Indigenous group lodges application for federal protection of Brisbane stadium site

SYDNEY :A group representing Brisbane's two Indigenous peoples lodged an application with the Australian federal government on Tuesday for the permanent protection of the site where the city plans to build the main stadium for the 2032 Olympics.

The Yagara and Magandjin peoples want the inner city Victoria Park, known to them as Barrambin, to be protected for perpetuity under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act as a "significant Aboriginal area". 

"Barrambin is living country, possessing sacred, ancient and significant relationships within our cultural heritage systems," elder Gaja Kerry Charlton said in a statement on behalf of the Yagara Magandjin Aboriginal Corporation (YMAC).

"It was a complete shock when the Premier came out with his stadium plans ... I thought the park was safe. Now the government wants to destroy it. We are very concerned there are ancient trees, artefacts and very important eco-systems existing there. There may be ancestral remains.

"We stand resolute in our responsibility to protect it."

No one at the organising committee for the Games, or the Office for the Deputy Premier of Queensland Jarrod Bleijie, who is responsible for Olympic construction, was immediately available for comment.

After years of political wrangling, Queensland Premier David Crisafulli announced in March that a 63,000-seat stadium would be constructed and Victoria Park's Centenary Pool rebuilt to provide a 25,000-seat aquatics centre for the Olympics.

In June, Crisafulli's government enacted legislation to exempt the Olympic building projects from normal planning rules.

The Save Victoria Park campaign, which released a shared statement with YMAC on Tuesday, said June's legislation was "unprecedented" and