A Victorian man has been found guilty of destroying an ancient Aboriginal rock formation on his property in 2021.
On Thursday, a Ballarat magistrate sentenced 65-year-old Adrian McMaster for breaching the Aboriginal Heritage Act after he destroyed a 1500-year-old Aboriginal cultural heritage site on his Lake Bolac property.
Mr McMaster was given a conviction, a 12-month undertaking for good behaviour, and ordered to donate $7,000 to the Aboriginal Heritage Council to help preserve the site, after he used an excavator to remove rocks from the 300-metre-long arrangement resembling an eel.
Known as the Kuyang Ceremonial Ground by Djap Wurrung Traditional Owners, it has been recognised and registered as a site of Aboriginal significance since 1975.
At a hearing last month, Mr McMaster told the Ballarat Magistrates' Court he was moving stones to get a weed sprayer "in there," labelling it a "fire hazard".
He said he had limited knowledge of Indigenous rock formations, telling the court: "Being a miner, a rock's a rock."
His lawyer, James Portelli, argued Mr McMaster had made an honest mistake and didn't know the rocks were the eel formation. He said his client was not disputing the legitimacy of the Aboriginal heritage site, nor that it was on his property, and he had engaged in rock removal.
The ABC reported on Thursday Magistrate Mark Stratmann deemed that although Mr McMaster had made a mistake of fact, his conduct was neither reasonable nor honest.
Senior heritage advisor John Tunn previously told the court he was driving past the property when he pulled over and told Mr McMaster to be careful in what he was doing and get advice.
He said he had twice warned Mr McMaster that he was interfering with a known heritage site as he removed the rocks.
Presented with this, Mr McMaster said he was not prepared to take Mr Tunn's word as gospel.
"I wanted to finish doing that job and get it out of the way. Safety first," he told the court.
Furthermore, he argued he didn't "know anyone in Lake Bolac of Aboriginal background … never seen them in my lifetime". Nonetheless, he stated: "I am not going out to do something that would harm their heritage and make me look bad."
Magistrate Stratmann said his ruling was based on Mr McMaster's comments about not seeing Indigenous people in the area, as well as refusing to act when presented with information he was disrupting a known heritage site.
Furthermore, he cited Mr McMaster's history of working in the mining sector in WA and seeing first-hand sites of cultural importance for First Peoples.
The prosecution requested Mr McMaster cover more than $14,000 in court costs, the ABC reported, however, the final costings have not been determined.
