Right to Climb

My comment piece in The Australian today... Uluru should be open for all to share the experience The board of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park has announced it will close the climb up Ayers Rock in October 2019. This may be the death of the national park as if you haven’t climbed it, you haven’t ­really visited it; and if you can’t climb it, I don’t believe it is worth going. Phillip Adams wrote in  The Weekend Australian Magazine  that white Australians liked “clambering over it, seeming to confuse this sacred site with a Gold Coast-style theme park”, and welcomed the climb’s closure. But there are many reasons the climb might be kept open. It is an exhilarating, extremely satisfying physical and mental ­experience. I have climbed the rock twice, the first time in the company of the science director of the Mars Pathfinder mission, ­enjoying the camaraderie, exertion, spiritual and mental exhilaration, and the spectacular views from the summit. The climb leaves...

Climb for Science: in Gosse's footsteps Before it's closed, your chance to walk on the side of logic and reason!  Friday 20 July 2018, repeating Saturday 20 July 2019. Simply climb the rock on the 20th of July and post a photo of yourself on social media at the summit cairn in your Climb for Science gear. Celebrating the 145th and 146th anniversaries of the assent of Ayers Rock by William Gosse and cameleer Kamran. Climb for Science will honour scientific exploration and research in central Australia with a celebratory climb up Ayers Rock/Uluru. The climb will be closed due to ignorance and petty bureaucracy on October 26 2019.

Amongst the research to be commemorated by the "Climb for Science" is the Mt Olga-Ayers Rock research expedition of 1950. Trevor Bloom at the summit cairn with altimeters August 1950. Expedition members including: Ewen, Kemsley, Moore, Broom, Greenhill, Lofthouse, Clarebrough. From the road log... TUESDAY, AUGUST 15th.  AT AYERS ROCK.  Up late (8.00 a.m.) for breakfast.                                                                                                            DU operated wonderfully on the 8 a.m. session and all criticisms of aerials & knobs ceased.  Several telegrams were sent after calling on John Nick, the only one of the party who knew the  phonetic alph...

In this excellent and informative article from 2015 Erwin Chlanda from the Alice Springs News raises important questions about the legitimacy of recent claims that the climb is sacred to Traditional Owners and the rigour of research by Parks Australia and Charles Darwin University. It seems the notion the climb is a concern to locals is only a recent phenomena. I had the opportunity of speaking with Paddy Uluru early in my work in Central Australia (I arrived in December 1974). Mr Uluru was the undisputed custodian of The Rock at that time. We spoke face to face at the base of monolith, and he was happy to be photographed with the Rock in the background. (Restrictions on photography of The Rock has since developed into a nasty, bitter and divisive issue. Apart from anything else the rules are stifling millions of dollars worth of free publicity of this tourist attraction.) Mr Uluru told me if tourists are stupid enough to climb the Rock, they’re welcome to it. For him there w...

Climb for Science: in Gosse's footsteps Friday 20 July 2018, repeating Saturday 20 July 2019 Before it's closed, your chance to walk on the side of logic and reason! William Gosse Celebrating the 145th and 146th anniversaries of the assent of Ayers Rock by William Gosse and cameleer Kamran. Climb for Science will honour scientific exploration and research in central Australia with a celebratory climb up Ayers Rock/Uluru. The climb will be closed due to ignorance and petty bureaucracy on October 26 2019. Climb for Science: your chance to stand on the side of logic and reason. More details coming...

The management board of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park said Uluru was "not a playground or theme park like Disneyland." Here's Disneyland: ... and here's a group of women climbing the rock: I'm sure astute readers can spot the similarities.

Compare the headlines.  As the rest of the world shares their natural and man made wonders - letting in the light, Uluru's indigenous people, aided by misguided public officials, turn the light off. The climb is integral to visiting Uluru. Seven new wonders of the world that were not previously accessible If visiting the world's most ancient temples and monuments-Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Chichen Itza, Petra-inspires your inner Indiana Jones, just imagine what it would be like to explore world wonders few people have ever even heard of yet. Some of the world's most staggering historical sites - places that have long existed as local secrets - have recently been made accessible thanks to a slew of intrepid tour operators, hoteliers, or infrastructure developments. In the coming years, these places will find their way onto hordes of global travellers' bucket lists, but for now they are still relatively under the radar. There are the dramatic, thousand-year-old ...

