Latest news with #rockart
ABC News
18 hours ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Is the government ignoring evidence of rock art degradation at Murujuga? And Daniel Browning hangs up the headphones
The Federal Government has given a proposed approval for an expansion of Woodside's North West Shelf gas project near Karratha in Western Australia. But Professor Benjamin Smith — an expert in world rock art — claims that the rock art at Murujuga, which is up to fifty thousand years old, is being degraded by recent industry and that the State Government is ignoring the evidence. The Ramsay Art Prize is the biggest award for a young artist in Australia, with a prize of $100,000 and national recognition. You'll meet the winner of this year's prize, Jack Ball, and find out how the Australian Queer Archives in Melbourne inspired their exhibition, Heavy Grit. And Daniel Browning reflects on his time in arts journalism as he leaves the ABC after 31 years. Our track of the week is Signs by Ólafur Arnalds & Talos
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Australia to lobby Unesco over barring of ancient rock site from world heritage list due to Woodside emissions
The Albanese government will launch a lobbying campaign in a bid to reverse a Unesco recommendation that an ancient rock art site in Western Australia can't go on the world heritage list until damaging industrial emissions linked to a controversial Woodside gas development are stopped. Government officials were aiming to meet Unesco next week after its advisers said the nomination of the Murujuga Cultural Landscape in north-west WA – home to more than a million petroglyphs, some almost 50,000 years old – should be referred back to Australia until nearby 'degrading acidic emissions' were halted. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) advised Unesco the main requirements for world heritage nomination had been met, but pollution from nearby industry 'makes the integrity and the authenticity of key attributes of the nominated property highly vulnerable'. The main source of emissions, the ICOMOS report said, was Woodside's Karratha gas plant, which last week was conditionally awarded a 40-year extension by the environment minister, Murray Watt, to operate until 2070. The Unesco recommendation is due to go before the 21-country world heritage committee at its next meeting on 6 July in Paris. A government spokesperson told the Guardian it was now 'actively engaged in the process' and would make 'strong representations at every opportunity' to have Murujuga listed as a world heritage site at the Paris meeting. Sources told the Guardian that Australian government department officials were also aiming to meet Unesco officials over the nomination during next week's UN oceans conference in Nice. Last week, Watt said he was disappointed Unesco had been influenced by 'factual inaccuracies' but did not provide further detail on what those inaccuracies were. Most of the pieces of rock art were created by hitting the rocks with harder rocks to remove a top layer, revealing lighter colours beneath – a technique known as pecking. Scientists expressed concern that emissions of nitrous oxide and sulphur oxide were working to slowly dissolve the top layers of the petroglyph rocks. A summary of a state government-commissioned monitoring report on the state of pollution and the petroglyphs, released last month, claimed observed damage to some of the rocks was likely related to a power plant that ran in the 1970s and 1980s. But leading rock art expert Prof Benjamin Smith, of the University of Western Australia, said the body of the 800-page report was clear that current industrial emissions were also damaging the petroglyphs. He said: 'If [the federal government] is trying to say the damage was done in the 70s and 80s, then they're on a hiding to nothing. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email 'I don't think emissions are damaging the rock art, I know they are.' He said the official monitoring report showed current emissions at the site were likely between four and five times higher than during the 1970s and 80s. Smith said: 'The 800-page report makes it clear they are being damaged in the areas closest to industry. If [Australia] tries to blame that power plant in the 1970s, then the implication is that that emissions are damaging it five times more now.' The ABC has reported a scientist leading the monitoring report has privately complained the report was altered to remove a line on a graph that would have shown 'five of the monitoring sites were experiencing pollutant levels above the interim guideline'. The ICOMOS evaluation report said it had received information from a 'third party' drawing its attention to the extension of Woodside's Karratha gas plant to 2070. That information, the Guardian can reveal, was a detailed letter from the Australian Conservation Foundation, which pointed to several studies raising concerns about emissions and the rock art. The Guardian has revealed the Australian government has previously carried out a long and sustained lobbying campaign to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the world heritage list of sites in danger. Gavan Macfadzean, climate and energy program manager at ACF, said he expected the Australian government would now be lobbying Unesco and the world heritage committee up to the meeting. 