Crunch time looms in Paris for Murujuga rock art World Heritage bid

Sydney Morning Herald

10-07-2025

An intense international lobbying fight between the Commonwealth and traditional owners will culminate on Friday as a UNESCO committee decides whether to grant the Burrup Peninsula's Murujuga cultural landscape World Heritage status.
The committee's decision in Paris will conclude a long-running bid to secure World Heritage-listing for the ancient Aboriginal petroglyphs on the Pilbara coast near Karratha.
The bid was dealt a major blow in May, when the International Council on Monuments and Sites recommended it go back to the Australian government to address concerns about the impact of nearby industrialisation and emissions.
The draft decision will be debated at about 3pm Paris time on Friday (9pm AWST). It will include ICOMOS' recommendations calling on the Commonwealth to prevent further industrialisation on the peninsula and to remove all emissions impacting the rock art.
This masthead understands Australian government representatives are pushing an amendment to the committee's draft decision removing suggested conditions to stop nearby industrial activity near Murujuga, which remains a major hurdle for it to gain heritage status.
Murujuga traditional custodian and Save Our Songlines leader Raelene Cooper opposes that amendment. Cooper is also in Paris this week to lobby for action on industrial emissions near the site.
'We are deeply concerned that the amendment being lobbied for by the Australian government will dramatically weaken these critical recommendations,' she said.
'It is essential that the final UNESCO decision requires a moratorium on any extensions or expansions of industry located on Murujuga.
'It needs to have a decommissioning and rehabilitation plan, and to strengthen the management of Murujuga by traditional custodians by guaranteeing resources so industry funding is not relied upon.'