| 01.
Where exactly is the Burrup Peninsula?
The Burrup Peninsula is 1600 Kilometres from Perth, in the
Pilbara district of the North West of Western Australia
and near the town ship of Karratha. |
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02. What is the Burrup Peninsula?
The Burrup Peninsula was formerly one of the 47 islands
that made up the Dampier Archipelago and was called Dampier
Island before being joined to the mainland by a causeway
in the early 1960�s. At 117 square kilometres it is the
largest of the islands of the archipelago. |
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03.
Why is it so important to World Heritage?
It is considered by Anthropologists and Archaeologists to
possibly contain the largest collection of Petroglyphs (rock
carvings) in the world, estimated numbers range from 500,000
to one million individual motifs. It is also unique because
it contains many styles of artwork and representations laid
down over period from recent times to approximately 30,000
years ago, providing a social and ecological timeline spanning
through the last ice age some 17,000 years ago. |
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04. How can one reach it?
The area can by reached by plane from Perth the capital
of Western Australia or by travelling north 1600 kilometres
on the Great Northern Highway? |
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05. Are the public allowed to explore it?
Yes, there is unfortunately unfettered access to the area.
Whilst we support public access it needs to be managed in
the same manner as other wonders of the world. Uncontrolled
access had led to theft and vandalism. |
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06. Are there any Aboriginal guides to help explain it?
Sadly no formal arrangements exist for the local Aboriginal
custodians to guide you through their country. |
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07. Why do companies build on the Burrup when it is a World
Monument?
The West Australian (WA) Government has slowly established
the Burrup as its northern industrial hub since the mid
1970�s and encourages industry to establish there. The government
has invested many hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure
to attract industry to the Burrup. Not all companies wish
to build on the Burrup, recently BHP Billiton Petroleum
and Apache Energy have both moved to other more suitable
locations nearby, sighting concern over the heritage values
of the Burrup as one of the main factors in their choice
to relocate. |
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08. Why is Woodside so keen to disturb the area when other
companies have chosen to locate elsewhere?
We have no understanding. We are also concerned that Woodside
has chosen to develop on virgin land containing many petroglyphs
when land that has already been desecrated and cleared of
rock art remains unused. |
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09. What pressure does it require to get the government
to legislate in favour of protection?
Continued pressure, by letter writing and representation
to the Premier of Western Australia, the relevant Ministers
and your local political member. (see list) |
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10. What is the percentage of the Burrup Peninsula that
has been cleared so far?
It is calculated that 10-13% of the Burrup has been directly
effected by the industry footprint so far, this must be
considered as being much larger when taking into account
the visual and structural relationship of much of the rock
art. |
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11. What is the percentage of the Burrup Peninsula that
is being preserved for conservation?
The WA Government has stated that it wishes to conserve
only 62% of the Burrup, this is incorrect for two reasons.
Firstly the area identified for conservation is only 43%
of the Burrup land mass and secondly the WA Government now
intends to open this area, parts of which are protected
areas under state and federal jurisdiction, for increased
tourism activity. This is to be done by driving a tarmac
road into areas that are currently difficult to access (thereby
protected) and by developing accommodation nodules in these
newly opened areas. This in essence will open up more areas
to vandalism and theft. |
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12. Are any other island in the Dampier Archipelago under
threat?
The WA government has stated that after it has filled up
the Burrup with industry it intends to develop 53% of West
Intercourse Island for industry. West Intercourse Island
is 19 square kilometres in size and has an incredible density
of rock art and shell middens (piles of discarded shells
from food gathering). |
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13. What are the Archaic faces?
These are considered to be possibly some of the oldest carvings
and art in Australia and are a unique form of representation
of faces being highly articulate. These often present as
a negative relief similar to that of a Lino print. They
possibly represent an insight into what my have been a highly
mobile society in the early colonization of Australia. These
faces are found both in the Dampier Archipelago and 1500
km inland at sites such as Cleland Hills in the Northern
Territory 320 km West of Alice Springs. |
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14. Are there any caves on the Burrup Peninsula?
Not as one would understand a cave, there are however a
number of natural rock shelters formed by fallen slabs of
granite. The Archipelago also contains man made pits, sometimes
referred to as hunting hides |
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15. What is the environmental impact on the Burrup Peninsula?
The Burrup is possibly the largest single point source of
CO2 emissions in WA running at around 10 million tonnes
per annum. With this comes the attendant release of ammonia,
nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitric acid, benzene,
toluene and ethyl benzene, p-xylene, m-xylene and o-xylene
plus a high level of suspended solids. The Government has
indicated that whilst these levels are considerably higher
than natural background levels they are no higher than those
experienced by large cities. They conclude that they don�t
know if these emissions will impact the rock art. We know
that even in Perth heritage material such as Rodin�s famous
sculpture of Adam had to be removed from outside the Art
Gallery of WA because of a deadly bronze disease it developed
from being exposed to airborne pollutants. |
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16. What processes are in place to protect the rock art?
The rock art falls under a protection regime of the Aboriginal
Heritage Act 1972-1980 (AHA) administered by the Department
of Indigenous Affairs. The AHA processes allow for application
to be made to the Minister to destroy or relocate sites
(called a section 18). Advice to the Minister for Indigenous
Affairs on any application is made by the Aboriginal Cultural
Materials Committee. The Minister is not obliged to take
account of their advice. It is known from Parliamentary
questions that the Ministers of the current government have
never declined consent for industry to destroy or relocate
these items. The Burrup contains two protected areas under
the AHA, these are AHA56 "climbing man" and AHA43
"North Burrup". AHA43 is proposed to have semi-permanent
tented accommodation or cabins established in it. The Burrup
also contained three areas on the former National Estate
Register (NER) of places. NER 10087 is in part proposed
for the industrial development area on the southern Burrup
next to West Intercourse Island and 10096 is the same as
AHA43 proposed to have semi-permanent tented accommodation
or cabins established in it. It is therefore clear that
protected area status or NER seems to have no function on
the Burrup. |
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17. Isn't it too late to protect the Burrup Peninsula?
No, whilst over ten thousand petroglyphs have been destroyed and many thousand relocated, one has to acknowledge that this seems to have been done in ignorance of the cultural, scientific and heritage value of the Dampier Archipelago and Burrup. The Burrup land area impacted directly by industry is around 10%, a further 33% is identified for industrial development under the Roebourne Town Plan No 8 of 2002 and further areas for development, roads and low impact accommodation are proposed for areas outside of this Town Plan area.
The Burrup's impacted areas should be retained at the current level of destruction and proposed developments moved elsewhere. In the words of Colin Barnett MLA the former Minister for State Development, "However, today with our level of knowledge, enlightenment and sophistication, the challenge we face is to reconcile them where those conflicts exist (On the Burrup). We certainly cannot use ignorance today as an excuse" (see
document) |
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