Help Protect the Murujuga Rock Art from Destruction
Ninety-five artists, including Thomas Keneally, Jimmy Barnes, Sir Antony Gormley, Tim Winton, Ben Quilty, Patricia Piccinini, Tony Birch, Tracey Moffat and Kate Grenville have signed an open letter, calling on the Environment Minister to reject the extension of gas exports from the North West Shelf terminal and to safeguard the Murujuga rock art for future generations.
The Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is a cultural treasure – and more than 40,000 years old. It is at least twice as ancient as the Lascaux cave paintings in France, and eight times as ancient as the pyramids in Egypt, and Stonehenge.
This extraordinary collection of petroglyphs is a deeply spiritual site for the traditional custodians of the land and an invaluable record of human history, depicting everything from prehistoric megafauna to the arrival of Europeans.
However, this ancient art is in grave danger. Since the arrival of the gas industry, acid gas emissions have corroded these priceless images and thousands of petroglyphs have been removed and destroyed.
Now the Australian Government is considering approving a further 50-years of gas exports and pollution from the largest and most destructive project on the Burrup Peninsula, the North West Shelf gas export terminal. Not only is this devastating for Murujuga, but it will add over 4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions to our atmosphere, making Australia and the rest of the world hotter, and climate related disasters like fires and floods more frequent and extreme.
This is our opportunity to ensure that one of the world’s greatest cultural treasures is preserved for generations to come.
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Tell me more about this project
Multinational gas corporation, Woodside, is seeking approval for a 46-year extension of its North West Shelf gas export terminal, Australia’s biggest fossil fuel project. Australia Institute analysis shows that a decision to extend this project would result in more emissions and damage to our climate than any other fossil fuel project in Australia.
This mega-polluting project will wreck the climate, destroy priceless Indigenous art and drive up WA energy bills.
The WA Government’s gave the project the green light and now the Australian Government now has until the end of February to intervene and either reject – or approve – this massive fossil fuel project.
This project will:
- Wreck the climate: Woodside’s own estimates show this project extension will emit 4.3 billion tonnes in emissions over its lifetime, making a mockery of state and federal net zero ambitions.
- Drive up household energy bills: Australia Institute shows that to feed this gas export project, Woodside is increasingly exporting WA’s domestic gas reserves. This is depleting WA’s finite domestic gas reserves and will expose West Australians to high global prices for decades. High gas prices are also driving up the cost of producing electricity in WA. The result is higher energy bills for WA in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
- Devastate priceless Indigenous cultural heritage: The facility produces acid gas emissions that are corroding the World Heritage-nominated Murujuga rock art, one of the world’s most important cultural heritage sites. It is five times as old as the pyramids and eight times older than Stonehenge.
- Put corporate profit before communities: With little economic benefit to Australians, this project serves only the corporate profits of Woodside and the gas lobby. Australian communities need a safe climate and affordable energy – not more fossil fuel projects.
Artists - List of signatories
Thomas Keneally AO: Internationally best-selling author. Booker Prize winner, author of ‘Schindler's List’
Sir Antony Gormley OBE RA: Internationally acclaimed sculptor, collections of Tate Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Uffizi, Hermitage, National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, British Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou
Jimmy Barnes: Iconic Australian rock singer and author
Peter Carey AO: Major Australian author. Two-time Booker Prize winner. Based in New York
Tracey Moffatt AO: Internationally renowned artist, represented Australia in 57th Venice Biennale
Tim Winton AO: One of Australia's most popular and acclaimed authors. Four-time Miles Franklin Award winner. Named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia.
