WA’s Burrup Peninsula gains UNESCO World Heritage status

The Burrup is home to more than one million engravings of rock art, some of which date back 50,000 years and depict animals that have long since gone extinct.

Rock art on Western Australia's Burrup Peninsula. Picture: Murujuga Aboriginal Corp

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Western Australia’s Burrup Peninsula – home to the world’s largest collection of ancient rock art – has officially secured a World Heritage listing less than two months after Australia’s bid looked doomed.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee on Friday afternoon Paris time voted to support an amendment that stripped out a series of contentious conditions originally put forward to the international body in late May.

Representatives of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corp – the body set up to represent the traditional owner groups of the Burrup, or Murujuga – shed tears of joy inside the Paris venue as the area’s inscription was confirmed.

Mardathoonera woman and former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and Raelene Cooper said the decision marked a “momentous day”.

“Our rock art tells the stories of our people, and maintains our songlines and bloodline connection to our ngurra (home/country).”

Comments from World Heritage Committee members were a “clear signal to the Australian Government and Woodside that things need to change to prevent the ongoing desecration of Murujuga by polluting industry,” according to Ms Cooper.

Representatives of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corp.

The Burrup is home to more than one million petroglyphs, some of which date back as many as 50,000 years and which depict animals that have long since gone extinct. But it is also home to some of Australia’s biggest industrial projects, including Woodside Energy’s North West Shelf gas project, which has made the area a lightning rod for activists and campaigners.

Woodside congratulated the Ngarda-Ngarli, the traditional custodians and owners of the land, for the World Heritage Listing of the Murujuga Cultural Landscape.

“This is well-deserved global recognition of the petroglyphs and the unique living cultural values of Murujuga, to Australia and the world,” a Woodside spokesperson said.

Woodside confirmed its continuation of working closely with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and Traditional custodians to protect and manage the “globally significant area”.

The long-running debate about whether emissions from that heavy industry were harming the rock art had looked set to derail the World Heritage listing, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites initially recommending in May that UNESCO send the application back to Australia until the industry in the area had been curtailed. The listing’s prospects looked even more remote when, just a few hours after the ICOMOS recommendation, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt conditionally approved Woodside’s plans to extend the life of the North West Shelf out to 2070.

Rock Art in the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia which is home to the world's largest collection of rock art.

But Senator Watt had led an intense lobbying effort since then and was in Paris to see his salvage efforts come to fruition.

“It has been a great privilege to support the Traditional Owners and Custodians of Murujuga to see this globally significant cultural landscape included on the World Heritage List,” Senator Watt said.

He reinforced the Australian government’s “strong commitment” to World Heritage and protecting First Nations cultural heritage, saying it would “ensure this outstanding place is protected now and for future generations”.

As foreshadowed by The Australian, a delegation from Kenya moved an amended motion on Australia’s behalf seeking to have the landscape inscribed immediately and removing most of the conditions originally proposed by ICOMOS.

Japan and the Republic of Korea stepped forward as co-authors of the amendment, and one by one other committee members voiced their support. Ukraine, Belgium, Qatar, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Zambia, Bulgaria, St Vincent and Grenadine, Mexico, Italy and India all helped ensure the amendment got up.

The Greens welcomed UNESCO’s inclusion of Murjugua on the World Heritage List but urged Labor to go one step further and cancel the draft approval for the North West Shelf.

“... the world is now watching. Cancel the draft approval for the North West Shelf and prove Labor is willing to stand up for the oldest art gallery in the world,” Senator Larissa Waters said.

“Minister Watt successfully lobbied other nations when he should have simply rejected Woodside’s climate bomb extension in the first place.”

Murujuga Aboriginal Corp deputy chair Belinda Churnside said the listing had been decades in the making.

“This has been a long awaited journey and a fight for our elders, our old people, and we are thankful to receive this recognition,” she said.

While MAC and the Federal and State governments had strongly advocated for the listing, other groups such as Save Our Songlines had been pushing for a listing that would have imposed tougher obligations on Australia and Western Australia to wind back industry in the area.

WA environment minister Matthew Swinbourn thanked MAC for their tireless work on behalf of the Ngarda-Ngarli, and their partnership with the government.

“(We) will now implement the strategic management framework and establish the World Heritage property, ensuring the ongoing protection of this significant landscape which has been recognised today,” Minister Swinbourn said.