Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) on the western coast of the Australian continent is home to the world's largest collection of paleolithic petroglyphs (rock carvings), an ancient art gallery containing around one million images carved into the rocks, some dated to at least 45,000 years old. Many of the images depict Australia's distinctive fauna, including extinct creatures like the thylacine, as well as the oldest known representation of a human face. The rocks are themselves noteworthy as coming from some of the oldest igneous bedrock in the world (around 2.7 billion years old). And the region is home to five #Aboriginal nations who are the inheritors of fifty thousand years of continuous human occupation and culture.
The place is an obvious candidate for #UNESCO World Heritage protection.
However...
The Burrup peninsula is also the location of the #NorthWestShelf gas hub, a massive piece of #DirtyEnergy infrastructure that has played a significant role in placing Australia at or near the top globally of liquefied natural gas exporters. #LNG
Over the last forty or fifty years gas industry activity on the peninsula has measurably degraded the artworks, which have survived intact for forty or fifty thousand years.
#Auspol #FossilfFuelIndusrty #CulturalHeritage #Aboriginal
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