Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre Inc. - Brighton Bypass

Twenty minutes outside Hobart, the Lower Jordan River levee at Brighton holds the most extensive and best preserved evidence of human existence in Tasmania. Dating back 42,000 years, it is one of the oldest such places found in Australia. 36,000 years before the pyramids were built, 35,000 years before the wheel was invented and 30,000 years before the first brick was laid in the Great Wall of China, Aborigines camped, hunted, danced corroboree, and gave birth to children at kutalayna in Brighton. Aborigines continued to occupy the area some time after European arrival, meaning that the place holds a remarkable record of human existence over a vast period of time. 99% of such places elsewhere in Australia and internationally have not remained as intact as kutalayna in Brighton. Aborigines DID NOT oppose the Brighton by-pass being built, but only requested that the by-pass go around the area. The State Government has not and will not budge on their decision to go through the kutalyana area, and should be ashamed. The Federal government granted kutalayna permanent National Heritage listing on December 2011, decreasing the area given protection in order to placate private landowners, and making clear the listing would have no effect on the continuing construction of the almost completed bridge For continuing news, see Media Reports