The application to turn a centuries-old indigenous monument into a World Heritage Site has been postponed after the government accidentally submitted a map of the area in too low a resolution to read.
The blunder means the 40,000-year-old rock carvings on Western Australia’s remote Burrup Peninsula have been withdrawn as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, with officials unable to determine their boundaries.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s office claimed their application submitted in January faced challenges due to UNESCO’s inability to understand indigenous boundaries.
However, World Heritage officials in Paris stressed that the low-resolution map created a “vagueness” that “did not guarantee the full protection of indigenous lands.”
Now the site won’t be considered again until at least 2025, as local activist groups continue to lobby against industrial projects in the area that threaten its survival.
The first World Heritage application for Western Australia’s remote Burrup Peninsula (pictured) has been postponed due to a government mapping blunder
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s office said UNESCO could not understand indigenous boundaries, but officials in Paris insisted this was due to the low-resolution map (stock image)
Ms Plibersek’s staff tried to save face by claiming that ‘issues relating to map boundaries and topography’ were the cause of the rejected application.
“The cultural landscape nomination extends across land and sea, which is a difficult concept to fit into Western concepts of boundaries,” a spokesperson said. told Yahoo.
When contacted for comment, the UNESCO World Heritage Center called the Environment Minister’s bluff and corrected the record.
“This statement is incorrect,” a Center spokesperson said.
‘The map had a low resolution [and] the file was therefore referred by the UNESCO World Heritage Center to the State Party precisely because the vagueness of the boundaries of the area could not guarantee full protection of indigenous territories and cultural knowledge in the light of the industrial projects carried out in this area. ‘
Shortly after the original application was tendered, UNESCO contacted the Australian government to discuss the problematic paperwork.
If submitted correctly, the Burrup Peninsula could have been considered for World Heritage status in 2024, but now that has been postponed by at least a year.
The site contains 40,000-year-old rock art that is eroding due to emissions traveling through the air from nearby industrial sites, indigenous elders claim
Ms Plibersek last year ordered a formal inquiry into the impact of industrial emissions in the area, but its findings have yet to be released.
While the application was being resubmitted, former Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation chairman Raelene Cooper said the site would still face destruction.
“We have been trying to secure World Heritage status for Murujuga for decades – my community and my elders have been repeatedly betrayed by government promises during that time,” she said in a statement on Monday.
“There are no animals or bush medicine left on the Burrup, all you see now is dust and chaos as these massive projects destroy our sacred sites.”
More than a million petroglyphs have been found in the Murujuga area of WA, making it the largest collection of its kind in the world.
This number has shrunk in recent years due to industrial emissions that have caused rock surfaces to disintegrate, indigenous elders claim.
Ms Plibersek ordered a formal inquiry into the impact of industrial emissions on the Burrup Peninsula in 2022, but its findings have yet to be released.