UNESCO approves world heritage listing for WA's Murujuga rock art

Ancient Indigenous rock art at Murujuga National Park, Burrup Peninsula, Pilbara, Western Australia. Image credit: Marius Fenger, via Wikimedia Commons.

UNESCO has granted World Heritage status to the Murujuga Cultural Landscape - an area of ancient Aboriginal rock art in Western Australia that is older than Stonehenge and the Giza Pyramids.

Located on the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia, the Murujuga site is only the second Australian First Nations site to be listed by UNESCO.

The region is renowned for having the world’s densest collection of ancient petroglyphs with between one and two million rock engravings over nearly 100,000 hectares. These depict animals, plants - some of which are now extinct - and humans, including some of the earliest known anthropomorphic figures on Earth.

Some of the rock artwork by the Ngurra‑ra Ngarli - the five language groups that are custodians of Murujuga - dates back more than 50,000 years. For Aboriginal people across the Pilbara, the rock art is the work of the creation spirits and a permanent reminder of the natural order of Lore in their culture.

The UNESCO listing follows unanimous support from the 21-member UNESCO committee in Paris, with strong advocacy by Australia and co-sponsorship from countries including Kenya, Japan, South Korea and Mexico. It becomes Australia’s 21st World Heritage Site and only the second recognized for First Nations cultural significance, following Budj Bim in Victoria.

Australia’s environment minister, Murray Watt, hosted more than a dozen ambassadors from countries on the world heritage committee on Monday as he ramped up lobbying efforts to get the Murujuga rock art complex inscribed on the world heritage list. Watt welcomed the listing as an affirmation of Indigenous stewardship, while pledging to implement a robust strategic framework to monitor and safeguard the landscape under national environmental regulations.

The Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC), representing traditional owners, described the designation as a “momentous day,” though they and environmental groups caution that nearby industrial emissions - from facilities such as Woodside’s LNG project - must be strictly managed to preserve the petroglyphs as expert reports suggest the site is extremely vulnerable to industrial pollution.

In Karratha, dozens of elders, MAC board members, rangers and government agencies gathered to watch a live stream of the UNESCO meeting. Yinjibarndi man and MAC director Vincent Adams leapt out of his chair when the decision came through.

"The emotions of going through tonight [were] unbelievable," Mr Adams said. "I wouldn't wish that upon any other person but, at the end of it, the feeling was overwhelming."

This milestone secures international recognition and protection for one of the planet’s most significant Aboriginal cultural landscapes but concerns for the site’s conservation remain.

Ben Smith, Professor of Archaeology (World Rock Art), at the University of WA, said that unless pollution is drastically curbed, the rock art is at risk of serious degradation.

"While I celebrate Murujuga receiving the well-deserved status of being listed as a World Heritage site, the nature in which the Australian Government handled the scientific findings on industrial impacts on Murujuga during this process reveals the extent to which they will go to play down the impacts of our gas industry," he said.

View the listing on UNESCO here.

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References & further reading:

• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Murujuga Cultural landscape. whc.unesco.org/en/list/1709

• Rollason, B., Adams, M., & Bates, A. (2025, July 11). UNESCO approves world heritage listing for WA’s Murujuga rock art. ABC News. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-12/paris-unesco-world-heritage-ruling-on-murjuga-rock-art-wa/105522888

• Readfearn, G. (2025, July 11). ‘Manifestation of creative genius’: Murujuga rock art in Western Australia placed on Unesco world heritage list. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jul/11/wa-murujuga-rock-art-placed-on-unesco-world-heritage-list

• Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC). murujuga.org.au