Australia’s largest gas project is put on ice by the Albanese government over concerns about Indigenous rock art
Indigenous rock art could derail one of Australia’s largest natural gas projects.
The WA government gave the green light to a 50-year extension to Woodside’s North West Shelf Gas Plant in the Pilbara, allowing it to operate until 2070, but federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek has deferred giving her approval.
There are concerns the pollution from the facility on the Burrup Peninsula – which processes gas mined offshore – could damage UNESCO World Heritage-nominated rock art in the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.
In December, Ms Plibersek was given 30 days to decide on whether to approve the lease extension, but she has pushed that back to March 31, sparking uncertainty about the future of the project and thousands of associated jobs.
The delay is because Ms Plibersek has requested in writing a rock art monitoring report from the WA government, according to the Australian Financial Review.
WA Premier Roger Cooke, who is campaigning for re-election on March 8, said his government has provided all its documentation regarding the project to Canberra.
‘Lord knows what’s going on over there,’ he said.
The 40,000-year-old rock art site was previously knocked back for World Heritage consideration by UNESCO, because a low resolution map left officials unable to work out the site’s boundaries.
The site features 40,000-year-old rock art (pictured) which is eroding due to acidic emissions travelling in the air from nearby industrial sites, Indigenous elders claim
Environment minister Tanya Plibersek has delayed giving her approval to an extension of Woodside’s lease (pictured is the entrance to Woodside Petroleum’s Pluto development)
There are more than one million pieces of rock art found across the Murujuga area in WA making it the largest collection of its kind in the world.
This number has shrunk in recent years due to industrial emissions which have caused rock surfaces to disintegrate, Indigenous elders claim.
Ms Plibersek’s office claimed their 2024 World Heritage site application had challenges because of UNESCO’s inability to comprehend Indigenous borders.
World Heritage officials in Paris however insisted the low-res map they were provided created a ‘vagueness’ which ‘did not guarantee the full protection of Indigenous lands’.
Now the site will not be considered again until later this year.
Ms Plibersek’s staff tried to save face by claiming that ‘issues relating to map boundaries and topography’ were to blame for the rejected application.
‘The cultural landscape nomination spans across land and sea country, which is a difficult concept to fit into Western concepts of borders,’ a spokesperson told Yahoo.
When approached for comment, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre called the environment minister’s bluff and corrected the record.
Ms Plibersek’s office previously applied to have the rock art listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site but officials in Paris claim they botched the application
WA’s remote Burrup Peninsula (pictured) where the Indigenous rock art is located
‘This statement is incorrect,’ a Centre spokesperson said.
‘The map was in low resolution [and] the file was therefore referred by UNESCO World Heritage Centre to the State Party precisely because the vagueness of the boundaries of the site did not guarantee the full protection of indigenous lands, and cultural knowledge in the face of the industrial projects carried out in this area.’
Shortly after the original application was tendered, UNESCO contacted the Australian government to discuss the problematic paperwork.
While the application was resubmitted, former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation Raelene Cooper said the site will continue to be threatened with destruction.
‘We have been trying to secure World Heritage status for Murujuga for decades – my community and my elders have been repeatedly betrayed by government promises over that time,’ she said in a statement.
‘There are no animals or bush medicine out on the Burrup any more, all you see now is dust as these massive projects destroy our sacred sites.’
