Several important Aboriginal cultural sites are under threat in the Hartley Valley in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. A major motorway upgrade is planned, with five bridges in six kilometres. Such an over engineered  monster is totally inconsistent with the Heritage Listed landscape that it is traversing, and it goes right through the middle of the Possum Dreaming site and will destroy it. There will be total obliteration of many thousands of years of history and memory  associated with this possum skin cloak making site, possum skin cloaks being a powerful element of Wiradjuri culture, symbolising life's journey from birth to death.

Being built at a cost of about $1 billion for 14 kilometres of road that has already had some $200 million of upgrades implemented in the last ten years, makes this project look like a reckless spend of our hard earned tax dollars. Ridiculously, it will save less than two minutes driving time.

The local community has developed an alternate plan for a dual carriageway upgrade, that improves safety and transit times, that saves the Possum Dreaming site, and can be built  for some $500,000,000 less than the road proposed.That solution will ensure First Nation cultural values are embraced and preserved.

TfNSW have recently completed a self assessment Review of Environmental Factors deeming this an adequate review to enable them to proceed with the planned upgrade. The community is aghast at this short circuiting of a proper environmental assessment process that would independently consider all the impacts of the proposal, including the impact on the nineteen Aboriginal heritage sites identified along the road corridor. We demand that a full Environmental Impact Assessment be undertaken, overseen by the Department of Planning, before this project proceeds any further.