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Huge deposits of iron ore and other valuable minerals in the remote Weld Range 50km northwest of Cue are attracting mining to the Murchison region.

But before resource companies make a move on their successful exploration, UWA archaeologists are investigating and documenting sites of extraordinary cultural and archaeological significance in partnership with Wajarri Traditional Owners.

The 60km-long range about 600km north-east of Perth, is home to the National Heritage-listed Wilgie Mia and Little Wilgie ochre mines and known to contain at least 18 more sites of critical cultural importance.

They include ecologically diverse hunting and camping grounds, waterholes, rock shelters, law grounds, specialist seed-gathering places, burial grounds, quarry sites, rock-art sites (often dominated by hand stencils of women and children), and stone arrangements, including one used to teach young boys undergoing initiation how to navigate by the stars.

"These places present a rare insight into past lives, communications, trade and marriages," said archaeologist, Project Co-ordinator and Masters student Viviene Brown.

Wajarri Traditional Owners have worked closely for several years with archaeologists from UWA's Eureka Archaeological Research and Consulting Centre to gather site data but there is little official record so far of the cultural and archaeological treasures they have uncovered.

"There has been very little archaeological work done in the Murchison, compared with the Pilbara and the South-West," Viviene said. "It is such a remote area, that, without a railroad connection, large scale, open-cut iron ore mining hasn't yet been possible, despite there being talk way back in the 1890s about potential, high-quality iron ore loads in the Range.

"It is probably the same complex geology of the area that attracted Aboriginal people thousands of years ago. Many of the rock outcrops in the Weld Range are of sufficient quality for making stone tools."

Viviene is concentrating on tool stone and why the traditional owners selected the materials they did and how they managed it.

Her partner in the Weld Range Web of Knowledge project, with $229,800 funding from the federal government's Indigenous Heritage Program, is Dr Vicky Winton.

She is focusing on the ochre mines of Wilgie Mia and Little Wilgie.  With the help of UWA's Centre for Forensic Science, she is tracing the use of ochre from both sites to other places around the state.

"We know there was an ochre trade around the state, so there will be an exciting story to tell," Dr Winton said. "It seems ochre was used in nearly all spheres of traditional Aboriginal life, from daily body ornamentation to the production of rock art, and in practical applications such as tanning of hides."

Dr Winton said a key goal of the broader Weld Range Web of Knowledge project is to produce a cultural heritage management plan for prospective land users to ensure a collective approach to heritage management rather than the current piecemeal approach.  The project would also foster the archaeological recording and reporting skills of Wajarri Traditional Owners to enable them to secure better heritage outcomes.

Wajarri traditional owner Colin Hamlett said the project was important for all Australians. "We thank UWA's Eureka group for making this possible."

"And we are grateful to the Wajarri people," Viviene said. "Without their co-operation and enthusiasm, none of this research would be possible."