Dampier report November 2004

In the sixteen-year history of IFRAO, the federation has on three occasions taken to task governments fostering the destruction of rock art: in 1995 the conservative national government of Portugal over the Côa sites, in 2000 the socialist national government of Portugal over the Guadiana sites, and in 2002 the state government of Western Australia over the Dampier rock art precinct. The stakes are by far the highest in the most recent and current campaign, which is why it is becoming the most bitterly fought. On the one side there are the largest petroglyph concentration of the world and the largest number of stone arrangements in Australia. On the other are the largest industrial complex of Australia, an entrenched government and some $30 billion of corporate interests. In other words, the stakes are much higher than in the two Portuguese campaigns added together, and the confrontation is correspondingly ardent. IFRAO, I believe, cannot afford to lose this battle: it would not only mean the loss of the cultural heritage of those slaughtered by the previous government of 1868 (Bednarik 2002a), it would cause a tragic loss to humanity of a collective heritage and it would probably impair IFRAO’s future effectiveness as an advocate for rock art. With this in mind, we are determined to pursue the protection of the Dampier sites to a satisfactory conclusion.

The difficulty in the Dampier campaign stems from the fact that the government has politically painted itself into a corner. It has been badly advised by a government agency called the Office of Major Projects. There is absolutely no need for the planned massive petrochemical industry to be located in the Dampier Archipelago, there are numerous potential alternative sites in a state that has one of the lowest population densities on the planet. In fact, the development of most of these alternative sites is cheaper than at Dampier, where infrastructure costs are about twice those at the alternative Maitland Heavy Industrial Estate — which is also about fifty times the size of the available land at Dampier. Moreover, to cram a dozen or so LNG plants onto one small island is a perverse plan. Already there is enough explosive power stored at Dampier to equal fifty-eight Hiroshima atomic bombs, so if there were an accident in one plant, the entire region could be engulfed in the largest humanly-caused explosion in history. Some of the proposed plants are even located on land subject to occasional surge tides, being only two metres above sea level, and an inundation would certainly lead to their explosion (Astron 2002).

One would think that the government of Western Australia would see the absurdity in this plan, but it took IFRAO two years to make the point successfully. Now the government finds itself in an unenviable position: it has committed $185 million to the Dampier infrastructure, and there is an election looming in early 2005. Only one company of the original dozen proponents has taken up the offer of free land and services, an Indian company with an appalling environmental record in its home country. How will the government now explain to the public that it has not only wasted public money, it has in the process needlessly destroyed numerous irreplaceable cultural sites. We have every reason to want to see this incompetent government defeated, because the Opposition Leader, Colin Barnett MLA, has repeatedly stated that, were he Premier of Western Australia, he would immediately relocate the new industries away from Dampier, and he would move to protect the rock art. IFRAO also has the support of numerous national and international organisations, among them the National Trust of Australia, ICOMOS, the World Monuments Fund, as well as the support of the four local Native Title Claimants, the environmentalist movement, most of the local population, all political parties of Western Australia except the one in power, the federal government’s environmental offices, and even of some of the companies involved.

Over the past two years, we have secured a number of concessions from the state government, the most important being the commencement of the study of Dampier emissions by the government’s scientific agency CSIRO. There are significant deficiencies with this study (Bednarik 2004), but it is a step in the right direction in that it will provide much-needed data on emission levels and pollutant precipitation. It does not address the central issue, the deterioration resulting from atmospheric acidification, but this will be the subject of an IFRAO study that has already commenced, and which is an extension to the deterioration study I began in 1968 (Bednarik 2002b). In his many letters to me, the Premier of Western Australia has assured me that he is firmly committed to preserving the Dampier rock art. Unfortunately, his rhetoric has not been translated into appropriate policies. Having conducted a fact-finding tour of the area in August and September 2004, I regret having to report the following findings:

1. During the previous twelve months, there has been an increase in the physical destruction of rock art sites and stone arrangements, by several parties and in several locations in the Dampier area. The worst single case has been the removal of 159 decorated boulders and the destruction of six bedrock sites to make way for the east-west service corridor connecting King Bay with the proposed industrial area which is not likely to eventuate. I have photographed and filmed all removed boulders, which have been dumped in an area adjacent to a petroglyph site about 100 m from the unused corridor. The government has approved this unnecessary destruction. Many of the boulders are damaged, and by having been taken from their original sites and placed among vegetation they will rapidly deteriorate through both grassfires and the lower ambient pH regimes next to plants. 2. During my presence, two teams of cultural heritage consultants surveyed areas near King Bay, one of them having been instructed not to involve Aboriginal people. They are to list all cultural contents of these areas, which will be removed where practicable to make room for road widening and re-routing connected with upgraded security requirements, an elevated observation area and café for tourists, and for unspecified future developments. The Dampier Port Authority will destroy any assets that cannot be moved, again with the full approval by the government. Both stone arrangements and petroglyphs occur in the area earmarked for the bulldozers.