{{Short description|Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia}} {{redirect|Dampier Island|Dampier Islands|Dampier Archipelago|the peninsula 800km to the north-east|Dampier Peninsula}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Use Australian English|date=April 2012}} thumb|300px|right|Dampier Archipelago and Burrup Peninsula The '''Burrup Peninsula''', previously known as '''Dampier Island''', is a former island of the Dampier Archipelago that is now connected to the mainland via a causeway. The peninsula and islands together are also known as '''Murujuga'''. The peninsula is located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and contains the town of Dampier as well as the Murujuga National Park. The peninsula includes the Murujuga Cultural Landscape, an area designated as a World Heritage Site in July 2025. The area contains the world's largest collection of ancient (approximately 40,000–50,000 years old) rock art (known as petroglyphs).
There is ongoing political debate on whether industrial development on the Burrup is resulting in the physical destruction and disturbance of petroglyphs. The government and industry agree that there is no ongoing damage via atmospheric pollution, while independent academics disagree.
The region is sometimes confused with the Dampier Peninsula, {{convert|800|km}} to the north-east.
==History and toponymy== The traditional owners of Murujuga are an Aboriginal nation known as the Yaburara (Jaburara) people.<ref name=gara/> In Ngayarda languages, including that of the Yaburara, {{lang |aus |murujuga}} means {{gloss |hip bone sticking out}}.<ref>José Antonio González Zarandona , [https://books.google.com/books?id=_cPRDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 ''Murujuga: Rock Art, Heritage, and Landscape Iconoclasm,''] University of Pennsylvania Press 2020 {{isbn | 978-0-812-25156-2}} p.14 'hip bone sticking out . .which is thought to refer to a pile of blocks that loom in the landscape.'</ref> Between February and May 1869 a great number of Yaburara people were killed in an incident known as the Flying Foam Massacre.<ref name=gara>{{Citation | author1=Gara, Tom | title=The Flying Foam massacre: an incident on the northwest frontier, Western Australia | publication-date=1983 | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/38821956 | access-date=7 February 2020 }}</ref> The five clans who took over the care of the land as traditional custodians following the massacre include Yaburara, Ngarluma, Mardudhunera, Yindjibarndi and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo peoples.<ref name=wahlquist2020>{{cite news |last1=Wahlquist |first1=Calla |title=Australia lodges world heritage submission for 50,000-year-old Burrup Peninsula rock art |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jan/29/australia-lodges-world-heritage-submission-for-50000-year-old-burrup-peninsula-rock-art |access-date=7 February 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=29 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/wong-goo-tt-oo-elder-sings-about-spiritual-and-cultural-importance-burrup-rock-art|title=Wong-goo-tt-oo elder sings about the spiritual and cultural importance of the Burrup rock art {{!}} Sovereign Union - First Nations Asserting Sovereignty|website=nationalunitygovernment.org|access-date=2020-02-07}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/mar/22/indigenous-owners-left-out-of-rock-art-sites-world-heritage-listing-talks|title=Indigenous owners 'left out' of rock art site's world heritage listing talks|last=Wahlquist|first=Calla|date=2018-03-22|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-02-07|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
First given the English name ''Dampier Island'' after the English navigator William Dampier (1651–1715), it was then an island lying {{convert |3|km}} off the Pilbara coast. In 1963 the island became an artificial peninsula when it was connected to the mainland by a causeway for a road and railway. In 1979 Dampier Peninsula was renamed ''Burrup Peninsula'' after Mount Burrup, the highest peak on the island, which had been named after Henry Burrup, a Union Bank clerk murdered in 1885 at Roebourne.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Kuhlenbeck| first1=Britta| title=Re-writing Spatiality: The Production of Space in the Pilbara Region in Western Australia|date=2009|publisher=University of Hamburg| location=Hamburg|isbn=978-3-643-10980-4|page=154|chapter=Politics of Space}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bednarik|first1=Robert G.|title=The survival of the Murujuga (Burrup) petroglyphs|journal=Rock Art Research: The Journal of the Australian Rock Art Research Association|date=May 2002|volume=19|issue=1|page=29|publisher=Archaeological Publications|issn=0813-0426}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Supreme Court - Criminal Sittings|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2999877|access-date=27 July 2014|work=The West Australian|date=2 July 1885|location=Perth, WA|page=3}}</ref>
