Water infrastructure and archaeology in the Rouse Hill urban release area

This paper discusses the management of the assessment of Aboriginal archaeological sites undertaken by the Rouse Hill Infrastructure Consortium over the last ten years in conjunction with the National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW, Aboriginal groups and consultant archaeologists. It describes how the assessment and management of the impacts from trunk water infrastructure on the archaeological sites have changed over three stages of development and how a 'design for environment' approach to infrastructure has been introduced during Stage 3. A case is presented for better environmental design approaches and better strategic planning. If archaeological sites are identified earlier in the planning and design cycles the organisations that design infrastructure can avoid important sites, the consent authority (in this case, the NPWS) can make more informed decisions and the Aboriginal groups to can have sufficient time to assess the cultural values of the archaeological sites.