Robert MacFarlane: Leading international author, environmental campaigner and academic. Winner Guardian First Book Award, E. M. Forster Award, Somerset Maugham Award, Dolman Prize
Will Self: Internationally renowned UK author, journalist, political commentator and broadcaster. Winner Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize
Tim Flannery FAA: One of Australia's pre-eminent scientists and an international best-selling author. Australian of the year, 2007. Winner NSW Premier's Literary Awards, Eureka Prize, Australian Humanist of the Year, Lannan Literary Awards
Lindy Lee AO: Major Australian painter and sculptor. 'Ouroboros' commissioned by National Gallery of Australia
Ben Quilty: Leading Australian artist, fmr official War Artist, winner Archibald Prize and Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Amit Chaudhuri: Indian-born UK internationally best-selling author. Winner Betty Trask Award, Commonwealth Writers' Prize, James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Robyn Davidson OAM: Prominent author and explorer. Best known for best-selling 'Tracks'
Di Morrissey AM: Internationally renowned best-selling Australian author and environmental activist. Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Hall of Fame
Kate Grenville AO: One of Australia's leading authors, winner Orange Prize and Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Author of ‘Lilian’s Story’, ‘The Secret River’, ‘The Lieutenant’
Nigel Westlake: Renowned Australian composer. Film credits ‘Babe’ and ‘Babe: Pig in the City’, ‘Paper Planes’, ‘Miss Potter’, ‘Children of the Revolution’. Winner ARIA Awards, 15 APRA awards, APRA Distinguished Services to Australian Screen Award, the Albert H. Maggs Composition Award. Two-time winner of the Paul Lowin Orchestral Prize
Rodney Hall AM: One of Australia's leading authors. Twice-winner of The Miles Franklin Award
Patricia Piccinini: Leading international artist. Represented Australia at the 50th Venice Biennale.
Tony Birch FAHA: Prominent Australian author, winner Patrick White Award, one of Australia's leading Aboriginal writers and activists
David Noonan: Internationally renowned London-based Australian artist. Collections of The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Guggenheim Museum, NY, National Gallery of Australia
Nam Le: Critically acclaimed Vietnamese-born Australian author. Winner Dylan Thomas Prize, Pushcart Prize and PEN/Malamud Award and Melbourne Prize for Literature
Raimond Gaita PhD FAHA: Internationally renowned philosopher and author - best known for 'Romulus, My Father'
Charlotte Wood AM: Acclaimed Australian novelist. Winner Stella Prize. ‘Stone Yard Devotional’ shortlisted for The Booker Prize
Callum Morton: Internationally renowned artist. Australian representative at the 52nd Venice Biennale
Fiona Hall AO: Internationally renowned artist, photographer and sculptor. Represented Australia in the 56th Venice Biennale
John Young AM: Internationally renowned artist. Exhibited in Guggenheim Museum, New York, and collected by the M+ Museum, Hong Kong, and major Australian art museums
Judy Watson: Internationally renowned Australian Waanyi artist. Represented Australia at the 47th Venice Biennale. Collected by Tate Modern, London, and in major Australian art museums
Anna Funder: Internationally renowned Australian author. Author of ‘Stasiland’, ‘All that I Am’ and ‘Wifedom’. Winner Miles Franklin Award and Samuel Johnson Prize
Shane Howard AM: Renowned Australian musician, formerly lead singer of Goanna, best known for the iconic hit single 'Solid Rock'. Successful solo career. Awarded a Fellowship by Australia Council acknowledging his contribution to Australian music
John Butler: Prominent Australian-American musician, singer, songwriter and environmental activist. Winner ARIA award for 'Best Male Artist' in 2004
Richard Bell: Prominent Australian artist, member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang communities. Represented in major Australian art museums
Megan Cope: Leading Australian Aboriginal artist from the Quandamooka people of Stradbroke Island/Minjerribah. Winner Western Australian Indigenous Art Award
Graeme Drendel: Prominent Australian artist, winner Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and Sulman Prize
Tim Rogers: Prominent Australian musician and actor, lead singer of You Am I, with successful solo career. Winner ARIA Award for Best Male Artist
Alex Miller: Major Australian novelist. Twice winner of the Miles Franklin Award, winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Commonwealth Writers Prize, Melbourne Prize for Literature and Christina Stead Prize.
Charles Bernstein: Internationally renowned American poet. Winner Bollingen Prize, Mûnster Prize, Janus Panonius Prize, Roy Harvey Pearce/Archive for New Poetry Prize, Guggenheim NEA
Michelle de Kretser: Internationally acclaimed author, two-time winner Miles Franklin Award and three-time winner Christina Stead Prize for Fiction
John Kinsella: Internationally renowned WA-based poet, novelist, critic, essayist and activist. Winner Christopher Brennan Award and the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry
Jean Francois Milou: Internationally renowned museum architect, buildings include; National Gallery of Singapore, Musée des Tumulus de Bougon France, the Cite de la Mer in Cherbourg Normandy, National Automobile Museum in Mulhouse and Carreau du Temple Paris
Drusilla Modjeska: Prominent author, three-time winner NSW Premier's Literary Award and Douglas Stewart Prize. Author of ‘Stravinsky’s Lunch’
Simon Dow: Renowned dancer. Former Artistic Director of Milwaukee Ballet and West Australian Ballet and Associate Artistic Director for Washington Ballet
John Wolseley: Renowned Australian artist. Five-time winner Art Gallery of NSW Trustees’ Watercolour Prize, five-time winner Alice Prize. Collected by major Australian art museums
Ceridwen Dovey: Internationally renowned South African and Australian author and social anthropologist. Winner Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship, Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing and Eureka Prize for Long-Form Science Journalism.