==Murujuga Cultural Landscape == <!---Murujuga Cultural Landscape redirects to this section---> === Description of rock art === {{Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site|WHS=Murujuga Cultural Landscape|Criteria=i, iii, v|ID=1709|Year=2025|Extension=99.881 ha}} The Murujuga Cultural Landscape contains the world's largest and most important collection of petroglyphs. Some of the Aboriginal rock carvings have been dated to more than 45,000 years old,<ref name=bednarik2010/> and some of the collection is generally estimated to be 40,000–50,000 years old.<ref>{{Cite web |title=World's largest collection of ancient rock art threatened by Australia's petrochemical plants|first=Dennis|last= Normile |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/world-s-largest-collection-ancient-rock-art-threatened-australia-s-petrochemical-plants |access-date=2023-05-28 |website=Science|date=12 May 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=wahlquist2020/><ref name=bednarik2010/> The collection of standing stones here is the largest in Australia with rock art petroglyphs numbering over one million, many depicting images of the now extinct thylacine (Tasmanian tiger).<ref name=bednarik2010>{{Cite journal |last=Bednarik |first=Robert G. |date=2010-03-14 |title=Pleistocene Rock Art in Australia |url=https://www.nomos-elibrary.de/10.5771/0257-9774-2010-1-3/pleistocene-rock-art-in-australia-jahrgang-105-2010-heft-1?page=1 |journal=Anthropos |language=en |volume=105 |issue=1 |pages=3–12 |doi=10.5771/0257-9774-2010-1-3 |issn=0257-9774|url-access=subscription }}</ref> There are around a million engravings on the peninsula and islands, and around 2,500 archaeological sites which also include quarries, shell middens, and campsites.<ref name=wmf>{{cite web| url=https://www.wmf.org/projects/dampier-rock-art-complex|title= Dampier Rock Art Complex| website= World Monuments Fund}}</ref>
The Dampier Rock Art Precinct covers the entire archipelago, while the Murujuga National Park lies within Burrup.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Murujuga National Park |url=https://www.oric.gov.au/publications/spotlight/murujuga-national-park |access-date=2023-05-28 |website=www.oric.gov.au}}</ref> The Dampier Rock Art Precinct was listed by the World Monuments Fund as one of the 100 Most Threatened Monuments in the world in 2003.<ref name=bednarik2008>{{cite journal| url=https://www.ifrao.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/PDF-Dampier.pdf| title=The Dampier Rock Art Precinct, Western Australia | first= Robert G. |last= Bednarik|website= Colloque UNESCO| publisher=IFRAO |date=December 2008 }}</ref>
Most Murujuga rock art is on 2.7 billion year old igneous rocks. The rock art was made by etching away the outer millimetres of red-brown iron oxide, exposing pale centimetre-thick weathered clay. The underneath very hard igneous rock is dark grey-green coloured, and composed of granophyre, gabbo, dolerite, and granite.<ref name=donaldson2011/>
The Murujuga cultural landscape was a well-known archaeological and cultural precinct during construction of industry across the area in the 1960s—1980s. However, it was not until 1998 that the first Indigenous Land Access Agreement was executed for industrial use of the Karratha Gas Plant area. This was a retrospective agreement, as the North West Shelf Gas Plant was constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, this ‘prior consent’ was not obtained for the North West Shelf project. The Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation Ltd (NYFL) is the Traditional Owner agreement party for the 1998 Agreement. Later, the Burrup and Maitland Industrial Estates Agreement (BMIEA) was executed to allow for further industrial development across the Murujuga Cultural Landscape<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-09-19 |title=Burrup Native Title Agreement documents |url=https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/burrup-native-title-agreement-documents |access-date=2026-03-31 |website=www.wa.gov.au |language=en}}</ref>. Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) represents Traditional Owners for the BMIEA area.
