Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Depuch Island is a hundred kilometres east of the Dampier Archipelago; during Stokes’ voyage in the H.M.S. Beagle, due to weather conditions, they sailed past the archipelago and pulled into the island in 1840, consequently reporting on the discovery of petroglyphs.So began the concern for the protection of one small island while the knowledge of a vastly greater number and important petroglyphs to the west remained out of public awareness until the 1970s. Unfortunately this ignorance resulted in the Dampier Archipelago being flagged for industrial development in the 1960s. Some twenty-five years ago the area had just seen the completion of the North West Shelf Venture Karratha Gas Plant. This development involved one of the largest and costly archaeological undertakings in Australia. It was through this engagement that the state heritage body realised the enormity of the cultural values of the area. Around 300 sites within the archipelago had been registered by 1980, most only with limited information and not as complete site recordings. The information, the result of a series of limited surveys undertaken by the Western Australian Museum and derived from reports of sites received from independent researchers. Today, there are over 3000 sites registered, the vast majority as a consequence of industrial development. What has changed in the intervening years has been a more general appreciation of the archipelagos’ cultural heritage values. Unfortunately this has not seen a corresponding diminution of the state’s desire forthe largest industrial hub in the Southern Hemisphere.
Source: Rock Art Research
Author: Mulvaney, Ken
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2296959552