Tanya Plibersek review to protect Burrup rock art

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has commissioned a sweeping review of the wave of industrial developments under way on WA’s rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula.

Aboriginal rock art on WA’s Burrup Peninsula.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has commissioned a sweeping review of the wave of industrial developments under way on Western Australia’s rock art-rich Burrup Peninsula, potentially complicating the way forward for billions of dollars of major projects.

The Australian can reveal Ms Plibersek has appointed an independent expert to prepare a report exploring the existing and planned projects and their potential impact on Aboriginal cultural heritage sites in and around the area.

The Burrup Peninsula is home to more than one million pieces of rock art, many of which date back tens of thousands of years. The Aboriginal cultural values of the area prompted an application for the area to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage listing.

But the region is also home to some of the largest industrial projects in the country, and billions of dollars of investment is planned for the coming years as part of another major wave of development.

Woodside Energy is pushing ahead with the expansion of its big Pluto LNG plant, and is advancing plans to extend the life of the decades-old North West Shelf plant out to 2070, while private company Perdaman has started work on a $4.5bn urea plant.

The review is the result of an application under Section 10 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act from Save Our Songlines, an Indigenous activist group that has broken away from the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation established to represent the area’s five traditional language groups during a wave of development more than 20 years ago.

Save Our Songlines was behind an earlier ultimately unsuccessful push for Ms Plibersek to put in place a temporary protection order that would have required Perdaman to halt work on its plant – which will require several pieces of rock art to be relocated – for up to 60 days and review its cultural heritage management plans. Ms Plibersek last month opted against further intervention, saying at the time that she had “gone with” the views of MAC.

Beyond the need for the relocation of some pieces of rock art at the Perdaman site, Save Our Songlines believes emissions from the various industrial projects in the region are accelerating the decay of the rock art.

Under Section 10 of ATSIHPA, the consultant will need to prepare a report detailing the significance of the area to Aboriginal people, the nature and extent of the threat to the area, and what prohibitions and restrictions, if any, should be put in place. The report will also need to consider the effects a declaration may have on the “proprietary or pecuniary interests” of other people in the area.

The report will then shape a recommendation from the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to Ms Plibersek, who will then decide whether to introduce additional restrictions.

A spokeswoman for Ms Plibersek confirmed the independent consultant had been engaged as standard under the ATSIHPA.

“The consultant will take as long as is needed to prepare the ­report. There is no statutory time frame,” she said.

Consultations with various stakeholders are expected to take place over the next few months, which suggests a report is unlikely to be delivered to the minister until some time next year.

Woodside last month formally began work on its second train, or processing line, at its Pluto LNG plant, while Ms Plibersek’s decision last month cleared Perdaman to begin works on its urea project.

The expanded Pluto project will be fed from Woodside’s Scarborough gas field. The company says the development will not impact any areas outside its current industrial footprint and will not impact any rock art. It also says peer-reviewed research has not demonstrated any impacts on Burrup rock art from Woodside’s emissions.

Save Our Songlines’ Raelene Cooper – who was chair of MAC for several years – said the minister had the power under the act to protect the sites across the Burrup.

“It’s a very, very important step,” she said. “The whole of the Burrup is potentially a significant site. What we are facing is the potential extinction of ancient cultural practises.”