'Our role is to make sure that when sites are nominated [for world heritage status], we're reassured that the values for which it's being evaluated are protected,' he said. 'We support the listing, but we have to make sure that it's not a greenwashing exercise. We want to see the nomination happen in a way that protects the values. He said emissions of nitrous oxide and sulfur oxide from local industry – including from Woodside's gas processing facility – needed to be 'fully addressed'. In a statement, the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), which has worked with government to nominate the site, said it was 'deeply disappointed' by the ICOMOS recommendation. The chair of MAC, Peter Hicks, said the ICOMOS report had made clear the site should be on the world heritage list. He said: 'The evaluation report provides the pathway to finalising world heritage listing and while the referral adds another small step to our journey, it is a positive outcome and not a rejection. 'While we are disappointed, we are determined to finish our journey and see the Murujuga Cultural Landscape included on the world heritage list as soon as possible.' A spokesperson for Woodside said the final decision on the nomination would rest with the world heritage committee. They said: 'Woodside will continue to support the leadership of traditional custodians, including the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), which holds cultural authority, and work with the commonwealth and state governments as they prepare their responses to the [ICOMOS] recommendation.' The statement said the findings of the monitoring report 'show that emissions are below risk thresholds, and the data does not support the theory that acid rain damages the petroglyphs.' They said: 'Woodside has taken proactive steps over many years – including emissions reductions, data sharing and ongoing support for [the monitoring report] – to ensure we manage our impacts responsibly. 'We believe the world heritage nomination should proceed on the strength of the evidence and stand as proof that cultural heritage and industry can responsibly coexist when collaboration, transparency, and rigorous scientific monitoring are in place.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
How Labor's North West Shelf approval further endangers Murujuga's 50,000-year-old rock art
On Thursday, the new environment minister, Murray Watt, approved an extension for the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas project. The gas plant at Karratha, Western Australia, will run until 2070. This expansion – and the pollution it will release – has led to a recommendation by the International Council on Monuments and Sites to defer Unesco's decision on the world heritage listing of the nearby Murujuga rock art. Two of the recommendations before renomination of the site are to 'ensure the total removal of degrading acidic emissions' and 'prevent any further industrial development adjacent to, and within, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape'. Murujuga has more than 1 million petroglyphs, some up to 50,000 years old. It has the oldest depictions of the human face in the world and records the lore and traditions of Aboriginal Australians since the first human settlement of this continent. It is strikingly beautiful and is of enormous cultural and spiritual importance to the Traditional Owners. Despite the immense significance of the site, a large industrial precinct has been built at its centre. Last week, the Western Australian government released the long awaited Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program Year 2 report. This report examines the effect of industrial pollution upon one of the world's most significant rock art sites. We have conducted our own independent project into the impact of industrial emissions on Murujuga since 2018. Many of our findings support the details in this report but the government's report summary and subsequent political commentary downplays the ongoing impacts of acidic emissions from industry on the world unique rock art. The most significant findings are the weathering chamber results. These subjected all rock types from Murujuga to the air pollutants released by industry. The results showed that all were degraded, even with relatively low doses of sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂). The second highly significant finding is that 'there is statistically significant evidence of elevated porosity of granophyre rock surfaces'. This is centred on the industrial precinct in Murujuga. The report acknowledges industrial pollution is the most likely cause. This degradation and elevated porosity of the rocks puts the survival of the petroglyphs at risk. On our research team, Jolam Neumann's still to be published PhD thesis at the University of Bonn, Germany, considered the impacts of industrial pollution on Murujuga rocks. He used actual samples of gabbro and granophyre rock collected from Murujuga and simulated six years of weathering under current pollution conditions. He found