Laura Jean Mckay: Internationally renowned author, winner Arthur C. Clarke Award, Aurealis Award and Victorian Prize for Literature
Jacob Polley: Leading international poet. Winner T.S. Eliot Prize, Somerset Maugham Award, Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, Forward Poetry Prize
Professor Clare Wright OAM: Professor of History, Professor of Public Engagement, La Trobe University
John A. Scott: Influential Australian poet and novelist. Winner C. J. Dennis Prize, Victorian Premier's Literary Award, Peter Porter Poetry Prize
Claire G Coleman: Renowned Wirlomin-Noongar-Australian writer and poet. Winner Aurealis Award
Tony Clark: Leading Australian artist. Winner John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, NGV
Gregory Burgess: Leading Australian architect. Winner The Melbourne Prize and National Award for Enduring Architecture.
Penny Olsen AM (Hon Prof, ANU): Renowned ornithologist and author. Winner Whitley Award Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales
D Harding: Internationally renowned Brisbane-based artist of the Bidjara, Ghungalu, and Garingbal peoples. Collected by Art Institute of Chicago; MCA/Tate Modern, London
Bonita Ely: Internationally renowned Australian artist. Collected by Tate Modern London and the Museum of Modern Art New York
Prudence Flint: Internationally renowned artist, winner Len Fox Painting Award, Portia Geach Memorial Award, Doug Moran National Portrait Prize
Louise Weaver: Major Australian artist. Collected by The British Museum and major Australian art museums
Gail Jones: Critically acclaimed Australian author. Winner Barbara Ramsden Award Book of the Year, Queensland Premier's Book Awards
Vicki Varvaressos: Renowned Australian artist. Collected by National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and Art Gallery of NSW
Wendy Stavrianos: Renowned Australian artist. Collected by National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and Heide Museum of Modern Art
Sasha Grishin AM FAHA: leading Australian academic and art writer. Author of ‘Australian Art: A history’. Formerly Sir William Dobell Professor of Art History and Head of Art History at ANU Canberra
Ashley Crawford PhD: Renowned cultural critic, author, essayist, arts journalist and curator. Author of ‘Wimmera: The Work of Philip Hunter’, ‘The Work of Howard Arkley’. Contributor to The Age, The Australian, Guardian, Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Art Collector, Art Monthly.
John McDonald: One of Australia’s leading art critics. Weekly columns in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review, and contributes to a wide range of local and international publications
John Hughes PhD: Prominent independent documentarian and film director. His work has been screened at ICA London, ARC Art Museum Paris, ACMI Melbourne, Biennale of Sydney, Ewing Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum. Director of “Trespass” documentary on Murujuga
Holly Rankin: Renowned Australian singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Performs as Jack River
eX De Medici: Renowned Australian artist. Official War Artist, Solomon Islands, 2009. Awarded the Australian Print Workshop Collie Print Trust Fellowship. Artist Fellow at CSIRO, 2000-08. Collected by National Gallery of Australia and major Australian art museums
Amanda Johnson: Renowned Australian poet, novelist and artist. Winner Peter Porter Poetry Prize, Michel Wesley Wright Prize, Griffith University-Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize
Warraba Weatherall: Prominent Australian and Kamilaroi artist, researcher, and curator. Solo exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Collected by National Gallery of Victoria and Queensland Art Gallery
The Hon. Dr Ted Egan AO: Iconic Australian songwriter, musician, author and public servant. Lifetime Achievement Award by The Country Music Awards of Australia
Ali Cobby Eckermann: Renowned poet and Yankunytjatjara woman. Winner International Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, two-time winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Book of the Year, Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and Indigenous Writers' Prize
Matthew Johnson: Prominent Australian artist, represented in Australian and international collections. Winner Faber Castell Prize for Drawing
Josie Alec: Kuruma -Marthadunera woman and traditional custodian, artist and singer songwriter
Rona Green: Prominent Australian artist. Collected by National Gallery of Australia
Raelene Cooper: Marthadunera woman and traditional custodian of Murujuga and artist. Founder of Save Our Songlines
Andrew Taylor: Prominent Australian artist. Represented in major Australian and international collections
Melinda Harper: Leading Australian abstract painter, represented in major collections including National Gallery of Victoria and Art Gallery of NSW
Sharlene Allsopp: Acclaimed novelist and poet. Born in Bundjalung Country into the Olive mob. She is the University of Queensland’s 2021 Ford Memorial Poet
Peter Cooley: Prominent Australian painter and ceramicist. Collected by The British Museum and represented in major Australian art museums
Karen Viggers: Internationally bestselling Australian author. Author of 'The Lightkeeper's Wife.'
