Heritage consultants have estimated there may be around 50,000 artefacts at the site Credit:Tocomwall Indigenous heritage consultants and Greens MP David Shoebridge seized on those findings to push for bolstered legal protections for Aboriginal heritage sites in areas that are slated for development. "The whole site has been destroyed," Mr Shoebridge said. "We need to learn the lesson and change the law." More than 2400 stone artefacts and five glass artefacts among the trove of objects found in a small excavated portion of the site showed that Aboriginal people had used it like a quarry between roughly 1788 and 1830. They had manufactured tools and implements on-site from flint - a type of mineral quartz not found in or near Sydney - that had originated as ships ballast on the banks of the River Thames in London.

Loading "In this case it was probably loaded into British ships at Deptford, London, prior to sailing around the globe to Sydney," the report said. "Once offloaded in Sydney, Aboriginal people found the flint, and, probably curious, moved it a safe distance beyond the young British colony at Sydney Cove to the sand dunes at Randwick." Once the tools were completed, the local Aboriginal people had likely transported and traded them "via traditional networks across the wider contact period cultural landscape". "The place and its cultural landscape context provide direct evidence of the extent of early and continued Aboriginal presence within the colony and the cross-cultural interaction and connection between people beyond the widely-known history of dispossession," the report said.

Aboriginal people moved flint from British ships at Sydney Cove to Randwick. Credit:GML Heritage Scott Franks, whose company Tocomwall advised on Indigenous heritage matters for the light rail, said the site was "the epicentre of first contact with the British" and its loss was "appalling". Mr Franks said the discovery of the artefacts should have stopped the light rail project to allow for a full investigation to determine whether the objects should have been dug up, or the site preserved. "It should have been preserved. Ultimately it's a very sad loss of information about first contact." The light rail line project's planning approval included an assessment and conditions that took into account Aboriginal heritage, according to the Department of Planning and Environment.

A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said that "the Aboriginal groups were a part of all major decisions including the excavation and salvage of the stone items" at the time of the find. She said the agency was working through the report with Aboriginal representatives, who it had consulted with for the light rail project, to determine "the long-term management and appropriate interpretation" of the artefacts. "This includes acknowledging importance through educational material for local schools and university and public displays to increase community understanding of Randwick’s rich local Aboriginal history, as well as visual representation at the Randwick Stabling Yard." In the meantime, the artefacts are being stored by heritage consultants. The spokeswoman said the Aboriginal heritage site made up less than 200 square metres of the tram stabling site, which covered an area of more than 20,000 square metres.

Loading Former federal environment minister Greg Hunt had decided against a halt to the project because he was not satisfied the site was a significant Aboriginal area and under threat of desecration. Because the light rail line is "state significant infrastructure", it was difficult for environmental or Indigenous campaigners to challenge the project in court or to get a stop work order. Mr Shoebridge, who made the request for a stop work order on behalf of Aboriginal elders and heritage experts, said such sites should be better protected under the state's planning laws for major projects. "We have seen a crucial Aboriginal heritage site, utterly unique, completely destroyed before we knew what we had. This is a tragic loss for the Bidjigal people, but also to the whole of Australia."