[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/murujuga-national-park-fuzz-digital2.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tAncient rock art at Murujuga, or the Burrup Peninsula, in Western Australia, has seen much larger damaged than previously anticipated due to industrial pollutants found in air emissions.<\/p>\n
\n\tAbout 932 miles north of Perth, Murujuga contains one of the world\u2019s most significant and dense collections of ancient petroglyphs, dating back about 50,000 years. These tens of thousands of petroglyphs depict animals, spiritual figures, and sacred stories.<\/p>\n
\n\tSince the 1950s, however, Murujuga has also become one of Western Australia\u2019s largest industrial areas, home to a major fertilizer plant and gas facilities, with the world\u2019s largest urea plant expected to begin operations next year.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Rock Art Monitoring Report, compiled over the last three years by members of the peninsula\u2019s five Aboriginal language groups and a team of more than 50 Curtin University scientists, found that carvings closest to industrial projects degraded faster than normal, and current activity is not thought to be accelerating this deterioration.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe damage includes changes in the rocks\u2019 porosity, or tiny hole structures on their surfaces, believed to result from historical emission levels. According to the report, sulfur dioxide emissions from burning fuel had the greatest effect on the petroglyphs.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cTransport fuels, shipping fuels industry all have some level of sulfur in their fuel,\u201d lead scientist Ben Mullins told ABC News<\/em>. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of evidence that that was a lot higher in the 70s and 80s, and even since 2010, shipping fuels have massively reduced sulfur levels and sulfur dioxide emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe report\u2019s release coincides with a recent decision by federal Environment Minister Murray Watt to extend the North West Shelf gas project through 2070, and with Murujuga\u2019s inclusion on UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage List.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis latest report provides further confidence that the monitoring program is building the evidence needed to support the long-term protection of our rock art and cultural landscape,\u201d Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) director and cultural adviser Belinda Churnside told National Indigenous Times<\/em>. \u201cWorld Heritage recognition brings new responsibilities for all of us. MAC will continue working with government, industry, scientists, and our Elders to ensure Murujuga\u2019s outstanding cultural values are protected and cared for long into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tA memorandum of understanding currently exists between the MAC and the state government to fund long-term monitoring of the area beyond 2026, but negotiations have not yet been finalized.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAs Traditional Owners and Custodians, we know that protecting Murujuga requires both cultural knowledge and robust science. These findings are an important step forward in helping us better understand the landscape and ensure it is protected for future generations,\u201d Churnside added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/historic-sulfur-emissions-damaged-murujuga-rock-art-1234795790\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/murujuga-national-park-fuzz-digital2.jpg?w=1024″] Ancient rock art at Murujuga, or the Burrup Peninsula, in Western Australia, has seen much larger damaged than previously anticipated due to industrial pollutants found in air emissions. About 932 miles north of Perth, Murujuga contains one of the world\u2019s most significant and dense collections of ancient petroglyphs, dating back about 50,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2113376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2113376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2113376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2113376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2113376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2113376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}