‘Lies:' A UWA professor accuses the WA Government of lying about the impact of industrial emissions on Aboriginal rock art

West Australian

27-05-2025

The Western Australian government has been accused of lying in the summary of a report about the impact of industrial pollution on Aboriginal rock art in the Pilbara to support an extension to Woodside's North West Shelf gas plant.
UWA professor of archaeology Benjamin Smith said he had blown the whistle on the summary of an 800 page report released by the WA government late last week examining the impact of industrial emissions on Murujuga rock art.
The Cook government has denied the allegation.
The report was produced by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and scientists from Curtin University, which the professor claims were gagged from commenting on its findings.
Professor Smith has studied the impact of pollutants on rock art for the past six years and claims the WA government covered up evidence that industrial pollutants have degraded rock art and misrepresented findings in the report.
'This report contains very serious evidence that industrial emissions are currently damaging the rock art of Murujuga,' he said.
Professor Smith said experiments showed rocks at Murujuga were damaged by industrial pollutants at accelerating elevated porosity, which meant they looked liked Swiss cheese under a microscope, rather than hard, even surfaces.
He said the government tried to blame elevated porosity on a Dampier power plant that operated in the 1970s and 1980s that produced 4000 tonnes of pollution, but current emissions from industry were now five times higher.
'That means current emissions are five times more serious, we have five times the level of destruction of Murujuga rock art than we had in the 1970s and 80s, according to the Murujuga rock art report,' he said.
A state government spokesman denied the allegations saying the claims were offensive and factually incorrect.
The premier told media at a press conference the science has said that modern industrial developments do not have a long-term impact in terms of the quality of the rock art.
'There was one incident back in the 1970s associated with an old generation power plant, that is what people have pointed to as being the most damaging period during the age of the rock art.'
Professor Smith tore up a copy of the summary at a press conference telling media the document was a disgrace and not worth the paper it was written on.
'The minister cannot make a decision on the expansion of the North West Shelf on the basis of this propaganda document,' he said.
Woodside has operated the facility for 40 years and have environmental approval to operate the gas plant until 2030, but need government approval to extend operations beyond next decade.
The WA government approved Woodside's expansion in December, but the project needs environmental approval from the federal government before it can continue past 2030.
Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt is due to make a decision by the end of the month on whether to grant Woodside an extension to continue operating the North West Shelf gas plant until 2070.
The North West Shelf is one of the world's biggest producers of liquefied natural gas, environmentalists argue it is one of the biggest polluters of greenhouse gas emissions in the Southern Hemisphere.
WA Greens spokesman Sophie McNeil called on Minister Watt to delay making a decision on the North West Shelf extension in the wake of these 'shocking revelations.'
'There is a clear discrepancy between the findings of the 800 page report and of the summary, which we know was written by department officials,' she said.
'We have serious concerns about the ability of the minister to make this decision in this short period of time, because that report is incredibly technical reading.'
Mr Watt declined to comment.