Near a dry, red rock peninsula on Australia's far western coast, a dusty highway separates two communities with contrasting fortunes tied to an ancient land. 9News
A loaded Rio Tinto iron ore train arrives at their port facility on the Murujuga Peninsula in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The paper draws on other published studies that "agree that the rich red-brown patina of Murujuga's rocks, as with other forms of rock varnish, is dissolved with increasing acidity." Smith says acid levels increase when sulphur and nitrogen oxides emitted from the industrial plants on Murujuga mix with moisture.
The two women started visiting the countryside around Murujuga as children in the 1970s and 80s - around the same time Woodside arrived on the peninsula to begin construction on its sprawling Karratha gas complex. Like a lot of young First Nations people living across the Pilbara, Cooper eventually found herself working in the mines. For three years, she operated heavy machinery for Rio Tinto, but quit after questioning the damage it was doing to country.
For Alec, protecting Murujuga is part of a journey to heal the bonds severed with her ancestors when - as part of the Stolen Generation - she was forcibly removed from her mother as a baby and placed in foster care. "My mum was the shaman of the tribe, everyone came to her for healing, and eventually she passed that down to me."
In 1992, Native Title law was written to recognise Indigenous land rights, but it was only designed to secure First Nations people a share of the profits from exploration or mining activities on their lands, not to stop developments altogether. "They create a faction who endorses and signs off on the agenda a developer brings. Then eventually, the community is torn apart, and the cycle of poverty and dispossession continues."In 2003, the Western Australian government compulsorily acquired Native Title on Murujuga through the Burrup and Maitland Industrial Estates Agreement - a contract signed by the region's Ngarluma-Yindjibarndi, Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo, and Yaburara Mardudhunera peoples.
Members of the group have spoken publicly about the power imbalance that stems from those financial ties, including its CEO Peter Jeffries. The firm - which also provides services for Woodside's joint-venture partner BHP and the state government's development agency - told CNN that MAC was the only "approved cultural authority" to speak about developments on Murujuga, and that it was crucial "the right information" was being shared about the views of traditional custodians in relation to the Scarborough expansion.
In a statement to CNN, Woodside said it had "engaged and consulted extensively with Traditional Owners about the Scarborough Project since 2019" and it was "pleased" with the support it had from Murujuga's custodians. The company's awaiting final sign-off from Australia's offshore regulator but otherwise it has the go-ahead from state and federal legislators.
Woodside estimates the project will pump out 967 million tons of carbon emissions over its lifetime. But researchers at Climate Analytics say that figure will be closer to 1.5 billion tons from 2021 until the project winds down in 2055 - about the same amount of emissions Australia produces every three years.
Smith also expressed concern about the transparency of the rock art monitoring program due to the absence of independent oversight and a lack of access to its raw data.
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