Benjamin Smith

Murujuga Rock Art Conservation Project

May 29, 2025

How the North West Shelf expansion risks further damage to Murujuga’s 50,000‑year‑old rock art

Benjamin Smith, The University of Western Australia and John Black, University of Sydney

Murujuga has more than one million petroglyphs, some up to 50,000 years old. The North West Shelf extension places them at risk.

View of the area in which the new fertiliser factory will be constructed and from which the three rock art panels were removed. In the background is the gas plant that will power the fertiliser factory. Benjamin Smith

May 18, 2023

Murujuga’s rock art is at risk – where is the outrage?

Benjamin Smith, The University of Western Australia; Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia, and Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University

Archaeologists speak out against the removal of three rock art panels to pave the way for the construction of a new fertiliser factory in Western Australia.

State Library of Western Australia

March 27, 2023

This Buddhist sculpture probably won’t ‘rewrite history’ – Western Australia already has a rich Chinese past

Yu Tao, The University of Western Australia and Benjamin Smith, The University of Western Australia

Will a 600-year-old Chinese Buddhist sculpture change Australian history? The known history of Western Australia gives a much simpler explanation.

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How the North West Shelf expansion risks further damage to Murujuga’s 50,000‑year‑old rock art

Murujuga’s rock art is at risk – where is the outrage?

This Buddhist sculpture probably won’t ‘rewrite history’ – Western Australia already has a rich Chinese past

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