THE future of the Mallee Rally and a proposed tourist park near Sea Lake may become clearer next week when a conservation management plan for Lake Tyrrell is released.
The draft of the plan released earlier this year for public comment recommended the Mallee Rally be permanently discontinued, and measures including a land buyback and rehabilitation programs be put in place.
The Guardian understands the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) will consult with interested parties who lodged submissions on the draft, before it is presented to Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio.
In the meantime, the federal Environment Department is assessing an application from Indigenous elders representing five groups requesting an emergency declaration.
They said the area was “immediately under threat of injury or desecration” from a potential return of the Mallee Rally, salt mining, pollution, a new tourist park development on private land near the edge of the lake, and planning and development activities. This will: “Encroach on the tangible and intangible cultural heritage values of Direl without proper negotiation with First Nations and their free prior and informed consent”.
The applicants said the area was significant for traditional owners as a resting place for ancestral remains, a meeting place for various clans and tribes, and a gallery for the observation of the stars.
An Environment Department spokesperson said an independent reporter would be appointed to consult with relevant parties as part of the assessment process.
The largest inland saltwater lake in Victoria, Lake Tyrrell is also known as Direl, an Aboriginal word for sky, and is managed by DELWP and Parks Victoria.
The Federal Government is responsible for protecting Indigenous heritage places that are nationally or internationally significant.
The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Landscape Conservation Management Plan delves into the Aboriginal and non-Indigenous history of Lake Tyrrell, which has become popular with tourists in recent years because of its salt-crusted surface that reflects the sky when wet.
Farmers have grazed livestock and grown crops around the lake since the mid-1800s, and it has been commercially mined for salt since 1896.
Organisers had hoped the Mallee Rally – Australia’s longest running off-road race – would return next year after it was halted in 2019 because of Aboriginal heritage concerns.
Development of a tourist park on private land adjoining the lake also was halted last year on similar grounds.
The Guardian contacted Barengi Gadjin Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, which is the Registered Aboriginal Party for the southwest part of Lake Tyrrell, as well as First Nations Victoria and the Wamba Wamba people. Representatives declined to comment or did not return calls.
Sea Lake Off Road Club president George Bailey and tourist park proponent Murray Allan also declined to comment before the plan’s release.
