FEBRUARY 2018 UPDATE The wheels of bureaucracy move slowly. Perhaps this is something to be grateful for—at least the Butterfly Cave is still protected precious songline bushland at the start of 2018. But for how long? Our dedicated and long-suffering supporters will be used to the protracted time-frames encountered during this fight. And we thank all of you for your patience and generosity over the past years. At this stage, the expected course of action is as follows: The application lodged by the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) in early 2017 is still waiting on a determination by Minister Josh Freydenberg. If the Federal Department of Environment and Energy APPROVE the application and sufficient land around the Butterfly Cave is protected, we have achieved our goal and all monies donated to the NSW Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO) will be used to pay for existing legal costs, and to assist other Aboriginal people fighting to retain their land. If the application is REJECTED, Lake Macquarie City Council planners will give the green light for the bulldozers to move in, and we will be considering our options for legal action. So where are we now? We approached NSWALC for an update and have been informed that as at 31 January 2018: 1. The Federal Department of Environment and Energy has written to the NSW Government to seek advice and their views – apparently this information needs to be included in the brief for the Minister’s consideration. 2. Once a response is received from the NSW Government, the Federal Department of will finalise their brief for the Minister 3. The Federal Department will then seek to brief the Minister – the Department advise that they will seek to do this as soon as possible but will depend on the Minister’s availability 4. At this point the Minister will make a decision – the Department advise that this usually takes three weeks but again depends on the Minister’s schedule If you would like to encourage the Minister to make a decision in our favour you can contact him via: https://onlineservices.environment.gov.au/contact-your-minister As always, we ask supporters to be respectful in any correspondence or contact they have while promoting the rights of Aboriginal women to retain connections to their sacred places. We will continue to update you when more information is made available to us. The bottom line: The future of the Awabakal women’s Butterfly Cave hangs in the balance. Its future remains reliant on the opinion of a handful wealthy non-Indigenous men. As always, we thank you for your kind words and support that continues to drive us towards a just outcome. And as an interesting side note, you may like to read this media release (11/02/2018) detailing how Minister Freydenberg has successfully lobbied for landmarks such as Government House Victoria, the Domain Parklands, Melbourne Observatory and Shrine of Remembrance as well as some of Melbourne’s best known vistas to be permanently added to Australia’s National Heritage List. http://www.joshfrydenberg.com.au/guest/mediaReleasesDetails.aspx?id=521