Like many people, Yingibarndi man Glen Aubrey wants to know what impact major gas and fertiliser plants are having on ancient rock art within a World Heritage-nominated area in Western Australia’s north.
“I don’t want to see any rock art getting destroyed through emissions or anything like that,” he says.
“I’d just like to protect it.”
The Murujuga region near Karratha, 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, takes in a vast expanse of land and sea country, and is believed to be home to more than one million petroglyphs.
The region is also home to large industry, including gas and fertiliser plants, which has been a source of controversy and concern within the community.
Mr Aubrey is a local ranger and is being trained in rock art monitoring as part of the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program (MRAMP).
The program was started by the state government, together with the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), which represents five language groups with ongoing cultural connections to the area.
Described as the largest and most comprehensive rock art monitoring program ever implemented in the world, the research will be used to set new emissions standards.
“It’s important to be looking after the country,” Mr Aubrey says.
“Some of these rock art have been here over 50,000 years and to see the amount of rock art in the area, it’s something you’ve got to see for yourself.”
Search for definitive answer on emissions
Ben Mullins from Curtin University is the program’s scientific lead and says his job is to determine whether there are any measurable anthropogenic impacts on the rock art.
“So basically if there is anything that humans are doing that is causing the rock art to degrade or have accelerated weathering,” he says.
“The dominant theory up until now has been an acid rain kind of hypothesis — that you have these chemicals that are released that can form acids and they can then accelerate the weathering.”.
Professor Mullins says one of the long-standing theories is that gases from industry such as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ammonia are impacting rock art.
Despite significant research into whether emissions are damaging rock art in the Murujuga region, opinion remains divided.
Professor Mullins says this latest research project aims to provide a “definitive answer”.
“The previous work, whoever has done it, either hasn’t had the statistical power to make any determination of what’s happening, or has been purely anecdotal and not of any sound scientific basis,” he says.
“It’s obviously a challenge when we have media and other anecdotal papers coming out trying to say the answer is already there when it is clear that it’s not.”
Twenty-two new air quality monitors have been installed across Murujuga to collect more data for the project.
The surface of the rocks is also being analysed.
“We’re using colour measurement instruments that measure a spectrum that goes beyond human vision and we’re able to even pick up chemical changes within that spectrum,” fine art conservator Andrew Thorn says.
“The primary measure is a change in colour on the surface, but within that we can also see precursors to colour change, which are chemical reactions possibly.
“We have no guarantees of what we’re going to find.”
Significance of research not lost on scientists
A team of 55 people are working on the project and Professor Mullins says the field-work will be combined with laboratory work to create a complete understanding of the impact of emissions on the rock art.
The MRAMP will cost about $27 million over six years and run until early 2026.
Woodside, Yara Pilbara and Rio Tinto, have all contributed funding to the project, through the state government.
“Certainly there are a lot of people watching it, we do feel that to some extent,” Professor Mullins says.
“I think this is a world-first, that a scientific research study is going to directly impact industry licences.
“We feel the pressure, but we’ve assembled a team of some of the world’s leading scientists in their respective fields, so I think everyone is fine with the pressure.”
Industry supports expanded research
Woodside, Yara Pilbara and Rio Tinto say they take their responsibility to protect and manage cultural heritage seriously and support expanded testing through the MRAMP.
“Woodside recognises the need for further research…which we believe will provide the necessary certainty to guide management and protection of the rock art,” a Woodside spokeswoman says.
“The data and analysis derived from continuing and increasing the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program will be critical to inform both public and industry discourse,” a Rio Tinto spokeswoman says.
“We continually focus on limiting the impact of our operations, which have been estimated by the Western Australian government as a part of the Murujuga Rock Art Strategy to contribute less than 5 per cent of the total emissions of concern to the Murujuga air shed,” Yara Pilbara general manager Laurent Trost says.
In the coming years, MAC rangers such as Mr Aubrey will ramp up their involvement in the project and will be responsible for the ongoing monitoring that will be used by the WA government to regulate industry.
That ongoing monitoring will also be used to help secure World Heritage listing, by showing a plan is in place to monitor and protect the culturally significant region.
“It’s still a long process to actually know that anything is actually affecting the rock art,” ranger Mr Aubrey says.
“From my point of view, does anybody really know what is happening?
“Until we can actually get some proper results about the rock art and to see this is happening, we’ve got no answers really.”