Kazan Brown's family has had a connection to Burragorang Valley for hundreds of years.
In the 1950s, her mother and grandparents were forced out of the valley to make way for the building of Warragamba Dam which now stores Sydney's water supply.
"My grandfather got a job building the dam, which must have been terrible for him," Ms Brown said.
"My mother was a child at the time, they resettled in Warragamba and we've been here since."
While not being able to live in the valley, Kazan and her daughter regularly visit the dam site and connect back to Country and family.
Gundungurra women, Kazan Brown and Taylor Clarke on Country at Warragamba. Source: Supplied
Raising the wall
Eight years ago, the Gundungurra Traditional Owner was notified that the NSW Government had the intention to raise the dam wall in the name of flood mitigation.
The wall would be raised 14 metres, inundating an estimated 4,700 hectares. It would destroy the last wild river in Western Sydney, the Kowmung River and according to the project's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) over 1,500 culturally significant sites.
Ms Brown's heart broke.
Since, she's been campaigning to stop the project and save her Country from further drowning.
On Saturday, she won the fight.
"I feel fantastic, I was very emotional when I got the call. I still am," she said.
"It was a long hard fight we put up with a lot of crap from government and ministers and some media. I'm really glad it's over and we're ecstatic that it's safe."
Ms Brown thanked "other communities and other organisations" that fought alongside her family.
Labor govt scrapped the proposal
A spokesperson for WaterNSW told NITV that the department "ceased all activities" on the proposal after a decision from the NSW Government to abandon the project.
"The proposal has now been formally withdrawn," they said.
The previous Liberal government was committed to the project with former Premier Dominic Perrottet recommitting $2 billion to the project in February.
Liberal MP for Penrith Stuart Ayres strongly championed the wall being raised for flood mitigation and in late 2020 during an interview labelled Traditional Owner's opposition as "environmental terrorism".
“We’re not giving up any more time; we’re not bowing to what is, for all intents and purposes, environmental terrorism," he said.
NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty David Harris said Labor had been "very clear" about their opposition to raising the wall.
“We have followed through on this commitment, removing the State Significant Infrastructure application for the Warragamba Dam wall raising," he said.
“This decision protects 1,500 Aboriginal sites and represents the saving of a cultural landscape that is of great significance to the Gundangurra people.”
While it's estimated that there were around 1,500 sites that would have been inundated, Ms Brown believes there's at least double.
"We have everything now there, there were campsites, ceremony grounds. There's engravings, and a place where it looks like the Old People just got up and walked away yesterday," she said.
"It's important for everyone, not just Indigenous Australians, it's important for all for us."
Gundungurra Woman Taylor Clarke and her mother Kazan Brown standing by the Wollondilly River in the Burragorang Valley. Credit: Karen Mitchelmore
"While the threat is gone, this isn't finished. We want it protected so in four years, this can't happen again," she said.
She said there's been an application to have the site recognised as an Aboriginal Place by NSW Government for "years now".
She hopes it can be approved soon.
When it comes to the fight for her Country, Ms Brown is fuelled by her family, particularly her grandfather.
"I think my grandfather would be very proud," she said.
"I can't wait to take my own grandkids down there, they're too young at the moment. But I can't wait to take them there, show them where they're from."
