Qualla: Burrup Peninsula https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:27 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/q/s/7/4/burrup-peninsula-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Burrup Peninsula https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula Burrup Peninsula: Introduction https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula/ Photo credit Marius Fenger, CC BY-SA 4.0. Somewhere on this peninsula, etched into 2.7-billion-year-old igneous rock, is what may be the oldest depiction of a human face ever carved in stone. Nearby, the flare stacks of a liquefied natural gas plant burn around the clock. The Burrup Peninsula -- known to its traditional owners as Murujuga -- holds approximately one million petroglyphs, some dating back 50,000 years, making it the largest and most significant collection of rock art on Earth. It was designated a World Heritage Site in July 2025. It is also the industrial heart of Western Australia's Pilbara gas industry, and whether the two can coexist has been the subject of fierce, unresolved debate for decades.

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Image: Marius Fenger | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/s/7/4/burrup-peninsula-wp/qs74-burrup-peninsula-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Burrup Peninsula: Murujuga Before the Causeway https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula/ Photo credit Marius Fenger, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Burrup was once an island, lying off the Pilbara coast in the Dampier Archipelago. Its traditional owners, the Yaburara people, were among the Aboriginal nations who carved the rock surfaces over tens of thousands of years -- figures of humans, animals, and spiritual beings e...

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Image: Marius Fenger | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/s/7/4/burrup-peninsula-wp/qs74-burrup-peninsula-murujuga-before-the-causeway.mp3 0:06 2 full Burrup Peninsula: A Million Engravings on Ancient Stone https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula/ Photo credit Marius Fenger, CC BY-SA 4.0. The scale of Murujuga's rock art defies easy comprehension. Across the peninsula and its surrounding islands, around a million individual engravings have been identified, along with approximately 2,500 archaeological sites including quarries, shell middens, and campsites. Some ca...

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Image: Marius Fenger | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/s/7/4/burrup-peninsula-wp/qs74-burrup-peninsula-a-million-engravings-on-ancient-stone.mp3 0:06 3 full Burrup Peninsula: Gas Plants Among the Petroglyphs https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula/ Photo credit Public domain. The collision between heritage and industry on the Burrup began in earnest in the 1960s, when the town of Dampier was established to support iron ore exports. LNG processing followed. A 1996 land use plan divided the peninsula into a conservation area covering 62 percent and an i...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/s/7/4/burrup-peninsula-wp/qs74-burrup-peninsula-gas-plants-among-the-petroglyphs.mp3 0:06 4 full Burrup Peninsula: World Heritage and an Unresolved Question https://qualla.com/burrup-peninsula/ Photo credit Tradimus, CC0. In January 2020, Australia formally submitted the Murujuga Cultural Landscape for the World Heritage Tentative List, and in July 2025 it achieved World Heritage status. But the listing arrived alongside deepening controversy. A five-year Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program, led ...

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Image: Tradimus | CC0

]]> Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/q/s/7/4/burrup-peninsula-wp/qs74-burrup-peninsula-world-heritage-and-an-unresolved-question.mp3 0:06 5 full