High-ranking politicians in Australia are pushing back against UNESCO‘s concerns that ancient rock art in Western Australia is being endangered by the proposed expansion of a nearby gas project, something UNESCO sought to combat by putting these millennia-old works on its World Heritage list.
The rock art is located in Murujuga, where there are thought to be 1 million petroglyphs, some dating back as many as 47,000 years. The official website for Western Australia’s parks notes that the site is home to one of the “most diverse collections of rock art in the world.”
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Many have said all this rock art faces the threat of pollution from the Karratha Gas Plant, a part of the North West Shelf Project, which has been in operation since the 1980s. The Karratha Gas Plant is operated by Woodside Energy.
Woodside is seeking to expand its plant, but the extension efforts have been contentious, with scrutiny paid to the emissions that would result from it. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Woodside has said it will achieve net zero operations by 2050 and claimed that the project will aid in Australia’s transition away from coal energy.
The Australian government has reported that the Murujuga rock art is in “good condition overall” and that there were no signs that “acid rain or deposition is contributing to damage of the rock art.”
But in May, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a body that advises UNESCO, said in a report that the Murujuga rock art is “vulnerable due to industrial emissions, considered the majorly adversely affecting factor for the petroglyphs.” ICOMOS recommended that UNESCO send the World Heritage listing back to the Australian government, so that the government could “prevent any further industrial development adjacent to, and within, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.”
Now, the debate has only deepened. This week, the Guardian reported that Murray Watt, the environmental minister of Australia, is personally seeking to get UNESCO to reject some of ICOMOS’s claims. According to the Guardian, Watt said the ICOMOS report contained “factual inaccuracies.” “Our view was that the decision was overly influenced by that kind of political activity rather than the scientific evidence, and rather than the wishes of the traditional owners,” Watt told the Guardian.
Per the Guardian report, a document issued by Western Australia claims that there is evidence that the Murujuga area was impacted by pollution during the 1970s and 1980s, but that the pollution declined in 2014.
The debate over the rock art does not appear to be settled. ABC reported this week that, next month in Paris, members of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and other Australian delegates will make the case for why the rock art deserves to enter UNESCO’s World Heritage list.