{{Gallery |align=centre <!-- default left --> |width=180 |height=180 |mode=packed |title=Examples of rock art at Murujuga
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|File:Ancient and Modern 4,000 years.jpg |
|File:Burrup rock art.JPG |
|File:Future Man.jpg | }}
===Road to World Heritage Listing=== alt=Murujuga|thumb|Murujuga Concern around the ecological, historical, cultural and archaeological significance of the area has led to a campaign for its protection, causing conflict with industrial development on the site. The preservation of the Murujuga monument has been called for since 1969, and in 2002 the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations commenced a campaign to preserve the remaining monument. Murujuga has been listed in the National Trust of Australia Endangered Places Register<ref>National Trust of Australia, Endangered Places Register 2004, http://www.heritageatrisk.org.au/WA_-_Dampiert_Rock_Art_Precinct.html</ref> and in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund.<ref name=wmf/>
About 900 sites, or 24.4 percent of the rock art on Burrup Peninsula, had been destroyed to make way for industrial development between 1963 and 2006.<ref>Robert G. Bednarik, Dampier Fact Sheet, October 2006, {{cite web |url=http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/dampier/web/facts.html |title=Dampier fact sheets |access-date=2007-06-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070506034921/http://mc2.vicnet.net.au/home/dampier/web/facts.html |archive-date=6 May 2007}}</ref> The Western Australian government argued for a much lower figure, suggesting that only 4 percent of sites, representing approximately 7.2 percent of petroglyphs, had been destroyed since 1972,<ref>Hon. John Ford, answer to question on notice, Western Australia Legislative Council Hansard, 16 August 2005.</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=May 2023}} citing the lack of a complete inventory of rock art in the region<ref>WA Department of Industry and Resources, Burrup Peninsula. [http://www.doir.wa.gov.au/investment/D78FA8400D554422991853F5A8B0263F.asp Frequently Asked Questions]</ref> as making assessments is a challenging task. thumb|1996 ''Burrup Peninsula Land Use Plan and Management Strategy'' map In 1996, a land use plan by the Burrup Peninsula Management Advisory Board divided the region into two areas:
* a Conservation, Heritage and Recreation Area, spanning {{convert|5400|ha}}, 62% of the Burrup * an Industrial Area with an emphasis on port sites and strategic industry, 38% of the Burrup While the plan commented upon "the value of the Northern Burrup for the preservation of its renowned Aboriginal heritage and environmental values", no comment was made on the amount of rock art affected by development and recreational activities.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1996 |title=Burrup Peninsula Land Use Plan and Management Strategy |url=https://developmentwa.com.au/documents/1559-burrup-peninsula-land-use-plan-and-management-strategy |access-date=2023-05-28 |website=DevelopmentWA - Shaping our State's future |language=en}}</ref>
Work commissioned by the National Trust of Western Australia led it to nominate the site for the National Trust Endangered Places list in 2002.<ref>National Trust of Australia (WA), ''Archaeology and rock art in the Dampier Archipelago'', http://www.burrup.org.au/</ref> In 2004, funding was provided by American Express through the World Monuments Fund for further research and advocacy to be undertaken, with the goal of achieving national heritage status for the site. In 2006 the Australian Heritage Council advised the federal Environment and Heritage Minister that the site was suitable for listing on the National Heritage List.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1755743.htm ''National Trust backs Burrup heritage report''] ABC News Online, 4 October 2006.</ref> The Western Australian state government continued to support development at the site, arguing a lack of cost-effective alternative sites and that geographical expansion of facility areas would be extremely limited. Former conservative party Resources Development Minister Colin Barnett temporarily supported campaigns to save rock art in this area.<ref>[http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=259414 Interview with Colin Barnett] 60 Minutes.</ref> The federal government was divided on the issue. One reason to support site protection is that national heritage bodies support protection for the area, and the governments at national and state level had been of opposing political parties. On the other hand, the government was reluctant to interfere with the economic prosperity generated by the Western Australian economy.<ref>[http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/env/2006/tr03oct206.html New factors prompt further Burrup Peninsula consideration (transcript of radio report)] AM, ABC Radio, 3 October 2006.</ref> After scientific evidence showed that acidic emissions from nearby industry was harming the rock art irreparably in 2002, the government commissioned a four-year study of the impact of pollution, starting in 2004.<ref name=bednarik2008/>
