Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt has rejected an urgent request to stop work on a section of Sydney‘s $2.1 billion light rail project where tens of thousands of Aboriginal artefacts have been unearthed.

Three weeks ago a number of Aboriginal elders and heritage experts appealed to the Environment Minister to make a stop-work order at the site. They wanted him to use powers under section 9 of the Aboriginal Heritage Protection Act 1984 to protect the site‘s indigenous heritage.