Australia to lobby Unesco over barring of ancient rock site from world heritage list due to Woodside emissions

Site is home to more than a million petroglyphs, some almost 50,000 years old, but reports say it has been damaged by the Karratha gas plant

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The Albanese government will launch a lobbying campaign in a bid to reverse a Unesco recommendation that an ancient rock art site in Western Australia can’t go on the world heritage list until damaging industrial emissions linked to a controversial Woodside gas development are stopped.

Government officials were aiming to meet Unesco next week after its advisers said the nomination of the Murujuga Cultural Landscape in north-west WA – home to more than a million petroglyphs, some almost 50,000 years old – should be referred back to Australia until nearby “degrading acidic emissions” were halted.

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