The protest campaign against development garnered popular support, which included 42,000 personal messages sent to Woodside Petroleum's directors at their May 2007 AGM. The directors said that the state government had directed them towards development among the rock art.<ref>{{Cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310072558/http://www.getup.org.au/blogs/view.php?id=138|archive-date=10 March 2011| url=http://www.getup.org.au/blogs/view.php?id=138 |website=GetUp! |title=Burrup - A trip to the heart of Australia's heritage| date=11 May 2007}}</ref> The debate continued as of June 2007, with no intervention made by the Australian government. The federal minister indicated support for National Heritage listing, but the question of site boundaries and management strategies was still under negotiation.<ref>The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, ''Turnbull works for Burrup Solution'', media release, 22 February 2007</ref> The site was heritage-listed in the Australian national heritage in 2007.<ref name=gregory2009>{{cite journal | last=Gregory | first=Jenny | title=Stand Up for the Burrup: Saving the Largest Aboriginal Rock Art Precinct in Australia | journal=Public History Review | volume=16 | date=27 December 2009 | issn=1833-4989 | doi=10.5130/phrj.v16i0.1234 | pages=92–116 | url=https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/phrj/article/view/1234 | access-date=15 February 2022| doi-access=free }}</ref>
On 7 July 2008, the Australian Government placed 90% of the remaining rock art areas of the Dampier Archipelago on the National Heritage List. Campaigners continued to demand that the Australian Government include all of the undisturbed areas of the Dampier Archipelago on the World Heritage List. According to the Philip Adams radio show on Radio National, one worker on the site, an electrician for Woodside, claimed the company had crushed 10,000 petroglyphs for road fill, including the oldest representation of a human face. He said that the rock pools were filled with green scum and the eucalypts of the area were dying, and there was fluming of escaping natural gas from faulty piping.<ref>[http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/burrup27s-rock-art3a-the-protracted-world-heritage-listing/4657878 'Burrup's rock art: the protracted World Heritage listing,'] Late Night Live with Philip Adams, 29 April 2013</ref>
In February 2009, the state government released a report finding that industry emissions did not damage the rock art.<ref>{{cite web | title=Pilbara rock art not affected by mining emissions: study | website=ABC News| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation | date=10 February 2009 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-02-10/pilbara-rock-art-not-affected-by-mining-emissions/290248 | access-date=11 July 2022}}</ref> WA Greens Senator Rachel Siewart criticised Premier Colin Barnett for reversing his previous support for protecting the rock art.<ref>{{cite web | website=ABC News| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation | title=Greens push for Burrup rock art heritage listing | date=12 February 2009 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-02-12/greens-push-for-burrup-rock-art-heritage-listing/293006}}</ref> However, a 2011 report by researcher Mike Donaldson wrote that reducing emissions was essential to protect the rock art for future generations. Along with mechanical damage to the rock art from industrial land clearance for roads, pipelines, power lines, and other areas, Murujuga rock art has been damaged by industrial pollution. Acidic dust pollution combines with water to form acids that dissolute manganese and iron compounds, causing the fragmentation of the rock varnish and patina.<ref name=donaldson2011>{{Cite web |last=Donaldson |first=Mike |title=Understanding the rocks: rock art and the geology of Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) |url=https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.265664199623302 |journal= Rock Art Research |volume=28| issue= 1 |date= 2011| pp=35–43|issn=0813-0426| url-access=subscription| via=Informit}}</ref>
