FEW people are aware that Australia is home to the world’s oldest and largest rock art landscape. We may marvel at ancient rock art in France and Spain,but the rock art on the Burrup/Murujuga Peninsula on WA’s Pilbara coast is as ancient and stunning.
Former French President Jacques Chirac knew it, and took a keen interest in Australian rock art.
He is in Canberra along with the Aboriginal custodians as they present their case to the Federal Government for protection of their sacred sites on the Burrup Peninsula.
The archipelago is believed to hold more than one million images pecked into the hard granophyre rock – a huge body of work depicting possibly 30,000 years of human activity.
The integrity of this site, it is said, is still threatened by industrial developments and further protection is vital.
“Murujuga Marni – the Burrup Petroglyphs in Context,” in the Sir Roland Wilson Theatre, ANU, 5:30 to 7:00pm, Thursday JUNE 20. No booking necessary.
The Sir Roland Wilson Building in McCoy Circuit is near the National Film and Sound Archive Building and the Academy of Science dome. See ANU Campus map, Building 120, D1.
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