. When the first fences went up on Friday, five people were arrested from a First Nations protest camp: the Goori Camp Embassy. “The world was appalled, on Friday, by what they saw,” she told the crowd on Sunday. Nurri Theresa Williams, who lodged protection applications for the site, said it was “the last sacred site of the gathering of our people in the entire Brisbane area”. Williams said her family had lived in the area for hundreds of years. “I’m now in my 80s and this place does have birthing sites – my family’s birthing sites,” she said. “This park is a beautiful, natural park – our motherland – has burial sites. My family’s burial sites.” The Greens councillor Seal