As of 2011, the area remained on the World Monument Fund's list of 100 Most Endangered Places in the World - the only such site in Australia - because of continued mismanagement of the heritage and conservation values of the Burrup.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/aboriginal-rock-art-site-vandalised.htm/ |title=Aboriginal rock art site vandalised| website=Australian Geographic|first=Victoria |last=Laurie| date=2 March 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131106035320/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/aboriginal-rock-art-site-vandalised.htm/| archive-date= 6 November 2013}}</ref>
In January 2020, the Australian Government lodged a submission for the Murujuga Cultural Landscape to be included as an Australian entry to the World Heritage Tentative List.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.environment.gov.au/|title=World Heritage Tentative List submission - Murujuga Cultural Landscape|date=2020|website=Australian Government, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment|language=en|access-date=2020-02-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Wahlquist|first=Calla|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/27/the-rocks-remember-the-fight-to-protect-burrup-peninsulas-rock-art|title='The rocks remember': the fight to protect Burrup peninsula's rock art|date=2018-08-27|work=The Guardian|access-date=2020-02-11|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name=wahlquist2020/>
In November 2021, around 50 local people rallied at Karratha to protest against one of the biggest oil and gas developments ever undertaken in Australia, by Woodside Petroleum and BHP, known as the Scarborough project<ref name=2021protest/> (Scarborough being the name of the gas field, {{cvt|375|km}} off the Pilbara coast<ref name=kurmelova>{{cite web | last=Kurmelovs | first=Royce | title=Woodside BHP forge ahead on Scarborough gas project in WA | website=The Guardian | date=22 November 2021 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/22/woodside-bhp-forge-ahead-on-scarborough-gas-project-in-wa | access-date=15 February 2022}}</ref><ref name=woodsidegas>{{cite web | title=Scarborough | website=Woodside | date=1 October 2021 | url=https://www.woodside.com.au/what-we-do/australian-growth-projects/scarborough | access-date=15 February 2022}}</ref>). The project includes a floating production unit, the drilling of 13 wells, and a {{cvt|adj=on|430|km}} pipeline to transport the gas to the onshore Pluto LNG processing facility near Karratha, which will be expanded.<ref name=kurmelova/><ref name=woodsidegas/> Production is expected to begin in 2026.<ref name=kurmelova/>{{Update after|2027}} The project received environmental approval. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation has no role in approving such industrial projects, but there has been research being undertaken as to whether increased emissions would affect the rock art.<ref name=2021protest>{{cite web | last=Birch | first=Laura | title=Fears Woodside's Scarborough gas project threatens rock art, Pilbara environment | website=ABC News| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation) | date=28 November 2021 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-28/community-rallies-against-woodside-scarborough-project/100656126 | access-date=15 February 2022}}</ref>
In July 2022, Raelene Cooper presented the concerns of some of the traditional owners to the UN in Geneva, which stated "The rock art archives our lore. It is written not on a tablet of stone, but carved into the ''ngurra'', which holds our Dreaming stories and Songlines". She also wrote to government ministers Linda Burney and Tanya Plibersek.<ref name="Wellauer 2022">{{cite web | last1=Wellauer | first1=Kirstie| first2= Loretta |last2=Florance |first3= Penny |last3=Timms | title=Australia needs more gas. Some Traditional Owners say the price is too high|website= ABC News| publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation | date=10 July 2022 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-10/native-title-gas-concerns-murujuga-rock-art-pillaga-sacred-sites/101206460| others=Photography: Brendan Esposito | access-date=12 July 2022}}</ref>
