[roenxi]

These are caves in the Pilbara. There are a loooot of caves in the Pilbara. Pretty much all of them are as old as time itself; and most (all?) of them will have had some sort of Aboriginal contact in the ~65,000 years Australia has been settled. 'Aboriginal site' is a broad term.

Designating them as 'important archaeological sites' would render Australia un-minable. There is nowhere in Australia that hasn't been important to the Aboriginals at some point in the last 65,000 years. Look at how Europe is dotted with cultural sites and that really only track back a few thousand years. You mention Stonehenge, a modern construction dating back to only ~3,000BC. Australian Aboriginals claim a much older heritage.

To cover that many nooks, hollows and small sites with the umbrella of heritage protection is basically equivalent to debating destroying the mining industry as we know it in Australia. It is a very big debate.