Murujuga
| Murujuga | ||
 Dampier Archipelago and Burrap Peninsula |
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| Geographical location | ||
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| Coordinates | 20 ° 37 ′ S , 116 ° 47 ′ E | |
| Waters 1 | Indian Ocean | |
| length | 27 km | |
| width | 5 km | |
Murujuga , also known as the Burrup Peninsula , is located in Western Australia in the Pilbara region. This peninsula is home to an estimated 600,000 to over 1,000,000 petroglyphs (rock art ) and menhirs , which the Aborigines made and which are up to 30,000 years old. According to estimates, around 25 percent of the stone carvings have already been irretrievably lost as a result of measures to prepare and carry out industrialization. Due to the extraction of natural gas and the expansion of petrochemical industrial plants, their existence is still at risk.
location
The peninsula is 27 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide; it is surrounded by the Dampier Archipelago . It is located 12 kilometers west of the village of Karratha and 1550 kilometers north of Perth . Part of the peninsula is separated by the sea; this part was connected to the mainland by a dam in the mid-1960s and is therefore also accessible for railways and vehicles.
economy
The Burrup Peninsula is to be expanded into a large industrial center with export orientation to East Asia, because the British-Australian group Rio Tinto Group has been mining ores there since the 1960s and there is a loading port with the associated infrastructure in Dampier . In the 1980s, natural gas production was set up with a gas liquefaction plant. Natural gas deposits on land and off the coast are to be developed and exploited on a large scale in the future. In addition to industrial plants, this also requires pipelines.
Aborigines , archaeologists and environmentalists are opposed to this major industrial project in Australia , as one of the most important prehistoric collections of petroglyphs is located in this area and this cultural asset is threatened with further destruction. The government of the state of Western Australia and the company Woodside Petroleum want to build an industrial complex in Holden Point, for which the responsible ministry in Western Australia already issued the building permit in September 2006.
Culture
The fact that this cultural area is very important is increasingly perceived: " It is considered the most significant heritage site in Australia and is often compared to Stonehenge or the cave of Lasaux in France " (German: It is considered the most significant heritage site in Australia and is often compared to Stonehenge and the Lascaux Cave in France).
The rock engravings on the island show animals such as the Tasmanian tigers , whales , dugongs (manatees), kangaroos , emus , lizards , turtles , fish, birds and thousands of mythological characters and figures of the Aborigines, which have become extinct on the Australian mainland . There are also menhirs (stone circles) and other cultural stone designs. Aboriginal representatives call the rock engravings our Bible . The engravings are among the oldest cultural monuments of mankind and are estimated to be up to 30,000 years old.
The World Monuments Fund listed the Burrup Peninsula as one of the 100 Most Endangered Monuments in the World in 2003. In November 2007, the Petroglyphs were listed among the 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Australia. Parts of it have been under protection in Murujuga National Park since 2013 .
Due to the large number of artifacts , no complete documentation is yet available. The difficulty in preserving this cultural heritage of humanity is that it is hardly known and that it is remote from world events. Sally Morgan , a well-known Aboriginal writer, put the difficulties this way: “ Heritage is a mess in Western Australia. If Stonehenge were in the Pilbara , it would no longer exist "(German: The protection of cultural heritage in Western Australia is a fiasco when Stonehenge would be in the Pilbara region, it would no longer exist ).
Flying foam massacre
The Yaburara Aborigines are the original inhabitants of the peninsula. This Aboriginal tribe was almost destroyed by the European settlers in the so-called "Flying Foam Massacre" in 1868 during a massacre that took place from February to March.
The approximately 200 Aborigines who lived in the Dampier Archipelago had little contact with the Europeans. This changed when pearls were found in Nickol Bay in 1865 . When an Aborigine was arrested after a theft on a pearl fisherman's ship in February 1868 and subsequently freed from his clan, a police officer and a pearl seeker were killed by Yaburara spears in this confrontation, the conflict escalated into a massacre. A group of settlers and pearl hunters called on to arrest the Aboriginal leader raided an Aboriginal camp on February 17, killing all of the camp residents, and on another day, a group of Aboriginal people were shot while crossing the Flying Foam Passage . Official sources speak of 5 to 10 Aboriginal people killed; the settlers and the Jaburara of 60. But 150 are also mentioned who were killed.
Endangered culture
In the 1980s, rocks with prehistoric images were removed for the construction of a natural gas plant, which are now unprotected in a landfill not far from this plant. Another 200 rock carvings are to be relocated in the expansion that is now planned. In addition to these dangers, the cultural heritage of the Aborigines is threatened by the emission of exhaust gases and pollutants from the planned industrial chemical plants. Since the 1950s, the depth of the contours in the granite rocks , which averaged 16 millimeters, has been reduced by 5 millimeters due to natural weathering . This weathering process caused by natural factors would be considerably accelerated by the acidic precipitation from the industrial exhaust gases.
There are alternatives to the planned location, but in particular the Woodside Petroleum group , which intends to develop the natural gas deposits there on a large scale, and the state government of Western Australia do not want to deviate from their plans for the national cultural heritage listed since July 3, 2007 . Woodside is under pressure to act because international supply contracts with huge volumes of liquefied gas have already been concluded. Other companies are now planning alternative locations that do not threaten the substance of the cultural monument.
On July 7th, 2008, the Australian government included 90 percent of the rock art in the Dampier Archipelago, including the Purrup Peninsula, as a national heritage site: campaigns are now underway to get the Australian government to include the entire Dampier Archipelago on the list of Apply for UNESCO World Heritage Site . To prevent the destruction of the cultural heritage, there is, for example, a petition to the Australian government that can be sent on the Internet and an annual global protest day, which will take place on July 16th in 2009.
swell
- Industrial complex threatens Australian aboriginal heritage
- Website standupfortheburrup.com (English)
- Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula)
Web links
- Kulturschatz-NZZ (PDF file; 99 kB)
- Site from Burrup.org (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dampier fact sheets ( Memento of the original dated May 6, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Sydney Morning Herald: November 13, 2008
- ↑ The world's finest rock art is under threat ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Flying Foam Massacre ( Memento of the original dated August 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Creative Spirits ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archaeologie-Online ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Stand up for the Burrup
