Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) Rock Art
Murujuga · Burrup Peninsula Petroglyphs · Murujuga Cultural Landscape
Pleistocene to Historic ~50 ka–present·Australian Aboriginal (Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi, Yaburara)·🇦🇺 Western Australia, Pilbara, Australia
About
About Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) Rock Art
World's densest petroglyph concentration - over 1 million engravings on 42 islands of the Dampier Archipelago and Burrup Peninsula, spanning 50,000 years of continuous Ngarluma/Yindjibarndi creation. Early panels show extinct megafauna including Genyornis and thylacine; later tracks show introduced dingo, sailing ships and iron ore trains. Tidal algal desert varnish removal by industry is UNESCO emergency concern; inscribed 2025 as World Heritage.
Why it mattersLargest and longest-continued petroglyph field on Earth; megafauna extinction visual archive.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Genyornis (extinct 45 ka) depictions implications for human arrival
- 02Why specific gabbro boulders repeatedly reused for 20 kyr
Theories
- 01Songline memory encoding rising seas and fauna change
- 02Rock art as tide and resource calendar
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.50,000 BP to present
- Period
- Pleistocene to Historic ~50 ka–present
- Culture
- Australian Aboriginal (Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi, Yaburara)
- Builders
- Aboriginal custodians of Murujuga
- Purpose
- Songline and Law archive tracking sea-level change and megafaunal extinction
- Excavation
- Excavation ongoing
c.50,000 BP to present
Initial construction
c. 1568 CE
Rediscovery
On the ground
Structures & features
20.5833° S · 116.8083° E · 40 m · 2 mapped features
Deep Gorge Panel
petroglyph panelThylacine and emu track petroglyphs
20.5860° S · 116.7970° EBurrup Peninsula North
petroglyph panelDense vertebrate petroglyph hill
20.5750° S · 116.8150° E