Rio Tinto’s Ruin of Australia’s ‘Stonehenge’ Sparks Reforms
- Indigenous people had used caves for as long as 46,000 years
- Government to consult over new system of protections for sites
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Australia is moving to strengthen protections for historic sites of its Indigenous peoples in the wake of Rio Tinto Group’s destruction of caves occupied as long as 46,000 years ago, which a senior lawmaker described on Thursday as “legal desecration.”
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek told Parliament the government would accept at least seven of the eight recommendations made from a government probe into Rio Tinto’s 2020 move to blow up the Juukan Gorge site in Western Australia for mining exploration.