Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek has rejected a request to block construction of a $4.5 billion fertiliser plant in the Burrup Peninsula of Western Australia, after consulting Indigenous representatives about its potential impact on ancient rock art in the region.
The Government sided with the desire of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) to proceed with the facility, over the objections of another organisation claiming to represent the traditional owners.
The group had asked for Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers to be stopped from building a urea plant under a law protecting Indigenous heritage.
The locality is home to more than a million rock carvings, some more than 40,000 years old, which have been nominated for a UNESCO World Heritage listing. Those sites lie near an industrial area where there are already two liquefied natural gas plants and two fertiliser plants.
Plibersek said she had decided not to bar construction as the MAC was the “most representative organisation” for the five traditional owner groups in the area, and they did not want to block the urea plant from going ahead.
Plibersek said the MAC had made agreements with Perdaman on the appropriate cultural treatment of the sites, including moving some of the rock art.
“I am satisfied that the MAC are the legally constituted and democratically elected group that safeguards First Nations culture in the Burrup area,” Plibersek said.
But representatives of the protestors, called Save our Songlines, say their views are not represented by the MAC and its Circle of Elders.
Save our Songlines spokeswomen Raelene Cooper and Josie Alec said “the community, the country and the whole world” would be outraged if this led to another Juukan Gorge-type incident because the Federal Government did not stand up to industry and protect sacred Aboriginal sites from further desecration.
Juukan Gorge was an ancient cave destroyed by Rio Tinto in 2020 for an iron ore mine, a disaster that deeply distressed the traditional owners and led to a global outcry.
