Indigenous and climate advocates team up to take on global energy company and protect rock art
A bid to compel the government to consider a heritage application to protect Indigenous rock art is going to court as three environmental activists declare they 'successfully hoaxed' Woodside.
The preliminary hearing follows Environment Minister Murray Watt's interim approval of Woodside's North West Shelf extension until 2070, a controversial gas project in Western Australia.
The call has flared tensions, with environmental and Indigenous groups arguing it will slow efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and have a ruinous effect on nearby ancient petroglyphs.
Mardathoonera woman Raelene Cooper said she was thrilled the case against the newly appointed environment minister was moving forward without further delays.
'It's rude to have someone waiting for such a long time,' the Save our Songlines co-founder said outside the Federal Court in Sydney.
The court determined Ms Cooper's case would be heard in the week of July 14.
Senator Watt attached heritage and air quality conditions to the approval and those are yet to be formally agreed to by the Australian energy giant.
Ms Cooper said the North West Shelf and other industrial developments at Woodside's Burrup Hub posed risks to the rock art - concerns and evidence laid out in full in a cultural heritage assessment the minister is yet to consider.
The Burrup Peninsula, in WA's Pilbara region and known as Murujuga to traditional owners, contains some of the world's largest and oldest collection of petroglyphs.
The 'section 10' heritage application was originally lodged in early 2022.
'I am furious that the minister would make a decision to lock in ongoing and irreversible damage to my country before addressing my application,' Ms Cooper said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the conditions attached to the pending approval of the North West Shelf extension would address concerns about the rock art.
'The local Aboriginal corporation there, I've met with them in the past, they're very supportive of industry,' he told ABC radio on Friday.
'They want to make sure there's protection, but they support those jobs and that economic activity.'
In a separate case, three protesters were fined $10,000 each after targeting a Woodside annual general meeting with stench gas and flares.
Disrupt Burrup Hub's Gerard Mazza, Jesse Noakes and Tahlia Stolarski pleaded guilty to charges laid over their protest at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in April 2023.
'Today we were fined for attempting to create false belief - in other words, we pranked Woodside,' Ms Stolarski told supporters outside Perth District Court after the verdict.
'We are guilty of pulling off a highly successful hoax.
'One day, perhaps Woodside and the WA government will be pulled before a court like this one (and) be charged with much more serious crimes, and their victims will be future generations and all life on earth.'
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Aboriginal leader accuses activists of destroying heritage listing of ancient rock art with their 'inaccurate' claims about impact of gas project
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That time has since been extended. Prof Benjamin Smith, an archaeologist and rock art expert at the University of Western Australia, criticised the decision and the WA government's rock art monitoring report. He said a government summary of the report incorrectly claimed most existing damage to petroglyphs from industrial pollution occurred in the 1970s and 1980s and that key pollutant levels had declined since 2014. He claimed scientists who worked on the report were being gagged so they couldn't raise their concerns about how their data was being interpreted. Watt said the conditional approval decision had 'not been blind to potential impacts on the rock art. In fact, that was the entire basis of the decision'. Watt said if Murujuga received world heritage listing it would 'add another layer of protection to ensure that it is cared for into the future'. He argued there had been a 'concerted campaign' by some environment groups to discredit the rock art monitoring report, but one of its authors, Prof Ben Mullins, had told the ABC that he agreed with the public interpretation of its findings. 'I think, unfortunately, this issue has become politicised, and what's really important is that we all take a step back and listen to the views of the traditional owners,' Watt said. 'Yes, there are some individuals who are not supporting the listing. But the representative body for the traditional owner groups is not just supporting their application, they're leading it.' The chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Peter Hicks, said 'misinformation, misrepresentation and statements that are simply untrue' over the state of rock art protection had led to 'grief and sadness in our communities'. 'We co-exist with industry and support the science,' he said. 'As the traditional owners, we have every confidence that the Murujuga rock art will continue to endure for thousands of years.' The Unesco recommendation is due to go before the 21-country world heritage committee on 6 July.
