WA peninsula famed for its rock art nominated for world heritage listing

WA peninsula famed for its rock art nominated for world heritage listing
A distant peninsula near a controversial fuel processing facility has been nominated by the federal authorities for world heritage standing.

100 thousand acres on the Burrup Peninsula, recognized to conventional custodians as Murujuga, could be the second website in Australia listed due to its First Nations heritage.

Murujuga is dwelling to greater than 1,000,000 petroglyphs, historic rock artwork thought of sacred to native Indigenous folks.

There are more than a million examples of this rock art in Murujuga.
There are greater than 1,000,000 examples of this rock artwork in Murujuga. (Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation)

But the presence of a fuel plant owned by Woodside places this artwork in danger, conventional custodian Raelene Cooper stated.

“We strongly support the World Heritage nomination – it should have happened years ago – but we are under no illusions that this will protect Murujuga from industrial damage due to Woodside’s expanding Burrup Hub,” she stated.

“Support for this nomination from Woodside, Perdaman and the WA government is deeply hypocritical while they are at the same time pushing ahead with projects that will destroy the very cultural values the listing is supposed to protect.”

Traditional custodians within the space consider air pollution from the plant will trigger acid rain that may harm the rock artwork. 

Woodside operates a controversial gas facility near the proposed heritage site.
Woodside operates a controversial fuel facility close to the proposed heritage website. (AFR)

Whether the artwork could be broken by pollution from the plant is a matter for debate.

Nevertheless, the itemizing has been celebrated by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

“This deeply storied landscape contains a rich assemblage of tangible and intangible cultural attributes, including one of the densest and most diverse collections of petroglyphs in the world,” she stated in a press release.

“Murujuga is a natural wonder of the world – a place for all Australians to reflect on years of continuous living culture.”

UNESCO will take 18 months to contemplate the appliance, amongst many others, and can decide subsequent yr.

The peninsula, previously often called Dampier Island, is within the Pilbara north of Karratha.
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Source: www.9news.com.au