On WA's Burrup Peninsula, where 50,000-year-old engravings from First Nations people are etched across the rock, Traditional Owners say new funding will help protect one of the world's oldest cultural archives.

Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) has welcomed the Western Australian Government's announcement of $9.1 million to continue the Murujuga Rock Art Monitoring Program, the long-running effort to track the health of the peninsula's petroglyphs amid industrial expansion and rising emissions.

The Burrup, recently added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, holds more than a million engravings depicting ancestral beings, human figures, animals and shifting coastlines.

For the Ngarda-Ngarli people, it is both a sacred cultural landscape and a living record of their ancestors.

Ngarda-Ngarli is the collective name for the five Traditional Owner groups of Murujuga — Ngarluma, Yindjibarndi, Yaburara, Mardudhunera and Wong-Goo-Tt-Oo — whose ties to this Pilbara landscape date back tens of thousands of years.

MAC chair, Peter Hicks, said the funding recognises the scale of responsibility Traditional Owners carry in caring for the site.

"Murujuga is not just a place of ancient art — it is a living, breathing landscape, recognised by UNESCO for its Outstanding Universal Value and cared for by our people for at least 50,000 years," he said.

Mr Hicks emphasised the World Heritage listing had affirmed Indigenous-led management, but long-term scientific monitoring remained essential as heavy industry continues to operate on the peninsula.

"We may have secured World Heritage, but looking ahead, we can't do it alone as we work to meet ongoing UNESCO reporting conditions," he said.

"Sustainable, long-term investment is critical."

The funding will help support Aboriginal rangers who map, document and patrol the peninsula, monitoring changes in the rock art and safeguarding sacred sites.