Top Australian cave art site faces industrial expansion

[Wayne Harrison]

By Nick Squires | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
from the June 01, 2006 edition


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.

Full story:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0601/p05s01-woap.html