====World Heritage listing and scientific controversy==== In 2023 the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program commenced the most extensive scientific study to examine the impact of industrial air emissions on the rock art engravings of Murujuga over a five year period. The program is led by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, West Australia's Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and Curtin University.<ref name="MRAMP_2024">{{cite web |title=Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program: Monitoring studies report 2024 |url=https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/murujuga-rock-art-monitoring-program-monitoring-studies-report-2024 |website=Government of Western Australia |access-date=20 July 2025}}</ref>
The program's Year Two report was given to the government in June 2024 and was slated for release at the end of 2024, but it was released to the public on 23 May 2025. This was days before Minister for the Environment and Water, Murray Watt, gave preliminary approval to Woodside to keep running their North West Shelf assets, including those on the Burrup, until the 2070s.<ref name = "Hastie, May 27, 2025">{{cite web |url=https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/it-s-a-cover-up-rock-art-expert-accuses-wa-government-of-lying-in-emissions-report-20250527-p5m2lu.html|title='It's a cover-up': Rock art expert accuses WA government of lying in emissions report|last1=Hastie |first1=Hamish}}</ref><ref name = "Toscano, Hall, O'Malley, 2025">{{cite web |url=https://www.watoday.com.au/environment/climate-change/albanese-just-extended-a-major-fossil-fuel-project-for-45-years-here-s-what-it-means-20250522-p5m1a8.html|first1=Nick |last1=Toscano |first2=Bianca |last2=Hall |first3=Nick |last3=O'Malley|title=Albanese just extended a major fossil fuel project for 45 years. Here's what it means}}</ref> The report found no evidence of acid rain, air quality "good" to "very good", nitrogen dioxide levels five times lower than international standard and 16 times lower than the national standard and sulphur dioxide never exceeding 10% of the national standard.<ref name="MAC_Jul25">{{cite web |title=Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program rebuts acid rain theory; delivers interim safe air quality criteria |url=https://murujuga.org.au/murujuga-rock-art-monitoring-program-rebuts-acid-rain-theory-delivers-interim-safe-air-quality-criteria/ |website=Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation |access-date=20 July 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=McDonald |first1=Jo |last2=Stevens |first2=Amy |last3=Churnside |first3=Belinda |last4=Mullins |first4=Ben |last5=Hicks |first5=Peter |last6=Bailey |first6=Terry |title=We were part of the world heritage listing of Murujuga. Here's why all Australians should be proud |url=https://theconversation.com/we-were-part-of-the-world-heritage-listing-of-murujuga-heres-why-all-australians-should-be-proud-261066 |website=The Conversation |access-date=20 July 2025}}</ref>
The executive summary suggests that historic emissions from the former Dampier Power Station had previously degraded some of the areas close to Dampier.<ref name="ABC23May25">{{cite news |last1=Shine |first1=Rhiannon |title=Long-awaited Pilbara rock art study finds greater degradation closer to industry |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-23/murujuga-report-released-ancient-rock-art/105325524 |access-date=20 July 2025 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission |date=23 May 2025}}</ref> However, world-renowned rock art specialist Professor Ben Smith claims that the government lied in the executive summary and had twisted the findings of the full 800 page report. Describing the executive summary, he said:
{{quote|"This document is not worth the paper that it is written on. It's a disgrace, a disgrace to Australian science and my colleagues at Curtin... We want to see the science used properly by this government to protect the cultural heritage of Murujuga. We do not want to get a pack of lies and a bunch of bullshit that we see in this executive summary... The minister cannot make a decision on the expansion of North West shelf on the basis of this propaganda document."|source=Archaeology Professor Ben Smith, 2025<ref name = "Hastie, May 27, 2025"/>}}
