Indigenous rock art could derail gas project

One of Australia’s largest natural gas projects could be shut down after concerns were raised over the protection of Indigenous rock art in the Pilbara in Western Australia.

Woodside’s North West Shelf Gas Plant – which processes gas from offshore – had applied for a 50-year extension of its operations, but Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek has deferred giving approval.

Emissions and pollution could damage the UNESCO World Heritage-nominated rock art in the Murujuga Cultural Landscape on the Burrup Peninsula.

The Australian Financial Review reported this week Ms Plibersek had requested a rock art monitoring report from the WA government.

But WA Premier Roger Cooke said his government had already provided all its documentation to Canberra.

There are more than one million pieces of rock art across the area, making it the largest collection of its kind in the world.

Ms Plibersek’s office claimed 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.

The former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Raelene Cooper, said the site would continue to be threatened.

“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.

“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.”

Ms Plibersek’s office was given 30 days to decide on whether to approve the lease extension in December last year, but that deadline has pushed that back to March 31.

There is now uncertainty about the future of the project as the delay is likely to run until later this year.