BANDJALANG woman Simone Roberts said she doesn't know how the developer of the Iron Gates site at Evans Head sleeps at night.
The Iron Gates site is now called Vantage at Evans and developer Graeme Ingles wants to put 175 house lots on the river front property.
For Ms Barker, the change of name doesn't alter the significance of the site to the Bandjalang mob.
"It is a ceremonial place and also a massacre site,” Ms Barker said.
Only five out of eight scarred trees remain, significant because the marks on the trees mark where warriors were killed, she said.
"They are like headstones at a cemetery.”
Ms Barker's late father Lawrence Wilson fought against the same development in 1996, when it was called Iron Gates.
I'm losing sleep,” Ms Barker said.
"I know why my dad was so tired fighting for Native Title of our own land in Bandjalang country.”
There are two graves of chiefs on the development site.
"We have lost enough sites,” Ms Barker said.
"I come from the custodial family and its my job to protect the land.
Ms Barker works at Evans River School.
"Aboriginal kids are hands-on. How will I teach them about their country? This is taking away from future generations.
"Once the land goes, its gone forever.”
Ms Barker spoke volumes when she said, "these sites are part of me.”
Craig Gillespie who also works at the school said he was a proud Awabakal man and resident of Evans
He wrote a letter to the Minister fir Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt about the development.
"The site of the proposed development is also of great significance to the local Bandjalang clan of the Bundjalung nation, as it is the burial site of two chiefs. The adjoining river once contained a land bridge which allowed the first people to cross the river to Gummigudah (Grandmothers place), and in the 1800's it was the site of a terrible massacre by white farmers. The area still contains several scar trees whose location are kept secret due to the danger of them being destroyed by the developer.”
Have you say
View the DA at richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au /council/on-exhibition/. To lodge a submission, post it to Locked Bag 10 Casino NSW 2470, online at richmond valley.nsw.gov.au/contact /have-your-say/make-a- submission/ or email council @richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au.
