Right to Climb

Ayers Rock Geodetic Station Back in April we forked out some hard earned cash to digitise a copy of a file held at the National Archives of Australia titled:  Ayers Rock - Geodetic Station . NAA promised they would let me know when it was available. Checking the NAA website today I noted that the file was available for download. I guess that letter is in the mail (electronic correspondence received about 2 hours after we started writing this post). Nevertheless, it's been money well spent as there are some fantastic photos in there showing the condition of the old cairn and the construction of the new, along with associated records including a guidebook for Ayers Rock. Follow the link above and search on " Ayers Rock - Geodetic Station"  to download a copy of the file. We have requested the associated sub item titled " Ayers Rock - Geodetic Station - [Geodetic - Memorial Plaque drawing x 2]"  also be opened. We have transcribed the note in the file by Sur

The 20% Myth Conclusion: On days the Climb is Fully open, the proportion of visitors climbing averages 44%! In its 2010 management plan Parks Australia outlined  a series of measures that it would use to justify a ban on climbing. These are outlined in section 6.3.3 (C): (c) The climb will be permanently closed when:  the Board, in consultation with the tourism industry, is satisfied that adequate new visitor experiences have been successfully established, or the proportion of visitors climbing falls below 20 per cent, or the cultural and natural experiences on offer are the critical factors when visitors make their decision to visit the park. In our opinion the decision to climb, or not, should be left to individuals. But none of the conditions outlined above have been met. Tourists have been omitted entirely from the consultation process and any research on visitor intentions has been conducted by groups strongly biased against the climb making any results statistically

Climbing legends #11 Edna Saunders Series of posts celebrating climbers of Ayers Rock. In an early post we drew attention to a book by Edna Saunders (Bradley) "A Rock to remember". This post celebrates Edna as a legend of the climb. A rock to remember. Available on Kindle via Amazon.  During her first visit to Ayers Rock as part of the Petticoat Safari, Edna climbed twice. Her first climb well known as part of the Petticoat Safari group (see earlier post ). Edna climbed again the next day to a special location on the Rock that only very few have visited and certainly very few women. An excerpt of her adventure appears below. To gain an insight into early tourism at Ayers Rock we recommend buying Edna's book. She remains active in supporting tourism in central Australia. What a remarkable woman! Extract from A rock to remember by Edna Bradley (Edna Saunders) To find out if they made it out you'll have to buy the book! The Rock Pool  Little did we kn