Overlap Between The Environmental Protection Act And The ACH Act Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Considerations

Aboriginal cultural heritage (ACH) is a relevant factor to both the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 (WA) (ACH Act) and Part IV of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) (EP Act). The Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has released guidelines to address the overlap between the EPA's consideration of ACH in environmental impact assessments and the ACH Act processes. We have set out the key things you need to know about the EPA guidelines in this blog post.

For more information on the commencement of the ACH Act, see our previous blog post.

Social Surroundings in the EP Act

The EPA considers 'social surroundings' as a part of its assessment of significant proposals under Part IV of the EP Act. ACH is part of the 'social surroundings' and as such, the EPA is required to consider ACH to the extent it is impacted by a Part IV proposal. The EPA released Interim Technical Guidelines (Interim Guidelines) which set out the interaction between