Burrup Air Monitoring Program 

The Burrup Peninsula (Murujuga) is unique worldwide for its collection of petroglyphs, engravings that have been etched, rubbed or scratched into the rocks. The Murujuga Cultural Landscape was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2025. The presence of industry on the Burrup Peninsula has generated concerns from some stakeholders that associated emissions may lead to an accelerated weathering or deterioration of rock art.

In 2021, Woodside commenced operation of four atmospheric deposition monitoring stations on Murujuga and one control location. The stations have operated continuously since 2022 and are monitored for parameters that may potentially accelerate weathering of rock art, including acid depositions. This monitoring supplements an extensive dataset collected at the time of Pluto LNG construction and commissioning between 2008-13.

Outcomes of this air monitoring program directly support the Murujuga Rock Art Strategy and the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program (MRAMP), run by the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation and Western Australian Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.

In 2025 the Monitoring Studies Report 2024¹ for the MRAMP was released, along with the Interim Environmental Quality Criteria 2025².

The Monitoring Studies Report 2024 found a region of higher porosity of granophyre rock surfaces in an area near Dampier and the main industrial precincts. The Report notes that “this pattern may represent anthropogenic impact, and further investigation is required.” The Report concludes that “it appears that some anthropogenic impacts have occurred, however at this stage these are most likely attributable to historic (higher) emission levels, rather than current levels,” and that “the likely dominant mechanism for any effect appears to be direct impact of emissions rather than rainfall, which is not currently acidic as previous research has suggested.” The MRAMP is ongoing and further reports are expected.

The Interim Environmental Quality Criteria (EQC) document provides Interim EQC for NO2, SO2 and NH3, and a standard Interim EQC for NO2. As described in the EQC document: “Standard EQC levels…represent limits above which sufficient evidence exists that impacts are likely to occur, within appropriate levels of confidence. Guideline EQC levels are set lower using appropriate uncertainty factors to determine the minimum level where any possible effects could theoretically occur.”

The EQC document reports that:

• “Individual Interim EQC Guideline levels are not exceeded by current (rolling 12-month averaged) atmospheric levels of gas species, with the exception of the two sites which have less than 12 months of data, so do not represent a true rolling annual average.”
• “No exceedances are observed based on the current Interim EQC Guidelines and approach.”

For further information a summary of air monitoring data is available here.