The Murujuga petroglyphs are a spectacular collection of stone engravings. At over forty thousand years old, they are significantly older than the Lascaux cave paintings in France and eight times the age of the Egyptian Pyramids and Stonehenge.
They are a continuous forty thousand year record of human history, including pictures of ancient megafauna through to the arrival of European sailing ships.
The intervention comes as Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek decides whether to allow a further 50 years of acid gas pollution from the oldest and most polluting gas export terminal in Australia, Woodside's North West Shelf.
Approval would also allow a further 6 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The decision is due before the end of February.
Signatories include many of Australia's best known artists including painter Ben Quilty, authors Thomas Keneally and Di Morrisey, and rock icon Jimmy Barnes.
The list also includes many of Australia's most successful artists such as Patricia Piccinini and Tracey Moffat, authors Peter Carey, Robyn Davidson and Kate Grenville, and musicians including Nigel Westlake, Shane Howard, Jack River and John Butler. They are joined by major international figures including author Will Self, Robert McFarlane and sculptor Sir Antony Gormley.
"Other nations would never allow this to happen to their greatest cultural and artistic treasures," said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor at The Australia Institute.
"It is unimaginable that Britain would allow a massive industrial gas plant pouring out acid gas emissions a few hundred meters from Stonehenge, or Egypt beside the Pyramids, or France beside the Lascaux caves.
"This is exactly what is happening in Australia. It has to stop."
