Larvatus Prodeo

A disturbing report in The Australian today:

THE first pictures of rock art removal on the Burrup peninsula show hundreds of boulders lying in piles amid red dust and rubble, after being bulldozed in recent weeks to make way for Woodside Petroleum’s Pluto gas processing plant.

The secretly taken photographs show the extent of removal of rocks containing ancient Aboriginal carvings dating back as far as 10-20,000 years.

Some are wrapped up for removal, others encased in netting attached to cranes to hoist them out of the ground. Scraped and smashed rocks, with carvings visible on some surfaces, lie in piles several metres high.

Having recently visited the Burrup and looked at the art and the existing LNG plant, I was not impressed to read this. Although some people will inevitably dismiss the rock art as “stick figures”, when you actually stand in front of it and see the designs etched onto ancient rocks, it is truly awe-inspiring. And the juxtaposition between some of the oldest evidence of human inhabitation of the country and the ultra-modern technology of the industrial plant is incredible, too — you feel as though you are somehow standing outside time. The thought of the art being destroyed is horrible.

The Australian doesn’t show the photographs, and I couldn’t see them in the print version, either, so I hunted for them online. I think they’re here, on the “Stand Up for the Burrup” campaign site. It is safe to assume that the campaign would post the most damning photos in its possession. Fortunately, they don’t seem to show the destruction that is suggested in the newspaper.

Continue reading ‘No evidence of Burrup rock art “bulldozing”’