elevated porosity in both rock surfaces. He also collected the residue to understand what was eroded from the rock and how. He found there was significant degradation of birnessite (manganese) and kaolinite (clay) from the surface. The dark red/brown surface of the rock became porous and started to break down. His work confirms industrial emissions are the cause of the elevated porosity in the report. His work shows the seriousness of the porosity: it is symptomatic of a process causing the rapid disintegration of the rock surface. With Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program report showing evidence of damage to the art from pollution, the state government chose to emphasise in their report summary that a defunct power plant from the 1970s and 1980s was likely the culprit. The report's data suggests this power plant produced about 3,600 tonnes of NO₂ per year and less than 400 tonnes of SO₂ per year. Current industry in the immediate area produces more than 13,000 tonnes of NO₂ per year and more than 6,500 tonnes of SO₂. If the old power plant damaged the art then contemporary industrial emissions will be damaging the rock art at least five times faster. Neumann also gained access to a piece of rock collected in 1994 by archaeological scientist Robert Bednarik, and stored in his office in Melbourne for the past 30 years. The area where this rock came from now has elevated porosity, but the Bendarik rock shows no signs of it. This means the bulk of the industrial damage is likely more recent than 1994 – and is ongoing. The rock art was formed by engraving into the outer thin red/brown/black surface of the rock, called rock varnish, exposing the blue-grey parent rock beneath. This rock varnish was made in a process that involved the actions of specialised microbes called cyanobacteria. They concentrate manganese and iron from the environment to form an outer sheath to protect themselves from the harsh desert environment. The rock varnish forms at an incredibly slow rate: 1 to 10 microns in 1,000 years (a human hair is about 100 microns). These organisms can only thrive when the rock surface acidity is near neutral (pH 6.5–7). Their manganese sheaths are crucial to the integrity of the rock varnish, it binds it together and holds it to the underlying rock. If you lose the manganese you lose the rock varnish and the rock art. Neumann found the proportion of manganese in the Bednarik rock sample was 18.4% by weight. In samples collected in the same area in 2021, the manganese content had fallen to 9.6%. The depth of the varnish was reduced and the varnish layer was full of holes where the manganese had been degraded. The damage by industry over the last 26 years was clearly visible. Increased porosity is reducing the density of the rock varnish layer and leading to its eventual degradation. There is also an absence of cyanobacteria close to the industrial sites, but not at more distant sites, suggesting industrial emissions are eliminating the varnish-forming microbes. Industrial pollution has degraded the rock art and will continue to do so until the industrial pollution levels at Murujuga are reduced to zero. There are two well-recognised ways to eliminate NO₂ emissions. One uses selective catalytic reduction to convert NO₂ to nitrogen and water. The second method is to replace all gas burning heat production processes with electricity. The use of such technologies should form part of the conditions to the ministerial approval of the North West Shelf extension. This article was originally published in the Conversation. Benjamin Smith is a professor of archaeology (world rock art) at the school of social sciences at the University of Western Australia. John Black is adjunct professor emeritus at the school of veterinary science at the University of Sydney
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Approval of Woodside LNG project gambles with ancient heritage for short-term gain
We don't know all the evidence that the new environment minister, Murray Watt, had before him when he decided to approve a 40-year life extension to one of Australia's biggest fossil fuel developments so that it could run until 2070. But we do know this. The decision largely turned on whether the North West Shelf liquefied natural gas (LNG) development on the Pilbara's Burrup Hub can coexist for decades into the future with an incredible collection of ancient Murujuga rock art, some of it nearly 50,000 years old and unlike anything else on the planet. And there is enough evidence in the public domain for people to have, at best, serious doubts. A summary of a rock art monitoring report compiled last year – but only released by the unwaveringly pro-gas Western Australian Labor government last Friday afternoon – acknowledged that emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide had damaged the rock types on which the art is etched. Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as an email But it said this was OK. It concluded that this problem peaked in the 1970s – a time when there was far less industrial activity in the region than today. There was no LNG export industry, and therefore not one of the world's largest LNG processing facilities. But there was a relatively small gas power plant. The WA government summary – backed by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation – suggested this was likely the major cause of the problem, and that pollutant levels have declined over the past decade. The scientific report behind the summary was 800 pages long and it took some time for people to digest it. Once they had, concerns were raised. Benjamin Smith, an archaeology professor at the University of Western Australia, said data in the report suggested local acidic pollution was actually four times higher now than when Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser were running the country. He claimed scientists who worked on the report were being gagged so they couldn't raise their concerns about how their data was being interpreted. Not long after, the ABC released details of an email complaint from Adrian Baddeley, the chief statistician who worked on the rock art monitoring, accusing WA government officials of removing some information from a graph in the summary, and adding a claim that current pollution levels are 'lower than the interim guideline levels'. Baddeley said the five monitoring sites closest to industrial development were experiencing pollution levels above a guideline level, and claimed there was 'unacceptable interference in the scientific integrity of the project'. The WA premier, Roger Cook, told the ABC's Radio National that some scientists were engaging in a 'political frolic'. 'We have to strip away the background noise and rely upon the reports to make good decisions on behalf of the people of Western Australia,' he said. This came to light on Wednesday, shortly before Watt announced his decision. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion Watt could have taken time to absorb this. There was nothing forcing him to rush into an announcement. Even Cook – an assertive backer of Woodside's plans – had said just hours earlier that the minister should move quickly but not make a 'hurried decision'. Watt chose to move just as a significant cloud enshrouded a key piece of evidence. People will draw their own conclusions about whether it is a coincidence that the announcement came at a busy news time, when focus was on the reunited Coalition and shortly before the rugby league State of Origin series consumed the attention of millions of people in Queensland and New South Wales. But let's put it this way: if you wanted to avoid accusations of politically motivated cynicism, you wouldn't have dropped it on Wednesday afternoon. Two things seem clear. The first is that the precautionary principle – long meant to be a guiding light in environmental decisions – is hard to see here. Whatever the weight of evidence about what amount of pollution is sustainable, and for what period, we know emissions have degraded the rock. We are gambling with a place of extraordinary cultural heritage for the sake of short-term interests. A draft decision by Unesco, revealed on Wednesday, that industrial activity makes a world-heritage listing for the Murujuga cultural landscape unlikely only underlines that point. The second is that it will almost certainly face legal challenges. Raelene Cooper, a Mardathoonera woman and former chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, flagged this in a blunt media statement that told the government she would see them in court. These issues would be enough to raise concerns about the decision – but there is also the not insignificant issue of the huge greenhouse gas emissions that will result. For several years, the North West Shelf was the biggest polluting site within Australia, and it still sits in the leading pack of emitters. Much, much more pollution is released once the LNG is shipped and burned overseas. It is often tagged as a 'carbon bomb'. Some see this as an easy pejorative term used by activists. Maybe. But it is hard to dispute based on the numbers. There are complicated and contested arguments about whether stopping production at the North West Shelf would reduce global emissions – and whether that should be the point. But no one committed to meeting the goals of the Paris climate agreement, and limiting surging global heating, can seriously argue it should be operating until 2070, as Watt has approved. It makes no sense that the environment minister does not have to consider this atmospheric carbon footprint before approving a major fossil fuel development such as the North West Shelf under national environment law. Emissions hurt the environment. People know this. The law should reflect that reality.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
A major decision on a Woodside gas plant's future hinges on WA rock art
Unless something extraordinary happens, Labor's new environment minister, Murray Watt, looks set to extend the life of a huge Woodside gas plant in Western Australia. The decision hinges on the impact of the plant's continued operation on Murujuga rock art. A summary of an 800-page rock art monitoring report, released by the WA government, suggested concerns were overblown. However Adam Morton, Guardian Australia's climate and environment editor, says a deeper reading of the report is ringing alarm bells for some rock art experts
