Strict emissions curbs have been loosened on a major gas plant harming nearby ancient rock art after Woodside warned they amounted to an “effective refusal” of the project.

New federal documents also reveal Environment Minister Murray Watt agreed industrial emissions from the resources giant’s gas plant were harming the World Heritage-listed rock art in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

The risks posed by neighbouring industrial activity to the 40,000-year-old Indigenous petroglyphs have been a source of debate, though the minister has concluded from the scientific evidence collected so far that emissions “are adversely affecting the rocks of Murujuga”.

His assessment goes further than the argument that a decommissioned Dampier gas power plant is largely to blame for the damage alread

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