A plan to raise Warragamba Dam could breach Australia’s obligations under the world heritage convention.
The Australian committee of a United Nations world heritage advisory body, ICOMOS* (the International Council on Monuments and Sites) has expressed concerns about the impacts raising the dam wall would have on the cultural heritage of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Ian Travers, president of Australia ICOMOS has asked the federal government to intervene to ensure the NSW Government withdraws the Water NSW Amendment (Warragamba Dam) Bill 2018, from Parliament, which was passed last month.
He has also written to their Paris secretariat which will alert UNESCO (thee United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) to the failings.
“Under Article 4 of the World Heritage Convention, Australia is obliged to do all it can, using the utmost of its own resources, to identify, protect, and conserve the cultural and natural heritage of Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
“Neither the decision making process for the proposed raising of the wall, nor the pre-emptive proposed NSW enabling legislation comply with these obligations.
“Best practice has not been followed [by governments] … and not nearly enough is known about cultural values [of the site].”
Mr Travers said the areas affected include a world heritage property, a national heritage place, two national parks, a declared wilderness area, a declared wild river, and the Warragamba special catchment area.
The area is recognised globally for its biodiversity and rare species and was also originally nominated to the world heritage list by Australia, with the support of the NSW Government, for cultural and natural values in the 1990s. Parts of the area are currently on the Australian Heritage Council’s priority assessment list.
“It is inappropriate, as a matter of proper process, for the NSW Parliament to be considering enabling legislation that would impact upon established world or national heritage values or potential national heritage values,” Mr Travers said.
The statements come a day after the Colong Foundation released freedom of information documents which revealed the Federal Department of Energy and Environment believed raising Warragamba Dam wall would cause “extensive and significant impacts” to the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
Mr Travers said the time frame to look into potential damage caused by raising the wall was “manifestly inadequate”.
“The proposed dam wall raising could result in the periodic inundation of up to 1,000 hectares of the GBMWHA and 3,700 hectares of national park lands.
“The cultural heritage survey undertaken ...comprised 25 days across a 354 square kilometre section around the shores of Lake Burragorang. This timeframe appears to be manifestly inadequate, to identify the cultural heritage places which may be affected or to engage appropriately with … Gundungurra traditional owners.”
The state government has said the proposed 14 metre raising of the dam wall is to mitigate flood damage in the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley.
Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said “the main thing we are trying to protect is people’s lives and properties that were already in the flood plain before development controls were put in place to restrict where properties can be developed.”
The NSW Environment Minister’s own advisory committee has spoken out against the proposed raising of Warragamba Dam wall. The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Advisory Committee has called on the government to “carefully consider the adverse impacts on the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area”.
In a letter obtained by the Colong Foundation the committee told the minister “The proposal to raise the dam wall will cause irreparable damage to these extraordinary wilderness areas and wild rivers, protected under legislation.”
“There is likely to be a negative impact … on aesthetic values from various lookouts including McMahons and possibly Echo Point, accessed by millions of visitors annually. These values are a significant element of the regional tourism economy.”
MP Susan Templeman said the Warragamba Dam wall-raising proposal has yet again being exposed as “reckless, simplistic and ill-informed”.
“The State Government cannot continue to ignore the mounting criticism coming from all directions including an international heritage body, Federal and State departments and leading scientists. There is no doubt that we need a comprehensive approach to protecting lives and properties in flood-prone areas, but that involves a more informed debate and a more sophisticated response than the one we are seeing. We need a plan based on science and the NSW Government’s own 2017 Hawkesbury–Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy.”
*ICOMOS is a non-government, not-for-profit organisation of cultural heritage professionals which has been running since 1965 (with an Australian committee since 1976). The group recently expressed concerns about advertising the Everest horse race on the Sydney Opera House and is in relation to the management of cultural heritage in the Tasmanian wilderness.
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