Ayers Rock: Overpriced GUILT?

by Michael
(The top of Ayers Rock)

It is my understanding that traditional owners are in possession of both Uluru and the closest "resort".

Note from B.: The traditional owners don't own the resort. I wrote on the page about the resort that the tourism giant Voyages does: Ayers Rock Accommodation.
I hear that as of two months ago Voyages has sold the resort to "Indigenous Business Australia". But that is still a big industry body, and not the Anangu. (Thank you to the anonymous commenter for the heads up.)

Uluru National Park is a Commonwealth national park.

If you are going to advertise your "sacred" site to ignorant tourists, whose main reason for travelling 3000km is to climb it, then why kick up a stink about the climb?

The Aboriginal people have more pressing issues than who is walking near the graves of their ancestors, when I die I hope my descendants don't have to pay an entry fee to enter the cemetery where I am buried, and you know what, if my grandchildren find a tree in the cemetery to climb, im okay with that.

Comments for Ayers Rock: Overpriced GUILT?

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"Possession" of Uluru
by: Birgit

Thanks for your input Michael.

I really need to write a more detailed page about the "ownership" of Uluru, how decisions are made, into which pockets the entry fees go etc. Tourists are indeed awfully ignorant about it and these misconceptions are far too common.

Misconception
by: Katia

If you are going to a sacred site to clamber all over it, perhaps you have some misconceptions.

Uluru is a special, magical place and we need to respect the request of the local people not to climb.

I lived there for four months and my understanding is that the local people don't insist that we don't climb, indeed they really do not make a fuss. They quietly and respectfully try to suggest to us ignorant children not to climb, to slow down and to appreciate.

I walked and sat and admired Uluru very much and never climbed, I can say that I totally enjoyed visiting this sacred, spiritual place.

Get some humility and take a breath. Just stop and look for once instead of consuming.

Stupid is as Stupid does.
by: Anonymous

First of all I really wish people would take the time to gain all the facts before writing stupid comments.

First fact no one is buried on the rock. Second the entry fee is part and parcel with any federal run park.

And third if you're stupid enough to write uninformed comments on how you travelled all that way to a place that doesn't advertise in any shape or form the climbing of the rock, then take the time to do some research on what you can and can't do.

And lastly when I was a kid I wasn't allowed to go into a cemetery to climb the trees as it was considered disrespectful...funny that ayy.

Water Catchment
by: Wanmpi

How many climbers do you reckon get to the top and take a dump? Sounds like a silly question. Well it isn't. If you were here and had seen the beginning of the waterfall when it rains, it looks just like a storm drain in one of our major cities, full of foam and chemicals that have built up and plastic and other debris including used nappies, all get washed from the top and end up in waterholes that are not running all the time.

Sad truth of it is the water holes were a source of life for thousands of years for the animals and people who shared it. Now if you drink it you will get sick. ALL religion is water. And if you think I'm wrong then show me a race of humans that have survived with out it.

I say put a big clear tank at the base and if you want to climb you should have to drink a cup of what is in the waterhole. That's fair. Afterall the animals have to and they are not pooing on your roof.

Voyages NO LONGER owns Ayers Rock Resort
by: Anonymous outback

As of October 2010, Ayers Rock Resort was sold to the Aboriginal corporation, Indigenous Business Australia.

This is not the Traditional Owners of Uluru, but another Aboriginal group. However, they are promising to employ more local Anangu over the next 5 years.

We will await this eagerly!

The Rock
by: Anonymous

Interesting comments. I have lived in the resort on and off for four years. I climbed it a couple of times and admired it a 1000 times and more. The traditional owners ask you not to climb, but do understand that you may have travelled a long way. So they would not stop you except if the weather is absoluately dangerous.

People in a way are buried on the rock due to their bodies not being found because they did something silly like chase a hat while being too close to the edge. So if you climb, respect the area, follow the path and never leave behind what you took up with you. It is a National Park and should be treated like one.

Love the place and the fond memories : )

No traditional owners
by: Rocky

There are no traditional owners of Ayers Rock. Between discovery of the rock around 1865 and white visitors taking a tourism interest from the 1940's, Aboriginal people did not visit the place. They had no interest in it other than as a landmark.
With the advent of land rights (thanks Gough) the aborigines could see a good buck. And the rest is history.
Mutitjulu was the old resort handed to the current residents who had been cleared out of Alice Springs prior to Charles and Diana visiting in 1983!
I've met the fellow who dug the sacred Mutitjulu waterhole with an excavator! And if you look really closely you will see a garden hose through a crack in the rock keeping the pond topped up.
And as for restricting climbers on the rock; well, only when there's plenty of gate takings.Less tourists = more climbing available.
Oh, please, this is a fantastic place, don't get me wrong, but it's based on a farce.

Why is Money so Important?
by: Anonymous

This is the sacred heart of our country that we are talking about. The traditional people kept it safe for thousands of years. Colonists have been in the centre for about 80 years and have wiped out all of the middle sized mammals, heaps of plants and have destroyed the culture and polluted the water holes.
We might have something to learn? Maybe we have something to learn about respect?
Why are we using our world heritage listed park as a tourist destination at all? I would prefer to see it closed to all but the most respectful of pilgrims, and for us to make our money out of something else.
I have been to Mutitjulu - the aboriginal settlement near the rock, and to Yulara, the resort near the rock. Let me tell you, if the locals in Mutitjulu are getting money, they must all be drinking top shelf alcohol and sniffing cocaine, because their community looks like it is in poverty.
From what I see (I live here), mostly poor, old or under-educated people make the choice to stand on the dead bodies of the 40 people who have died climbing the rock in order to disrespect the park's owners and climb.
They were conned at handback to keep it open by the way.

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