Sacred rock art being destroyed

Story

RAY MARTIN: Round the port of Dampier and what they call the Burrup Peninsula, the hills are covered with rich, red boulders. Hidden in the gullies and the valleys of this old volcanic landscape are hundreds of thousands of ancient images ? carved into the rock. Birds, animals, and secret rituals. Even thylacines ? Tassie tigers ? that roamed here and were carved here 10,000 years ago. Is this as important as Uluru?

ROBERT BEDNARIK: Oh, it is far more important than Uluru. This is the largest rock art site in the world. It is the largest cultural monument in Australia.

RAY MARTIN: Smack-bang in the middle of this enormous art gallery is Australia's biggest industrial complex. The fact is, it never had to be built here. There are vast spaces away from the precious art just a few kilometres down the coast.

ROBERT BEDNARIK: Can you imagine the British accepting the positioning of a petrol chemical plant at Stonehenge and the Government saying, "Well, we can remove a few of those columns, can't we?"

RAY MARTIN: For almost 40 years now, Robert Bednarik has been crying in the wilderness.

Do you think governments have deliberately kept this secret?


Read the full interview:

https://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2006_06_25/story_1691.asp

I know the interview is long, but please have the patience to read it all.

Not only is this rock art sacred to the Aboriginal People, it also has significant historical value. It should not be allowed to be destroyed - we should be protecting it.

The impression I got from the interview is that the government minister interviewed not only doesn't care but actively supports it!

It is absolutely outrageous! Another case of governments and big business stomping all over peoples beliefs.

Oh god...it's just like the Nazca lines in South America. How could anybody want to destroy art from a civilization from so long ago? It's terrible.