Ancient rock art under threat as Australia gives ‘proposed’ approval to gas plant extension

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Etched onto rocks on a remote peninsula in Western Australia are millions of images drawn tens of thousands of years ago by the country’s original inhabitants, including the earliest known depictions of the human face.

This open-air display of some of humanity’s oldest works is being slowly erased by industrial pollution from a nearby gas plant, according to scientific studies that have been swept up in an almighty clash of competing ambitions for the region’s future.

At the center of the dispute is whether oil and gas company Woodside should be allowed to operate its Karratha Gas Plant until 2070, and on Wednesday Environment