Formed in 2006 as a not-for-profit voluntary organisation, Friends of Australian Rock Art Inc. (FARA) pledged to protect, preserve and promote the Aboriginal rock art of Australia, particularly the endangered ancient petroglyphs of the Burrup peninsula, also known as Murujuga by its traditional custodians.
Part of the Dampier Archipelago and situated 1600 km from Perth WA, in the Pilbara, Murujuga contains the oldest and largest gallery of prehistoric rock carvings in the world - a 45,000 year old chronology in stone of human survival through climate change, species extinction and cultural swings from the last Ice Age to the advent of punitive colonial settlement in the 1860s.
Unfortunately an industrial precinct was also established there in the 1960s, many sacred petroglyphs were destroyed and for the last two decades FARA has sought to raise awareness of the ongoing damage being done to the fragile patina of the petroglyphs by acidic emissions from the gas industry.
In 2007 we were successful in gaining National Heritage listing for the Dampier Archipelago and still hope for World Heritage listing. But despite our firm lobbying of industry, state and federal governments, regulatory authorities, countless submissions and appeals, and the gathering of irrefutable scientific evidence, the WA government remains totally captured by the oil & gas industry. Our only recourse now is legal action to save this unique, irreplaceable rock art - and that is where we earnestly need the support of generous donors, in order to stop any further uncontrolled industrial expansion on this sacred heritage site.