The Dampier Cargo Cult

Robert G. Bednarik auranet@optusnet.com.au

Service corridor to nowhere - waste of public money

Location of the proposed ship loading facilities north of West Intercourse Island, to be connected to Maitland Estate.

The term ‘cargo cult’ derives from the activities of Polynesian islanders who, having experienced the bounty of the US Air Force’s presence during World War 2 and the sudden disappearance if their generous guests, maintained and built air strips and replicas of aircraft in the vain hope that the airmen might one day return.

At the present time, the Western Australian (W.A.) government is engaged in a typical cargo cult on the Burrup Peninsula, Dampier Archipelago. In the vain hope of attracting large international corporations, and most especially US companies, the government has committed around $200 million to the construction of infrastructures, such as so-called service corridors traversing the pristine land. In the process of constructing these monstrosities, between 170 and 180 rock art sites are reported to have been destroyed during 2003 alone. The first above image shows one of these service corridors, located in King Bay.

Of the 12-15 companies the government hoped to attract at the beginning of 2002, only one, Burrup Fertilisers, is committed to establishing a comparatively small plant. Four remain uncommitted, all others have either disappeared or have formally withdrawn their proposals, after vast sums of public money were lavished on them. No further company will ever set up shop on the Burrup, and the huge infrastructure currently being constructed is nothing but a monumental waste of public money, for which the present government is fully answerable.

It is also answerable for the wanton destruction of cultural heritage on a massive scale. Since 1964, when the systematic destruction of the largest petroglyph corpus by this government commenced, between 20% and 25% of the original monument has been eliminated, just as the same government eliminated the rock art’s makers, the Yaburara, in 1868 with a series of police-led massacres. The state government of W.A. is the worst rock art vandal in the world today and for this deserves the full condemnation of all right-thinking people. It perpetrates a crime against humanity, not just against the Yaburara.

Of particular concerns are the lies the government uses to influence the media and the public. For instance it claims, through its Minister for State Development, that opposition to its plans on the Burrup endangers 10,000 jobs. Nobody has ever expressed any opposition to the development plans, the opposition is purely to their siting on Australia’s greatest cultural heritage asset. We have consistently requested the re-siting of all developments to the Maitland Heavy Industrial Estate, as have all remaining political parties of W.A. as well as numerous national and international bodies. The only jobs to be “lost” over Dampier will be those of the Minister and his colleagues in government. But they will not be lost, they will merely be filled by an alternative government.

Another lie of the government is that as part of the Maitland plan, rock art on West Intercourse Island will have to be destroyed. This is untrue. The island is unsuitable as a port because water depth around it is under 2 m (the ships will require a minimum of 11.8 m), therefore the loading facilities will need to be almost 2 km north of the island (see second image above). The causeway connecting them to the Maitland Estate does not need to cross the island, it is to skirt around the north-eastern tip of West Intercourse Island, following the coastline (see link 'Maitland causeway' below).

We urge the W.A. Premier to review the self-serving actions of the Department of Industry and Resources, and particularly those of the Office of Major Projects, as these departments are concerned purely about their own survival. This is simply an issue of their survival versus that of the government and the rock art. These departments need to be subjected to an enquiry and re-structuring just as was necessary in the Department of Environmental Protection. Both departments have been unable to fulfil their roles effectively.

22 January 2004

AURANET

Home-page of the Australian Rock Art Research Association, Inc. (AURA)

Save Dampier rock art

Back to the home-page of the Save the Dampier Rock Art campaign

Maitland causeway

The proposed route of the causeway connecting the Maitland Estate to the ship loading facility north of West Intercourse Island, avoiding the island (see also second image on top of page).

Dampier visit by WMF

Visit of the Dampier Rock Art Precinct by the President of the World Monuments Fund, January 2004.

Save Dampier rock art

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