Aboriginal Stone Artefacts- Culturally Important or Just Common?
-posted August 2022
If a random tenement (land holding) in the Pilbara region uncovers 145 isolated artefacts over a 0.142km2 survey area, then it is probable that if the whole Pilbara region of 507,896km2 was surveyed at least 518 million isolated stone artefacts, and 6 million stone scatter sites would be found! As the nomadic aboriginals have occupied mainland Australia for 65,000 years then these numbers are not outside the realms of possibility. These numbers may in fact be an under representation as the natural environment (water, wind) would have buried or destroyed many if not most of the stone artefacts.
One may argue that if stone artefacts are found in such large numbers, how can such a common item be defined as culturally important?
Who is paying for these heritage surveys?
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Exploration & Mining companies- any ground disturbing activity
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State & Local Governments (taxpayers)- new roads, development areas
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Infrastructure Companies- new powerlines, water pipes
Correcting for inflation (2021 dollars) one of these surveys today would cost $10,024 per line kilometre (10m width). Aside from high labour costs in Australia, heritage surveys are yet another cost barrier for prospectors and junior exploration companies which make many of the mineral discoveries. Cost barriers and political stability are the main factors considered by exploration/mining companies before entering a country and committing to a finite exploration budget. The future of the mining industry in Western Australia may already be compromised as major miners exploration on “grassroot” projects has fallen to all-time lows as a proportion of revenue.
Other issues include;
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the larger mining companies (e.g. iron ore) pay whatever quotation is presented to them, consequently setting an industry standard which greatly amplifies the cost for prospectors and junior exploration companies
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when a tenement (land holding) is turned over and picked up by another company past heritage surveys are nullified and are required to be repeated if working in the same area
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required to use local community aboriginal members- however, many able-bodied members do not live locally in the deserts but in cities on the coast. Costs are inflated as one is required to fly-in or drive-in surveyors
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favourable relations fostered by large contributions to local projects and buying artworks- a form of bribery?
Example- a 130km2 land acquisition for a Crown Lease (30 years, renewable for 20 years) over Wajirri Yamatji People native title claim for the Murchison Radio Astronomy Square Kilometre Array required a monetary payment of $11 million plus a non-monetary payment of $7.126 million. CSIRO also paid $5.4 million for the 340,000ha Boolardy cattle station. These payments negotiated by the Wajirri Yamatji People, not for the aboriginal peoples as a whole. It has been claimed that these lease payments were originally kept secret so as to not scare away the investors of the Array.
Are all these stones artefacts?
Stone tools were used by aboriginals and are found strewn throughout the Australian landscape. However, heritage surveyors include those learning their craft and western anthropologists/archaeologists. A little knowledge of geology would limit false positives in identifying stone artefacts.
QANTAS- CEO Remuneration
-posted December 2022
The CEO of QANTAS was a vocal critic of the COVID lock-downs in Australia, as there were no consistency of rules across the states and frequent border closures impacted Qantas' viability. The number of passengers carried by the airline fell by 72%, which in turn impacted revenues (-67%). Qantas has reported losses of over $7 billion in the past 3 years.
Australian borders closed for 2 years due to COVID, the reopening of borders in 2022 has caught Qantas with their pants down with a shortage of pilots, engineers, ground crew and air traffic controllers resulting in delays, cancellations and stranded passengers.
Alan Joyce became CEO of Qantas in November 2008. Over the 14 year period his cumulative remuneration was $109+ million. Joyce is also the 18th largest shareholder of Qantas shares, which are currently valued at $16.6 million.
NB. remuneration can be difficult to track as the annual report's format changes periodically. Remunerations include; +cash base salary, +STIP- short term retention plan, +PSP- performance share plan, +RP- retention plan, +LTIP- long term retention plan