Emeritus Professor Adrian Baddeley, who was the report's chief statistician, said one of those graphs had been altered on the summary. The alteration removed a line in the main report that marked an early warning threshold of pollution. He said that the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation had "prevailed" and had the line removed, he said "this constitutes unacceptable interference in the scientific integrity of the project."<ref name = "Hamish May 30, 2025">{{cite news|url=https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/rock-art-expert-breaks-silence-over-burrup-emissions-study-controversy-20250530-p5m3oj.html|title=Rock art expert breaks silence over Burrup emissions study controversy |last1=Hastie |first1=Hamish}}</ref>
The program was instrumental in the site achieving World Heritage listing.<ref name="AFR23May25">{{cite news |last1=Burton |first1=Jesinta |title=Murujuga ruling proof protected sites, industry can co-exist: WA premier |url=https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/murujuga-ruling-proof-protected-sites-industry-can-co-exist-wa-premier-20250713-p5meke |access-date=20 July 2025 |publisher=Australian Financial Review |date=23 May 2025}}</ref>
====World Heritage Listing==== In July 2025, the site was designated as a World Heritage Site at the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, where all member states of UNESCO voted in favour of the resolution.<ref>{{Cite web|first= Bridget|last= Rollason |date=July 11, 2025 |title=UNESCO approves world heritage listing for WA's Murujuga rock art |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-12/paris-unesco-world-heritage-ruling-on-murjuga-rock-art-wa/105522888 |work=ABC News (Australia)}}</ref><ref name=readfearn2025>{{cite web | last=Readfearn | first=Graham | title='Manifestation of creative genius': Murujuga rock art in Western Australia placed on Unesco world heritage list | website=The Guardian | date=11 July 2025 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/11/wa-murujuga-rock-art-placed-on-unesco-world-heritage-list | access-date=13 July 2025}}</ref> An area of {{cvt|99.881|ha}} is covered by the designation, which was made under the following criteria:<ref>{{cite web| url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1709| publisher= UNESCO| website= UNESCO World Heritage Convention| title=Murujuga Cultural Landscape| date= July 2025}}</ref> * (i) to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius * (iii) to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared * (v) to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change
The site is the 21st world heritage site declared in Australia, and the second one recognised for its Aboriginal cultural values, the other being the Budj Bim heritage areas in Victoria (inscribed 2019).<ref name=readfearn2025/> The listing was cited by West Australian Premier Roger Cook of proof that industry and protected cultural sites can co-exist.<ref name="AFR23May25" />
===Visiting=== After the Murujuga National Park was closed for some months to allow for its construction, the Ngajarli Trail was completed in August 2020. Traditional owners working in collaboration with the government created a {{convert|700|m|adj=on}} universal boardwalk, along with interpretative signs. The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation hopes to improve and enlarge facilities for visitors and to help them appreciate the cultural significance of the site.<ref name=birch>{{cite web | title=World's largest collection of ancient rock art at Murujuga National Park re-opens |first =Laura |last =Birch | website=ABC News |publisher =Australian Broadcasting Corporation | date=26 August 2020 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-26/murujuga-national-park-reopens-rock-art-new-boardwalk/12598186 | access-date=26 August 2020}}</ref>
==Undersea archaeological site== On 1 July 2020, scientists published a study reporting on the finding of Australia's first ancient Aboriginal underwater archaeological sites at two locations off the Burrup Peninsula. The 269 artefacts found at Cape Bruguieres, as well as an 8,500-year-old underwater freshwater spring at Flying Foam Passage off Dampier are described in the study.<ref name=abcancient/> Estimated to be thousands of years old, the artefacts include hundreds of stone tools and grinding stones, evidence of life before sea levels rose between 7,000 and 18,000 years ago, after the last ice age. The Australian Archaeological Association described the research as "highly significant".