Fears heritage-listed rock art at risk from gas project
Savannah Meacham and Poppy Johnston |
More than a million pieces of ancient rock art have secured World Heritage status in a bittersweet listing for environmentalists and traditional custodians fearful nearby industrial activity is damaging the engravings.
The Murujuga rock art landscape in Western Australia was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as a heritage site on Friday after intense lobbying by the federal government.
“Achieving World Heritage status ensures stronger protections under Australian legislation and will allow the world to celebrate this unique cultural landscape,” Environment Minister Murray Watt said while visiting the organisation’s headquarters in Paris.
The federal environment minister was accompanied by representatives from the Western Australian government and Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation.
Murujuga contains the world’s largest, densest and most diverse collection of Indigenous rock art engravings – known as petroglyphs.
Some are estimated to be more than 50,000 years old.
They depict animals, plants and human figures and are visible due to the colour and contrast between the removed varnish layer and the underlying brighter weathered rind of the host rocks.
The site was previously put forward to UNESCO for World Heritage listing in 2023 but Australia’s application was referred back in May.
UNESCO recommended state and federal governments address concerns that nearby acid emissions, including those from Woodside’s Burrup gas hub, were degrading the art.
The peninsula in northwest WA near Karratha is home to two gas plants, a fertiliser plant and iron ore and salt export facilities.
Senator Watt recently gave provisional approval for a Woodside project on the peninsula to continue operating until 2070.
Mardathoonera woman and Murujuga traditional custodian Raelene Cooper, who was at the UNESCO meeting, welcomed the World Heritage listing but criticised the removal of recommended protections, including halting industry expansion.
“Today, Australia rewrote the World Heritage listing in the interests of the gas industry,” she said.
Environmentalists were also concerned the Woodside project extension could cause further damage.
“The world is now watching,” Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy said.
“The onus is on the Australian government to make sure the values recognised by UNESCO are not jeopardised by ongoing industrial pollution.”
WA Greens Fossil Fuels spokesperson Sophie McNeill called on the state and federal governments to reverse the draft approval for the North West Shelf extension.
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that Labor put in so much effort to get those protections removed,” she told AAP.
Australia has 21 properties on the World Heritage list, which includes the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Great Barrier Reef.
UNESCO added several other sites to its list, including the Xixia Imperial Tombs in China and the Faya Palaeolandscape in the United Arab Emirates.
AAP