Yvette Coppersmith: Prominent Australian Artist. Winner Archibald Prize
Favel Parret: Critically acclaimed Australian novelist. Winner, Dobbie Literary Prize and Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards
Andrea Goldsmith: Leading Australian author best known for 'The Prosperous Thief'. Winner Best Writing Award in the Melbourne Prize for Literature
Geoffrey Ricardo: Prominent artist, printmaker and sculptor represented in major public collections in Australia
Michael Vale: Prominent Australian artist, winner Hutchins Australian Contemporary Art Prize
Phillip Nikolayev PhD: Prominent American poet and translator. Winner Verse Prize
Ryan Presley PhD: Renowned indigenous Australian artist, represented by major Australian art museums
Robert Andrew: Prominent indigenous Australian artist, descendant of the Yawuru people. Collected by major Australian art museums
Mahalia Barnes: Acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter. Mahalia Barnes and the Soul Mates
Anne Wallace: Prominent Australian artist. Awarded The Gordan Samstag International Visual Art Scholarship. Winner Slade School of Fine Art Melville Nettleship Prize for Figure Drawing. Collected by major Australian art museums
Jon Kudelka: Leading Australian political cartoonist. Winner Stanley Award and two Walkley Awards
Jennifer Higgie: Distinguished Australian novelist, screenwriter, art critic and editor of London-based arts magazine Frieze
John Gollings AM: Renowned Australian architectural photographer, twice awarded the President's Award by the Australian Institute of Architecture
Fran Keaney and Tom Russo: Prominent Australian musicians with internationally successful Melbourne band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever
Robert Kenny: Acclaimed poet and historian. Winner 2008 Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History and the Victorian Premier’s History prize
Lily Eather: Prominent artist and Mandandanji woman. Member of proppaNOW collective, Winner Jane Lombard Prize for Art and Social Justice, New York
Jenny Rogerson: Prominent Australian artist. Winner Portia Geach Memorial Award and Percival Portrait Painting Prize
Judith Hugo OAM: Co-convenor, Friends of Australian Rock Art Inc. formed 2006 to protect Murujuga’s ancient rock art. Previously Curator of Central TAFE Art Collection, Perth 1991 - 2020. Awarded OAM for services to the Arts
Susan Swain: Architect, artist and Co-convenor, Friends of Australian Rock Art
Trace Balla: Prominent Australian Children's author and illustrator. Winner Readings Children's Book Prize and Wilderness Society Picture Book Award
Suzanne Ogge: Anthropologist, leading specialist in international tangible and intangible heritage.
See the open letter
An open letter from artists around the world
To the Australian Environment Minister –
By the end of summer, you will decide whether to protect one of Australia and the world’s most important artworks, or allow its ongoing destruction for decades from additional acid gas pollution from the North West Shelf gas export terminal.
In addition to its spiritual importance to the traditional custodians, the World Heritage nominated Murujuga rock art on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia is one of the most important and spectacular artworks in the world.
At over 40,000 years old, it is at least twice as ancient as the Lascaux cave paintings in France, eight times as ancient as the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge. It is also a continuous living artwork produced forty millennia, recording the artists’ vision of everything from prehistoric megafauna to the arrival of Europeans.
These artworks have survived an ice age but it's taken industrial gas export activities just 40 years to put them in danger.
Since the arrival of the gas industry, acid gas emissions have corroded these priceless exquisite images and thousands of petroglyphs have been removed and destroyed.
Now the Australian Government is considering approving a further 50-years of gas exports and pollution from the largest and most destructive project, the North West Shelf gas export terminal.
Other countries like France, the UK and Egypt would never allow this to happen to their cultural heritage.
As artists we condemn the damage done to these priceless artworks and call on the Environment Minister to reject another 50-years of pollution and damage to one of Australia and the world’s most important cultural heritage sites by the North West Shelf gas export terminal.