<ref name=plos>{{cite journal | last1=Benjamin | first1=Jonathan | last2=O'Leary | first2=Michael | last3=McDonald | first3=Jo | last4=Wiseman | first4=Chelsea | last5=McCarthy | first5=John | last6=Beckett | first6=Emma | last7=Morrison | first7=Patrick | last8=Stankiewicz | first8=Francis | last9=Leach | first9=Jerem | last10=Hacker | first10=Jorg | last11=Baggaley | first11=Paul | last12=Jerbić | first12=Katarina | last13=Fowler | first13=Madeline | last14=Fairweather | first14=John | last15=Jeffries | first15=Peter | last16=Ulm | first16=Sean | last17=Bailey | first17=Geoff | editor-last=Petraglia | editor-first=Michael D. | title=Aboriginal artefacts on the continental shelf reveal ancient drowned cultural landscapes in northwest Australia|display-authors=2 | journal=PLOS ONE| publisher=Public Library of Science (PLoS) | volume=15 | issue=7 | date=1 July 2020 | issn=1932-6203 | doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0233912 | article-number=e0233912| pmid=32609779 | pmc=7329065 | bibcode=2020PLoSO..1533912B | doi-access=free }}</ref>
The report was the result of four years of work by a team of archaeologists, rock art specialists, geomorphologists, geologists, specialist pilots and scientific divers, funded by the Australian Research Council, in collaboration with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation,<ref>{{cite web | last1=Bailey | first1=Geoff | last2=McDonald | first2=Jo | last3=Benjamin | first3=Jonathan | author4=Leary | last5=Ulm | first5=Sean | title=In a first discovery of its kind, researchers have uncovered an ancient Aboriginal archaeological site preserved on the seabed | website=The Conversation | date=1 July 2020 | url=http://theconversation.com/in-a-first-discovery-of-its-kind-researchers-have-uncovered-an-ancient-aboriginal-archaeological-site-preserved-on-the-seabed-138108 | access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref> on a project known as the "Deep History of Sea Country" project.<ref>{{cite web | title=Deep History of Sea Country – Climate, Sea Level and Culture | website=Deep History of Sea Country – Climate, Sea Level and Culture | url=https://deephistoryofseacountry.com/ | access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref> Teams from Flinders University, the University of Western Australia, James Cook University, Airborne Research Australia, and the University of York in England were involved.<ref name=abcancient>{{cite web | title=Ancient Aboriginal underwater archaeological sites discovered, and a new frontier for study | website=ABC News|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|first=Karen|last=Michelmore | date=1 July 2020 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-02/aboriginal-underwater-site-discovered-off-burrup-peninsula/12391858 | access-date=5 July 2020}}</ref>
The site was placed on the WA Aboriginal Heritage List (protected under the ''Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972''), and the Federal Government said such underwater sites fall under the state jurisdiction. The federal ''Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018'' was updated in 2019 to automatically include sunken aircraft and shipwrecks older than 75 years, but it does not automatically include Aboriginal sites.<ref name=abcancient/>
==See also== * Visual arts of Australia * Prehistory of Australia
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== {{Refbegin |30em}} * Bird, Caroline, and Hallam, Sylvia J. "[https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20060920-Dampier-Rock-Art-ROE35.pdf Archaeology and rock art in the Dampier Archipelago: A report prepared for the National Trust of Australia (WA)]", August 2006. * ''Burrup and Beyond: A short guide to the area's cultural heritage and history'' by Ken Mulvaney, 2013, sponsored by Rio Tinto, 49 pages. *{{cite book |last1=González Zarandona |first1=José Antonio |title=Murujuga: Rock Art, Heritage, and Landscape Iconoclasm |date=2020 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-5156-2 |language=en}} *Vinnicombe, P. (2002), Petroglyphs of the Dampier Archipelago: Background to Development and Descriptive Analysis, ''Rock Art Research'', Volume 19, No 1, pp 3–27 {{Refend}}
==External links== *{{cite web|url=https://www.murujuga.org.au/about/ |website=Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC)|title=About}} * {{cite AHD|105727|Dampier Archipelago (including Burrup Peninsula), Karratha Dampier Rd, Dampier, WA, Australia}}
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Category:Australian Aboriginal cultural history Category:Rock art in Australia Category:Heritage places of Western Australia Category:Archaeological sites in Western Australia Category:Dampier Archipelago Category:Australian National Heritage List Category:North West Shelf