Dampier island's transfer to traditional owners
September 16, 2024 7:14 AM Subscribe
Dampier island's transfer to traditional owners to support World Heritage bid, further its protection.
Less than 10 kilometres from the Burrup and its billions of dollars of industry, West Intercourse Island will join Murujuga National Park to protect it from future industrial development.
An island off the coast of Western Australia's north-west has been handed back to traditional landowners as part of plans to strengthen the area's nomination for World Heritage listing and protect it from future industrial development.
West Intercourse Island, about 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, forms part of the Dampier Archipelago and was previously set aside for unmanaged industrial development as well as unallocated Crown Land.
It will now be jointly managed by Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) as part of the Murujuga National Park.
In February, the WA government announced 254 hectares of land would be transferred to the park, including four land parcels that had previously been set aside for industry.
Covering about 2,300 hectares the island holds significant cultural and heritage values.
An island off the coast of Western Australia's north-west has been handed back to traditional landowners as part of plans to strengthen the area's nomination for World Heritage listing and protect it from future industrial development.
West Intercourse Island, about 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, forms part of the Dampier Archipelago and was previously set aside for unmanaged industrial development as well as unallocated Crown Land.
It will now be jointly managed by Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) as part of the Murujuga National Park.
In February, the WA government announced 254 hectares of land would be transferred to the park, including four land parcels that had previously been set aside for industry.
Covering about 2,300 hectares the island holds significant cultural and heritage values.
It's not the poster's fault that, as an American, I am so badly uninformed about the context here that I understand little to nothing about why this is important and what sort of development threatens the site, but thank goodness for Wikipedia, which has helped to relieve my ignorance at least a little bit.
For the similarly befuddled, I found this whole article useful, but for those in a hurry:
For the similarly befuddled, I found this whole article useful, but for those in a hurry:
Murujuga, formerly known as Dampier Island and today usually known as the Burrup Peninsula, is an area in the Dampier Archipelago, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, containing the town of Dampier. The Dampier Rock Art Precinct, which covers the entire archipelago, is the subject of ongoing political debate due to historical and proposed industrial development. Over 40% of Murujuga lies within Murujuga National Park, which contains within it the world's largest collection of ancient 40,000 year old rock art (petroglyphs).and:
The peninsula is a unique ecological and archaeological area since it contains the Murujuga cultural landscape, the world's largest and most important collection of petroglyphs. Some of the Aboriginal rock carvings have been dated to more than 45,000 years old. The collection of standing stones here is the largest in Australia with rock art petroglyphs numbering over one million, many depicting images of the now extinct thylacine (Tasmanian tiger). Dampier Rock Art Precinct covers the entire archipelago, while the Murujuga National Park lies within Burrup.posted by Nerd of the North at 1:14 PM on September 16
Concern around the ecological, historical, cultural and archaeological significance of the area has led to a campaign for its protection, causing conflict with industrial development on the site. The preservation of the Murujuga monument has been called for since 1969, and in 2002 the International Federation of Rock Art Organizations commenced a campaign to preserve the remaining monument. Murujuga has been listed in the National Trust of Australia Endangered Places Register and in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 World Monuments Watch by the World Monuments Fund.
About 900 sites, or 24.4 percent of the rock art on Murujuga, had been destroyed to make way for industrial development between 1963 and 2006.
A rare win for Western Australia. Especially after the Juukan Gorge clusterfuck, the introduction of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, the subsequent controversy that the Murdoch gutter press shitstirred, along with pusbag Rowan Dean making hay with it to campaign against The Voice referendum, and the eventual repeal of the acta.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:52 PM on September 16
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 2:52 PM on September 16
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But I do wish ABC would include maps! Here's Google Map's view of that area:
https://www.google.com/maps/search/west+Intercourse+Island/@-20.6887005,116.470001,53857m/data=!3m1!1e3
posted by anadem at 12:12 PM on September 16