By Ian Ransom
MELBOURNE, May 26 (Reuters) - A coalition of environmentalists and Indigenous Australian activists camping in the city park where the main stadium for the 2032 Olympics will be built is holding firm against threats they will be forcibly removed to allow construction to start next week.
Victoria Park, one of Brisbane's few significant inner-city green spaces, is due to be fenced off from Monday as building starts on the Olympic stadium precinct.
Protesters, who have pitched an Aboriginal
tent embassy in the park, have been warned by the Queensland state government they will be removed if they do not vacate the area.
"As it stands, participants say they intend to remain at the site and continue their campaign," Aboriginal elder Gaja (Aunty) Kerry Charlton told Reuters by phone.
"They also point to protections under the (Queensland) Human Rights Act, which they argue supports their right to maintain and defend cultural heritage."
The construction schedule was set despite an outstanding application to the Australian government by Indigenous groups to protect the park in perpetuity as a "significant Aboriginal area".
The park, which includes many old-growth trees, is known as Barrambin ("Windy Place") to the Yagara and Magandjin peoples, who consider it culturally and spiritually significant.
Premier Steve Crisafulli has said the state cannot afford any delays in the construction of the 63,000-seat stadium.
"Queensland is feeling a sense of pride, and we're not going to have that hijacked by a group of activists, I’m just not going to do that," he told media last week.
Workers contracted by the body that is charged with delivering 2032 Games venues began erecting fencing at the park on Tuesday, in an area adjacent to where a press conference was held by advocacy group Save Victoria Park.
'BIT OF HUMBUG'
The activists accused the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) of trying to disrupt their press conference.
"We old grannies would say there was a bit of humbug happening there. It was probably, in layman's terms, some sabotage of our media gathering," said Charlton.
GIICA said it had been undertaking site investigation works since October and used temporary fencing for safety, while Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said the workers were "left shaken" after being confronted by protesters.
Crisafulli confirmed Victoria Park as the location for the Olympic stadium over a year ago, breaking an election promise that he would not green-light a new arena in the city.
He has said no more than a third of the park's green space will be used for the stadium and an aquatics centre being built for Australia's third Olympics.
The Save Victoria Park group commissioned an independent assessment by hydrogeologist Ted Hamer, who found the area lies above a functioning watercourse fed by a natural spring which could be "permanently terminated or unacceptably diminished" by the Olympic stadium construction.
"The importance of permanent spring-fed freshwater sources, springs and the associated ecology to Aboriginal people and early settlers is undeniable," Hamer said in the assessment.
Charlton said activists were prepared to dig in for a prolonged fight to protect the park.
"My ancestors were in the park, their children, grandchildren. We all visited there and played there," she said.
"That cultural heritage is tied to the protection of the spring and the trees -- and also those animals and habitats that are connected to that ecosystem."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by John Mair)
