UN set to reject Murujuga World Heritage listing due to industrial pollution

The UN is set to reject World Heritage listing for the Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula due to the damage caused to approximately two million rock art engravings, or petroglyphs, by industrial pollution.

An agenda for a meeting in July of the body assessing World Heritage nominations located on the UNESCO website by Boiling Cold shows that the draft decision is to send the nomination back to the Australian Government to, among other things, remove "degrading acidic emissions" from the area.

The largest source of these emissions by far is Woodside's North West Shelf LNG plant. On Wednesday, Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt decided to allow it to operate for an additional 40 years.

The revelation comes a day after respected University of Western Australia Professor of World Rock Art, Benjamin Smith, said the WA government had misleadingly presented research it sponsored as concluding that emissions from nearby heavy industry were not damaging the rock art.

Smith said the research was world-class, but an executive summary he understood had been written by state bureaucrats, not the scientific team that did the research, was misleading.

The report from the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program (MRAMP) was released late last Friday when events are less likely to receive heavy media attention.

Campaigners for the preservation of the rock art and against Woodside's plans to operate its adjacent North West Shelf gas export plant until 2070 have long called for the release of the study.

"There's good reasons why they held this report for a year, and that's because this report contains very serious evidence that industrial emissions are currently damaging the rock out of Murujuga," Smith said.

Josie Alec, a Traditional Owner at Murujuga, said the UNESCO World Heritage nomination of the rock art is completely inconsistent with more years of acid pollution damaging the petroglyphs at Murujuga.

“Environment Minister Watt should do everything in his power to protect the rock art, not protect the gas industry.”

The draft decision was based on a report by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) that assesses cultural heritage nominated for World Heritage listing.

Piper Rollins, a climate campaigner with the Australian Conservation Foundation that released the report on Wednesday, said the peak expert international body on cultural heritage matters has clearly identified Woodside’s North West Shelf gas hub as the primary risk to the ancient rock art at Murujuga. 

“UNESCO is essentially saying to the Albanese government: you can’t have your cake and eat it," she said.

"You are going to have to choose between World Heritage or Woodside’s toxic gas extension, the two cannot coexist.

“Woodside’s facility is scheduled to shut down in a few years. That’s what should happen, it should not be extended.”

The MRAMP research was conducted by a team led by Curtin University Professor Ben Mullins for WA's Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC).

On Tuesday, Boiling Cold requested an interview with Mullins, and he responded, "Contractually, I need to get approval from MAC and DWER to do any media. I understand they will be in touch." Neither body has responded.

UPDATE 1PM, 28 May, to reflect that the North West Shelf project has received Federal Government approval.