Page 4078 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 24 October 1990
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the Bill in relation to the requirement for the restoration of excavation sites by permit holders, and also by the requirement for applications for permits and licences. Of course, that also relates to the permits to pick plants in those particular areas. Therefore, I think it is quite clear that this Bill provides the necessary mechanisms to solve any problems that Ms Follett may be concerned about.
I am very pleased to be able to speak in support of this Bill today. The Bill covers an area of personal interest to me, namely, the task of seeking out more about the cultural history of our region, especially that which relates to those who lived in those plains and within the nearby mountains prior to the settlement by Europeans. I have been fortunate to spend some months as a student at one of the most well-respected centres in Australia and the world on the subject of prehistory, particularly in Australia and the Pacific region. I refer, of course, to the Prehistory Department of the Australian National University. When considered in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, the Research School of Social Sciences and Pacific Studies and Anutech, this department provides a wealth of experience, which I am pleased to see includes more members of the original inhabitants of this continent each year. I was fortunate to be a student with one of those members who has gone off with the experience gained in that school to participate in the exercise on behalf of his community.
This amendment will ensure that some areas in our wilderness zones which are now unavailable for such research will become available under strict controls. I am, of course, referring to some parts of the Namadgi National Park. As my colleague Mr Duby said when introducing the Bill, Namadgi National Park was declared under the ACT Nature Conservation Act in 1984. The park covers some 94,000 hectares in the southern ACT. It is the northernmost extension of alpine and sub-alpine areas, extending from the Victorian Alps, through Kosciusko National Park in New South Wales to Namadgi in the ACT. There is, in fact, an Australian Alps National Parks Agreement which covers the area and commits the ACT Government to conserve the outstanding natural and cultural values of the alpine national parks in cooperation with other governments.
Namadgi National Park was part of the area inhabited by the Ngunawal Aboriginal people. They have left a rich diversity of cultural sites and artefacts in the region, with many important sites located in Namadgi National Park. In fact, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, might I refer members to a very good book that covers this whole matter. It is called The Moth Hunters by Dr Josephine Flood, and it covers this particular area very well.
The sites that I have referred to include a number of rock art sites, which have recently been the subject of investigation by a scientist and an archaeologist of the
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