I got the most wonderful feeling of peace and perspective of life and living.   Edna Bradley  Picked up this gem of a tale by Edna Bradley one of the members of the 1957 Petticoat Safari via Amazon. A rock to remember. Available on Kindle via Amazon.  The story about the first climb is an epic. It's hard to believe a bunch of faceless, bloodless bureaucrats could read this and ban the climb. But ban it they have!  Excerpt below.   The girls at the summit:  Absolutely wonderful!

News from a more enlightened era:  Have you ever seen anything so wonderful? This is what they are taking away. The Petticoat Safari - Woman's Weekly Wed 23 Oct 1957 (Higher definition images available via the Link) "Of course I climbed the Rock," said Mrs. Kelty, five times a grandmother. "That' what I came for. And I've taken a pebble back for each of the grandchildren." First girl to climb the mountainside was Evelyn Camm, former dressmaker, now a Melbourne tram conductress, who said balancing on trams could have helped her balance on the Rock. And first "safari" girls to write names on paper, enclosing them in jam-tins or bottles at the stone cairn, were Colleen Lewin, of Tasmania, and Victorians Esma Davis, Jean Mason, and Nancie Reed. Lying around, sucking mandarins and admiring the view and the soaring eagles above, we were all feeling pretty smug about our achievement, when over the rise came grandmother Mrs. Sarah Esnouf, of ...

Banning climbing Ayers Rock/Uluru does nothing for Aboriginal reconciliation Julian Tomlinson, The Cairns Post, November 9, 2017 Already in response, other Aboriginal advocacies are calling for more natural landmarks to be closed to non-Aborigines, such as Mt Warning in northern NSW. Closing The Rock to climbers will likely set off a domino effect of similar exclusion orders around the country. Locally, entry to Mossman Gorge is controlled by the Kuku Yalanji people. They say entry needed to be managed to prevent damage by visitors. The same can’t be said for the hardy chunk of sandstone in Central Australia. Instead, it’s being closed for “cultural reasons”. In the Daintree, the State Government is looking at increasing the role of Aboriginal culture in managing the area. This includes limiting entry to “sacred sites”. Those proposing closures say indigenous law should trump the law of the land. For instance, chairman of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park...

Right to climb other wonders now under threat. Stop this madness now! They did it at Uluru, should we ban climbing at Mt Warning? "I would be very disappointed if they closed the mountain," Mr Bourchier said. He is concerned businesses in the Tweed Valley would be severely impacted if a similar ban to that at Uluru was implemented at Wollumbin. Of those staying at his park, Mr Bourchier claimed about 60% of tourists come to endure the five-hour round trip hike. ed- endure (?)  i think the word enjoy would better describe the feeling of walkers enjoying this natural wonderland. Read the full article via the link above.

Some letters in the Sydney Morning Herald 2 November 2017 With respect, Uluru belongs to the many, not the few The impending closure of the famous Uluru climbing track, while certainly understandable from a sacral point of view, from a social point of view seems to be based on the pretence that the rock is essentially owned by one group of people, rather than to be respectfully shared by all ("A rock, and a barred space", November 2). In 2005, I and many other domestic and international tourists conscientiously ascended the spine of the rock in the small window of opportunity that exists just after dawn. We did not spit on it, or leave rubbish, or etch our initials onto the hallowed surface. Unlike other man-made buildings or houses of worship, Uluru has physically existed well before human eyes first gazed upon its grandiose geographic majesty, and so should be more than the ultimate preserve of only a few. It forms part of our historic landscape, which should not be den...

On November 1, 2017 the management committee of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park announced the climb up Uluru/Ayers Rock would be permanently closed from October 2019. This decision taken without consulting the rightful owners: the Australian people. It is our aim to work to reverse this ridiculous arbitrary sanction. Climbing the rock is a long established Australian cultural tradition that dates from the 1870s. One that celebrates the unique geology, geomorphology, scenery and culture of central Australia. It is an expression of our exploring spirit, our quest for knowledge and enlightenment, and a test of our physical abilities. Millions of Australians and international visitors have become part of this unique cultural tradition. We have a right to Climb it and celebrate our long standing cultural traditions unfettered by irrational beliefs and overly restrictive bureaucratic  management practices that have arbitrarily closed the climb for over 80% of the time in the ...