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Two major building projects in the Ballina Shire could face months of delays after Aboriginal artefacts were found.
Upgrade works at Ross Park in Lennox Head and Shaws Bay in Ballina have been put on hold due to separate discoveries.
At the latest council meeting, on April 22, Councillor Sharon Cadwallader asked Matthew Wood, council’s director of Planning and Environmental Health Division, about the future of the projects.
She asked why $150,000 of expenditure at Ross Park was delayed to next financial year.
“Am I right to assume that this is Aboriginal cultural heritage hold ups?” she asked.
Major projects at Ballina, Lennox Head face months of delays ballinaadvocate.com.au - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ballinaadvocate.com.au Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Cr Johnston asked fellow councillors to keep and approve structural improvements for the weather shelter. I understand the argument of modernising and embracing clean lines of adjoining building in Lennox (. but) I don t know why we can t hang on to, without being too blunt, a snippet of white man s history in that village, he said. Our indigenous folk have an abundance of historical and cultural sites across this shire. I readily concede that a 1950s brick shed has no comparison to the significance of some of the indigenous sites that we have in our area, thousands of years of indigenous connection, we can t match that, but we did have white settlement in this country, and I think it s a tragedy that we seem to want to rush to demolish any connections with the past.