Historic sulphur emissions the likely cause of damage to Murujuga rock art: new research

Amy Stevens Murujuga is a sacred cultural landscape of land and sea Country across the Burrup Peninsula and Dampier Archipelago, in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

It contains an estimated 1 million to 2 million petroglyphs, or rock engravings, that tell the story of the relationship between Ngarda-Ngarli Traditional Owners and this landscape over at least 50,000 years.

These petroglyphs hold deep meaning for Ngarda-Ngarli, embodying cultural, spiritual, ancestral and environmental knowledge.

In July 2025, the Murujuga Cultural Landscape was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in recognition of its outstanding cultural and spiritual significance.

This brought renewed attention to Murujuga, which exists alongside longstanding industrial complexes that process commodities such as liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Concerns have been raised that industrial pollution is degrading the rock art .

At the heart of our work is a question: how can this extraordinary place, and the rock art it contains, be protected into the future? Today we released the third annual peer-reviewed report of the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program (MRAMP) .

This government-funded research effort doesn’t resolve every question – understanding a system as complex as Murujuga takes time.

The research is undertaken by a team of more than 30 multidisciplinary researchers, and independently peer reviewed by a range of international experts.

It is solely written by the researchers.

This work gives us a clearer picture than ever before of what’s driving changes observed in the rock surfaces.

MRAMP rangers change samplers at an air quality monitoring station.

Ben Mullins A shift in the evidence Last year we found some rock surfaces near industrial areas showed increased surface porosity , meaning there were measurable structural differences compared with rocks further away.

These rocks have weathered or deteriorated more, and may be at greater risk of fading or flaking if this continues.