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World protection urged for Burrup art

13 January 2009 - A recent spate of vandalism which has damaged the Burrup Peninsula’s ancient rock art has prompted calls for the Barnett Government to push for the internationally acclaimed site to be awarded world heritage status.

Robin Chapple, the co-convener of Friends of Australian Rock Art’s Australian chapter, said the 2007 decision to list the Dampier Archipelago on the national heritage register had failed to offer enough protection.

“We do have a number of problems out there at the moment, the vandalism is absolutely rife,” Mr Chapple said. “We’re losing lots and lots of carvings to graffiti being done on the rocks. There’s no management out there, which is a huge problem. The only way it can be protected is through world heritage listing.”

His comments came after the State Government announced last week that it had applied for Ningaloo Reef to be considered by the Federal Government for world heritage status. Shark Bay and Purnululu National Park in the Kimberley are WA’s only world heritage listed sites.

National Trust chief executive Tom Perrigo said there was no question that the entire area should be protected under world’s best standards and he hoped Premier Colin Barnett, who was a champion of the Burrup in Opposition, would lead the nomination

“If it were in Europe or North America it would have been nominated 20 years ago,” Mr Perrigo said. “Using the same points about development, tourism and private ownership in the proposed Ningaloo Reef area put out by the Minister for the Environment, the State Government must now move this nomination forward.”

Mr Barnett said he was committed to protecting the ancient rock art and hoped to balance its need for protection with its appeal as a tourist attraction.

“I just think there’s a lot more work to be done,” he said. “Ultimately, yes, it may well end up under some sort of world heritage listing but I don’t believe we’re at that stage now. I believe the State has got more work to do in that area.

“I would like to see the tourism side of the Burrup developed without damaging the rock art or the environment around it. It is basically an unsupervised, unprotected site and it’s survived for 30,000 years, we’ve got a responsibility to make sure its there in another 30,000 years.”

A spokesman for Federal Heritage Minister Peter Garrett said the Commonwealth had sought nominations from State governments as part of its process to recognise areas of significance and WA did not propose the Dampier Archipelago.

BY YASMINE PHILLIPS

Source: thewest.com.au

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