Post by L Roebuck on May 31, 2006 21:39:36 GMT -5
Top Australian cave art site faces industrial expansion
By Nick Squires | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Their meaning is a mystery, their creators are long dead, and no one knows how many there are. The hundreds of thousands of engravings etched into boulders and cliffs on a remote desert peninsula in Australia form the world's largest collection of rock art.
Now there are fears that the planned expansion of an industrial site could destroy many of the Aboriginal engravings.
The petroglyphs, which depict human figures, abstract motifs and kangaroos, emus, and the extinct Tasmanian tiger, are scattered across the Burrup peninsula.
They were carved in granite more than 20,000 years ago by generations of Aboriginal hunter-gatherers attracted to the area by plentiful game and the caves' shelter.
The granite has ensured that the art is better preserved than carvings in soft sandstone found elsewhere in Australia. But the art shares the 12-mile peninsula with huge natural-gas plants and iron-ore shipment facilities. The expansion could destroy hundreds or thousands of carvings, conservationists say, and would be cultural vandalism akin to the destruction of Afghanistan's 1,600-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas.
"Can you imagine the Brits digging up Stonehenge? says Tom Perrigo, the director of the National Trust of Western Australia. "It wouldn't happen, and yet this rock art is equivalent in significance."
Last year, the World Monuments Fund included the peninsula in the world's 100 most endangered sites. The government of Western Australia said this month that it will try to block a bid to have the art placed on the National Heritage list, giving it more protection. It said the listing would have "grave consequences" for the expansion.
Full Article The Christian Science Monitor
By Nick Squires | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – Their meaning is a mystery, their creators are long dead, and no one knows how many there are. The hundreds of thousands of engravings etched into boulders and cliffs on a remote desert peninsula in Australia form the world's largest collection of rock art.
Now there are fears that the planned expansion of an industrial site could destroy many of the Aboriginal engravings.
The petroglyphs, which depict human figures, abstract motifs and kangaroos, emus, and the extinct Tasmanian tiger, are scattered across the Burrup peninsula.
They were carved in granite more than 20,000 years ago by generations of Aboriginal hunter-gatherers attracted to the area by plentiful game and the caves' shelter.
The granite has ensured that the art is better preserved than carvings in soft sandstone found elsewhere in Australia. But the art shares the 12-mile peninsula with huge natural-gas plants and iron-ore shipment facilities. The expansion could destroy hundreds or thousands of carvings, conservationists say, and would be cultural vandalism akin to the destruction of Afghanistan's 1,600-year-old Bamiyan Buddhas.
"Can you imagine the Brits digging up Stonehenge? says Tom Perrigo, the director of the National Trust of Western Australia. "It wouldn't happen, and yet this rock art is equivalent in significance."
Last year, the World Monuments Fund included the peninsula in the world's 100 most endangered sites. The government of Western Australia said this month that it will try to block a bid to have the art placed on the National Heritage list, giving it more protection. It said the listing would have "grave consequences" for the expansion.
Full Article The Christian Science Monitor