WA rock art should be protected: Greens THE Australian Greens want Aboriginal rock art in Western Australia's Burrup Peninsula to be protected and are pushing for the area to be given world heritage status. Speaking with indigenous representatives from the Burrup region, Greens senator Scott Ludlam said the area had been treated by successive governments with "profound contempt." "We think nothing less than world heritage standing for this extraordinary precinct is deserved," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. We will continue to fight for that for as long as it takes. Senator Ludlam said the federal government could progress the debate by acknowledging the cultural and environmental world heritage values of the whole Dampier Archipelago. He wants the government to start the process of getting the area inscribed as a World Heritage Site. Burrup custodian, Wilfred Hicks, met with environment minister Tony Burke about the issue on Wednesday morning. "I feel that we are progressing forward and we still hope to see in the next 12 months where we get to," Mr Hicks said, highlighting the importance of the Burrup rock art to local indigenous people. The significance of the rock art is because it has been handed down to us from our families ... the spirit in the rocks stays there. The Burrup Peninsula, situated about 1550 kilometres north of Perth in the Pilbara, is the world's largest rock art precinct. It contains thousands of Aboriginal carvings depicting human figures, faces as well as animals which are estimated to be tens of thousands of years old.