Hey everyone, and welcome to World Heritage Journey.
For today's video, we're at the Murujuga Cultural Landscape of north-western Australia.
So behind me on these red rocks, one of the most incredible collections
of petroglyphs, or rock carvings, in the entire world. It's not actually on the World Heritage List
yet - it's a Tentative site, part of the process for getting on the List, and the Australian government
hopes to have it on the List by 2022. Let's have a look around.
Murujuga National Park lies on the Burrup Peninsula,
in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. It's located on the traditional
lands of the Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi, Yaburara,
Mardudhunera, and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo, collectively
known as the Ngarda-Ngarli people.
The national park itself covers about 37,000 hectares (roughly 91,000 acres), so it's
not an extremely large area. However, Murujuga is packed with an estimated
one million petroglyphs. It's believed to be the densest collection of hunter-gatherer petroglyphs
anywhere in the world. And what's truly amazing about Murujuga is the incredible
variety of petroglyphs, in both age, and subject matter. The oldest petroglyphs here
have been dated at around 40,000 years old, while some are as recent as the 19th century.
Petroglyphs of humans are quite common with a variety of imagery, ranging from static figures
to abstract faces, hunting scenes and ceremonial activities. However, it's forbidden to film the
petroglyphs of humans for cultural reasons. There's also lots of abstract spiritual art,
telling stories of the Marrga, the ancestral beings who created the world.
But it's the imagery of animals at Murujuga that we found most striking. There's so
many petroglyphs and so many animals, and they provide a fascinating showcase
of how the animal occupants of the area have changed over the millennia. Carvings dated to
50,000 years ago show crocodiles and wallabies that are no longer found in the area.
During the last Ice Age (18-30 thousand years ago), the coastline was 160 kilometres
distant, and the carvings are of distinctly inland animals like fat-tailed kangaroos,
and - most interestingly - a petroglyph of a thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger,
which has been extinct on mainland Australia for at least 20,000 years.
Finally, the most recent carvings are from the modern era where Murujuga is directly
on the coast, so the petroglyphs largely show marine animals like turtles, whales, and fish.
And most ominously, there's a very faint carving of a single-masted sailing ship,
thought to be explorer Phillip King's vessel HMC Mermaid which visited the area in 1818.
Wow, what a beautiful spot hey. It's really impressive to see the fantastic work of these
Aboriginal artists over thousands and thousands of years, and it's interesting to see just how
well-preserved it is. And I really hope it does get on the World Heritage List next year. But
that's it from me, thank you so much for watching. I'm Joel on the Road, give me a thumbs-up if you
liked the video, or leave me a comment to let me know what you thought - I'd love to hear from you.
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