Murray Watt ‘personally lobbied’ Unesco over barring of WA rock art from world heritage list

The environment minister says the report on the Murujuga petroglyphs has been clearly influenced' by environment campaigners

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia's environment minister, Murray Watt, has lobbied national Unesco ambassadors in a bid to overturn a recommendation that ancient rock art in Western Australia's north-west should not receive world heritage listing unless nearby industrial facilities shut down.

Delegations from the Australian government and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, a body established to represent five traditional Indigenous language groups, plan to attend a Unesco meeting in Paris next month to argue for an immediate world heritage listing for the Murujuga cultural landscape.