If you care about priceless Aboriginal cultural artefacts being needlessly destroyed, we need you to fax or ring the Australian environment minister RIGHT NOW, or at least before Monday. International support is needed to shame this government.

Go to http://de.indymedia.org/2006/11/162918.shtml to get more on the issue. Basically it’s about the imminent destruction of a cultural icon six times older than the Pyramids, eight times older than Stonehenge.

These are likely the earliest surviving rock carvings on the planet: close to a million images of ancient faces and Australia’s earliest fauna, including the mighty Tasmanian tiger, spread throughout a group of small islands alongside the west coast.

23,000 Australians have spoken up to save our heritage on the Burrup Peninsula, taking the conversation beyond government and industry meeting rooms.

Activists helped persuade the Woodside oil and gas company and the Western Australian state government to reverse their entrenched positions against listing the sites as world heritage under UNESCO auspices.

But then things got heated.

First it was the national government in Canberra.

Backward changes in the past few days to federal environmental legislation may allow the Environment Minister, Senator Ian Campbell, to indefinitely delay his decision on heritage listing the Burrup Peninsula, leaving it open to destructive development.

In response, several senators called for an emergency heritage listing in Federal Parliament - and the Minister has until Monday December 18 to respond.

Now is the time to phone or fax the Minister to ensure he makes the right decision before Monday and has the Burrup emergency listed. Follow the link for the numbers you need.

www.getup.org.au/ListTheBurrup

While publicly supporting heritage listing both Woodside and the state government are trying to get one final stab into the Burrup Peninsula.

They're now backing a version of the development project that still requires hundreds of the priceless rock carvings to be moved or destroyed.

By Christmas Woodside could be in a position to begin bulldozing some very important land for a project with as yet no confirmed location.

We're not interested in public relations trickery. We want this priceless heritage saved. Phone or fax the Minister to emergency list by Monday.

An emergency heritage listing would halt the frantic rush for development and call for a more considered approach.

We'd all like the development to go ahead - just not in a way that will needlessly condemn these priceless carvings to the quarry, especially when legitimate, alternative sites exist.

A few weeks ago we reminded Senator Campbell that the win-win situation he was calling for was right in front of him. Today it is urgent we remind him that, despite all the new smokescreens, it's still there, bright as day.

Send Senator Campbell a Christmas message that will keep on giving hundreds of years into the future.
Thank you for taking action,

Diet Simon
borrowing from
The GetUp team

GetUp is an independent, not-for-profit community campaigning group. It uses new technology to empower Australians to have their say on important national issues.