Murujuga is a landscape of ancient rocks located in northwest Australia, which encompasses the Burrup Peninsula, the Dampier Archipelago’s 42 islands, and nearby marine areas. It is shaped by the Lore - rules and narratives that were put in place to create the Country - and the enduring presence of the Ngarda-Ngarli, Traditional Owners and Custodians of the site. The property holds profound cultural and spiritual significance, reflecting over 50,000 years of continuous care and use. Murujuga is renowned for its dense concentration of petroglyphs, featuring unique motifs that display artistic and technical mastery.

The Burrup Peninsula, previously known as Dampier Island, is a former island of the Dampier Archipelago that is now connected to the mainland via a causeway. The peninsula and islands together are also known as Murujuga. The peninsula is located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and contains the town of Dampier as well as the Murujuga National Park. The peninsula includes the Murujuga Cultural Landscape, the home of its ancient rock art. There is ongoing political debate around industrial development on the Burrup as it has resulted in the physical destruction and disturbance of petroglyphs and is potentially causing ongoing damage via atmospheric pollution.

Some of the Aboriginal rock carvings have been dated to more than 45,000 years old. The collection of standing stones is the largest in Australia with rock art petroglyphs numbering over one million, many depicting images of the now extinct thylacine - the Tasmanian tiger. Researchers estimate there are some one million engravings on the peninsula and islands, and around 2,500 archaeological sites which also include quarries, shell middens, and campsites.

The Dampier Rock Art Precinct covers the entire archipelago, while the Murujuga National Park lies within Burrup. The Dampier Rock Art Precinct was listed by the World Monuments Fund as one of the 100 Most Threatened Monuments in the world in 2003.

Most Murujuga rock art is on 2.7 billion year old igneous rocks. The rock art was made by etching away the outer millimetres of red-brown iron oxide, exposing pale centimetre-thick weathered clay.

Concern around the ecological, historical, cultural and archaeological significance of the area has led to a campaign for its protection, causing conflict with industrial development on the site. The preservation of the Murujuga monument has been called for since 1969, and in 2002 the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations commenced a campaign to preserve the remaining monument. Murujuga has been listed in the National Trust of Australia Endangered Places Register and in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund.

Between 1963 and 2006 about 900 sites - almost a quarter of the rock art on Burrup Peninsula - had been destroyed to make way for industrial development. The Western Australian government argued for a much lower figure, suggesting that only 4 percent of sites had been destroyed since 1972.

In 1998, the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi people had a joint native title claim which included the Murujuga Cultural Landscape. In January 2020, the Australian Government lodged a submission for the Murujuga Cultural Landscape to be included as an Australian entry to the World Heritage Tentative List.

In 2022 a paper was published in Rock Art Research - THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION ON THE ROCK ART OF MURUJUGA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA (Volume 39, Number 1, pp. 3-14. B. W. SMITH et al.): 'MacLeod and Fish have recently suggested that there is no adverse impact on the engraved rock art of Murujuga (the Burrup Peninsula) from industrial pollution. This highly This highly controversial conclusion demands examination because it could influence the future government decision-making concerning ongoing applications to expand industrial activity on Murujuga. We, therefore review the data and arguments underpinning that conclusion. We find the conclusion unsubstantiated, misleading and potentially damaging for the long-term preservation of the Murujuga rock art. Evidence suggests that the petroglyphs are already actively degraded by industrial pollution.'

(Source: UNESCO - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/)
(Source: Wikipedia - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License).

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