Conservationists ramp up Burrup campaign after bungled monitoring contract
Green groups have ramped up calls for a development moratorium on WA’s Burrup Peninsula after revelations no one’s monitoring the condition of ancient rock art.
Conservation groups have ramped up calls for a moratorium on further industrial development on the Burrup Peninsula in the wake of revelations no monitoring of the ancient rock art in the area has been conducted for five years, as the state government looks to hand a torn-up monitoring contract on to a new provider.
The Australian revealed on Wednesday the Department of Water and Environment Regulation tore up a contract with Puliyapang Pty Ltd – a joint venture between NSW-based Aboriginal owned business Tocomwall Pty Ltd and WA engineering and WA consulting major Calibre – on the basis of unnamed contractual breaches in late April, only 15 months after it was issued and shortly before it was due to give its first major progress report.
It is understood the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation is trying to find a way to move the cancelled Puliyapang tender on to subcontractors used by the company, including Curtin University – believed to have unsuccessfully tendered for the work in its own right in 2019 – to make good on promises made by Premier Mark McGowan that a new monitoring program would be in place by the end of 2021.
It is not clear whether government procurement rules would allow such a move, however, and sources say other unsuccessful bidders for the original tender have also expressed an interest in stepping in to Puliyapang’s role.
The $7.2m contract was issued for the development of a replacement program to monitor the ancient rock art at the site for signs of damage by industrial emissions at nearby facilities controlled by Woodside Petroleum, Rio Tinto and Yara Fertilisers.
While Premier Mark McGowan insisted on Thursday a new monitoring system would be in place by the end of the year, as promised, conservation groups again called for a moratorium on new industrial development on the Burrup in the wake of the news of the bungled contract.
Mr McGowan’s new environment minister, Amber Jade Sandersone, this week ticked off on Woodside’s plans for an expansion of its Pluto liquefied natural gas facilities in the area, and Woodside is expected to make a final investment decision on the expansion, and construction of its $16bn Scarborough gas project, an joint venture with BHP.
Former WA Labor Premier Carmen Lawrence, who is also the former chair of the Australian Heritage Council, on Thursday called on Mr McGowan to reconsider further development on the Burrup to protect the rock art.
“We have seen from what happened at Juukan Gorge that our community expects better when it comes to the protection of our priceless and irreplaceable Aboriginal Heritage,” she said.
“Many of the same circumstances apply to Woodside’s Scarborough development, and the Government must now pause and reconsider before permanent damage is locked in.”
Woodside is also facing legal action from the Conservation Council of WA aimed at blocking the development of Scarborough, over gas emissions from the project and its potential impact on the Burrup rock art, known as Murujuga to the Pilbara’s traditional owners.
Conservation Council executive director Piers Verstegen said the impact of industry on the rock art was like “Juukan Gorge in slow motion”.
“There are many parallels – the Traditional Owners are prevented from raising objections to development, there is a total lack of scientific understanding of the damage that is occurring, and decisions are being made that would see globally significant values destroyed without any assessment of their impacts,” he said.
“Because this is business as usual in a remote part of Western Australia, and it involves powerful industries with cosy relationships to government, what should be regarded as an international scandal has gone largely under the radar.”
The WA Premier told reporters on Thursday the state government would continue to work with traditional owners of the site, represented by Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, to protect the art work, some of which is estimated to be 40,000 years old.
“We expect to have the monitoring system up and operational by the end of this year as we committed to before,” he said.
“We will continue to work with the traditional owners, the Murujuga Corporation and other traditional owners in the area, and we expect to have monitoring arrangements in place by the end of this year. We have actually worked with the local Aboriginal community to put in place Aboriginal rangers, an Aboriginal tourism centre, boardwalks and roads to prevent people from interfering with the rock art. That will continue.”
The Australian revealed on Thursday DWER had bungled a contract to develop a new monitoring regime for the Burrup art, and that no independent scientific monitoring of its condition had been conducted since CSIRO walked away from the work in 2016.
The $7.2m contract with Puliyapang was to be largely funded by Rio, Woodside and Yara, but administered by DWER. But, despite sacking Pulipang from the work in late April, none of the major industry or community stakeholders were advised of the decision until The Australian began asking questions about the issue this week.
Documents published by DWER in April show that no independent scientific monitoring of the rock art has been carried out in the five years since CSIRO left the program in 2016, aside from some work conducted by Yara as part of its obligations under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
A spokeswoman for Woodside said on Wednesday the company had also been conducting its own emissions monitority program “which produce data that will be provided to the State for its program once it is up and running.”
“We will continue to work with the traditional owners, the Murujuga Corporation and other traditional owners in the area, and we expect to have monitoring arrangements in place by the end of this year. We have actually worked with the local Aboriginal community to put in place Aboriginal rangers, an Aboriginal tourism centre, boardwalks and roads to prevent people from interfering with the rock art. That will continue.”
The Australian revealed on Thursday DWER had bungled a contract to develop a new monitoring regimen for the Burrup art, and that no independent scientific monitoring of its condition had been conducted since CSIRO walked away from the work in 2016.
The $7.2m contract with Puliyapang was to be largely funded by Rio, Woodside and Yara, but administered by DWER. But, despite sacking Pulipang from the work in late April, none of the major industry or community stakeholders were advised of the decision until The Australian began asking questions about the issue this week.
Documents published by DWER in April show that no independent scientific monitoring of the rock art has been carried out in the five years since CSIRO left the program in 2016, aside from some work conducted by Yara as part of its obligations under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
A spokeswoman for Woodside said on Wednesday the company had also been conducting its own emissions monitoring programs “which produce data that will be provided to the state for its program once it is up and running.”
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