Young Aussie's fears for ancient sites amid threat from controversial government plan

Yahoo

29-05-2025

At 26, Mark Clifton's adult life is just beginning. He has hopes of having children soon and passing on his culture to them, continuing traditions spanning thousands of years.
But a plan by the Albanese government to approve yet another industrial project near his community's most important sites has him worried. At over 40,000 years old, the Murujuga rock art in Western Australia's Pilbara region is the world's largest and biggest collection of petroglyphs, and scientists say toxic gases are erasing it.
'Some would say it's our Bible. It's our library, it's where all of our knowledge and history is held,' the Mardudhunera man told Yahoo News as he prepared to protest against the plan on Thursday afternoon.
'But I feel strong and empowered, knowing that I'm going to have all my old people with me today, and my ancestors.'
He's carrying on the torch passed down by his mother Raelene Cooper to protect more than one million Indigenous petroglyphs engraved in the rock. In 2022, she flew to Geneva to speak before the United Nations, accusing the government of committing "cultural genocide" against her people.
The art her people are trying to protect is so ancient, some even show thylacines (Tasmanian tigers) before they became extinct on the mainland. But the etchings are more than just images, they're also key to keeping cultural stories and dances alive for one of the world's oldest continuous cultures.
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Environment Minister Murray Watt has indicated an intention to conditionally approve energy giant Woodside's proposal to continue to operate its North West Shelf gas project until 2070. By the time it wraps up, the minister will be 96 years old, and well and truly retired. But Clifton will be just 68, and likely an elder in his community, trying to pass on culture to his grandchildren, and hoping remnants of the rock art survive.
Federal independent senator David Pocock told Yahoo News the situation facing Clifton is not an acceptable state of affairs in Australia.
"This project, when you look at it in terms of First Nations cultural heritage, it's devastating," he said.
Pocock is also concerned the "narrative that the politicians are trying to sell" about the rock art differs from a scientific report.
The WA and Commonwealth governments say the rock art was considered before they agreed to extend the life of energy giant Woodside's North-West Shelf project until 2070. 'I have ensured that adequate protection for the rock art is central to my proposed decision," Watt said on Wednesday.
But an expert in the rock art says the 800-page Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Report, which was given to the government to inform its decision-making, 'shows unequivocally' that industrial emissions are degrading the petroglyphs. And this conflicts with the presentation of research in the executive summary and media release issued by the WA Government.
The University of WA's Professor Benjamin Smith said on Tuesday there are now multiple lines of evidence showing industrial pollution has degraded the rock art. "It will continue to do so unless we lower the industrial pollution levels," he said.
There are signs the United Nations also has concerns about the government's conservation of the rock art, with UNESCO deferring its decision on giving the rock art World Heritage protection.
The deferral was drafted in July and released this week, urging the government to address the degradation of the site. 'Severe pollution issues from chemical-producing industries outside the nominated property represent a significant adversely-affecting factor, and a major threat against the petroglyphs,' it concluded.
It's the second hurdle the project has faced — in 2023, a submission was rejected by UNESCO after then environment minister Tanya Plibersek's team submitted a vague, low-resolution map of the area.
The North West Shelf extension is the second major project the Albanese Government has approved for the region, with Plibersek green-lighting a fertiliser plant nearby in 2022.
Watt's decision this week was attacked by the Greens and conservationists, who are concerned about its impact on Indigenous culture, and the 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions it will release into the atmosphere over its lifetime.
Woodside welcomed Watt's decision and said it 'remained committed to protecting the Murujuga Cultural Landscape" and supported its World Heritage nomination.
Woodside claims its project will provide energy security to Australia, and the project has already contributed over $40 billion in taxes and royalties, but Pocock does not believe the extension will provide significant advantages to the country.
"None of the justifications put forward stack up, I don't see the benefit to Australia. We get nothing from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax when it comes to offshore LNG [liquid natural gas], and we're connected to the international market, so more supply does not equal lower gas prices," he said.
He believes there's a bigger issue than economics when it comes to Woodside's North-West Shelf plan, and that's the impact it will have on generations to come.
"One of the things that we have to work on as a country is cultural change around the way that we think and make decisions. We seem to be happy making short-term decisions, rather than asking, 'What's good for us in a generation or two, what's good in 50 years'," he said.
He sees little difference between Labor and the Coalition when it comes to gas policy, and believes many young people will be feeling "buyer's remorse" after preferencing Labor last election.
"I think it is appalling that we have two major parties in Australia who think they do not have a duty of care for young people and future generations when it comes to climate," he said.
"This is the thing we're going to be judged on by future generations. Anyone who comes after us is going to be asking, What on Earth were you thinking? You had all the scientists telling you what needed to be done."
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