WONDERS NEVER CEASE: WEEKEND AUSTRALIAN SPECIAL FEATURE (19/01/08) BURRUP ART

peter_veth@yahoo.com

In a special 5 page feature in the Weekend Australian (19/01/2008) science journalist Leigh Dayton examines archaeological wonders of the World including the art of the Burrup Peninsula (Dampier Archipelago). She notes that some of the art corpus can be visited (such as the signposted valley near Hearson's Cove) and places special emphasis on the significance of the art and management issues revolving around industry. She cites comments by AAA Media Liaison Officer Peter Veth - who carried out his Honours thesis there in 1980 and who supervised the 1992-1993 NEGP Survey of the northern Burrup for the Australian Heritage Commission, was part of the Ngarluma-Yindjibarndi Native Title claim and co-author (with Dr Jo McDonald) of the National Heritage Listing reports from 2005 and 2006. Some relevant text from the article follows - and see atachment: Another get-there-fast archeological wonder is located along the Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia near Karratha. More accurately, its many little wonders spread over an area of 45km. "The Dampier Archipelago, containing 42 islands and the Burrup Peninsula, has one of the largest concentrations of engraved rock art in the world. Experts estimate it contains over one million motifs,covering at least 30,000 years of occupation," explains Peter Veth, director of the National Centre for Indigenous Studies at Canberra's Australian National University. Among the artworks are depictions of fish, kangaroos and other animals, as well as some of the earliest human faces ever portrayed. Clearly, this is the stuff of human prehistory. It's precious and it's threatened by industrial development. In November the National Trust put the rock art assemblage at the top of its inaugural Our Heritage at Risk list, and it's already cited on the World Monuments Fund list of 100 most endangered monuments. Though most of the region has been listed under Australian heritage law...