Claims Indigenous owners are being sidelined in the process to World Heritage List the oldest and largest collection of rock art in the world

An ex-employee of an Aboriginal company has claimed the World Heritage listing process for an ancient rock art site in Outback, Australia, is being mishandled.

The former employee of WA’s Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation said a program to monitor emissions from nearby mining and industrial sites, which is key to the push to get the site included on the UNESCO list, is not being done with the right “diligence” was carried out.

Murujuga in WA’s Pilbara is home to more than 1 million petroglyph rock art sites spread over 37 hectares, with giant miners such as Woodside and Rio Tinto operating in the same area, sometimes just meters from works of art.

A whistleblower leaked the ex-employee’s letter, which was written last July, and Senator David Pocock presented it this week at a estimates committee session in federal parliament.

The employee said the project was not carried out with “sufficient integrity, commitment or governance” and that traditional owners had no input into audits or heritage investigations. WToday reported.

The WA Government has been monitoring emissions from local industrial facilities and their potential impact on rock art since 2022.

An employee of WA’s Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation warned board members that traditional owners were being frozen out of a monitoring program key to the bid to have the world’s largest and oldest rock art gallery (pictured) listed as a World Heritage Site.

A whistleblower leaked the letter, which was written last July, and Senator David Pocock (pictured) tabled it during a House estimates committee session in federal parliament.

The former employee also criticized the monitoring program, saying the principle of caution in decision-making when the science is unclear was not followed.

“Currently, Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation is not in a position to verify the quality of raw sample data due to lack of access, questionable sampling practices and inadequate transfer of skills to (its) rangers,” the letter said.

‘As a result of these deficiencies and disconnections, there has been a loss of control over the (rock art strategy) objectives of achieving the world’s best (or only reliable) standard for monitoring and controlling the severity of the threat posed by… .emissions in the air. ‘

The lack of due diligence, withholding of information and lack of cooperation from contractors raised the issue of “potential contract failure,” the letter said, and undermined the purpose of the rock art strategy and monitoring program.

The monitoring is an important part of the federal government’s application to UNESCO to convert the site into an area on the World Heritage List.

WA’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation manages the monitoring program but has outsourced it to mining and environmental services company Calibre.

Caliber then outsourced it to Curtin University, and Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation would take over in 2026.

But the former company employee said the university sent a “contractor to Murujuga who demonstrated poor competence and made a major mistake regarding the sample collection and sample processing protocol.”

But the department, the Aboriginal company and the university disagreed with the ex-employee’s claims.

“The allegations in the submissions do not stand up to scrutiny,” Kim Wood, CEO of Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, told WAToday.

‘The Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program is a strong, best-practice program designed in collaboration with international experts to investigate the impact of industrial emissions on Murujuga’s rock art.’

Murujuga (pictured) in Washington’s Pilbara is home to more than 1 million petroglyph rock paintings over an area of ​​37 hectares, with giant miners such as Woodside and Rio Tinto operating in the same area, sometimes just meters from works of art

A department spokesperson said the whistleblower’s claims were false.

“Every aspect of the monitoring program has been respectfully co-designed and based on the cultural laws, knowledge and practices of the Murujuga Traditional Owners and Custodians, led by the Circle of Elders,” the spokesperson said.

‘The state government has committed to making the results of the monitoring program publicly available, following independent peer review and data validation.’

Members of the International Council on Monuments and Sites Council will visit Murujuga as part of the World Heritage process and a decision is expected next year.