A Guide to Climbing Ayers Rock Book Launch

A Guide to Climbing Ayers Rock launched in Melbourne 5 December 2018. 
The book was officially released on Wednesday evening at Il Gambero in Lygon St Carlton with the assistance of Quadrant's online Editor Roger Franklin. Thankyou Roger for your support.
Only 323 left to climb before madness takes its toll.

Photo credit Allan Kerr

Copy of Marc's speech below:
see also Those who would steal Ayers Rock at Quadrant

A Guide to Climbing Ayers Rock

It’s been surprising how difficult it has been to generate wider interest in the closure of an innocent outdoor activity that remains on the bucket list of many visitors to the red centre. Australian’s are pretty much asleep at the wheel on this and when they finally wake up, I think they will be surprised to find how much of life’s small pleasures they have been locked out of. By then of course, as we will likely see with the Climb up Ayers Rock, it will be too late to change anything.

This book was born out of a deep boiling rage that something as wonderful and awe inspiring as the simple act of walking up a hill in the middle of nowhere to look over magnificent views of the desert could be closed down by a bunch of weak kneed passionless politicians, dead hearted bureaucrats, and a few self-fish land owners who have forgotten the wise words and actions of their elders – old men who graciously shared their home and their stories with many tourists and helped make the visit to Ayers Rock something magical. The reputation the Rock has gained as a place of wonder is partly due to these more enlightened custodians from the recent past who also climbed up their rock. 

You don’t have to dig very deep to find out that almost everything Parks Australia and the Park Board say about the Climb is utter make believe. It’s like they exist in another universe where history only started in 1991. This was the year Australia was first told that the locals never climb their rock. This book will go a long way to set the facts straight and provide a foundation to allow a debate about the Climb to finally take place. Here’s hoping that logic and reason win out and the proposed ban is lifted so millions more can join the 7 million or so who have already climbed to the summit of this grand sandstone monolith that lies at the heart of our country. 

I have a number of thankyous to make. First thanks to Roger Franklin for his support, not only with his words of wisdom tonight but in publishing a number of articles on Quadrant Online to keep the climbing flame burning. 

Thanks to Professor Ian Plimer, easily Australia’s best known and most knowledgeable geological brain for writing the foreword. Ian has tackled some of the most contentious political and scientific issues in the country and I am deeply humbled to have my name appear with his on the cover. 

I only had one publisher in mind when I thought the fruits of my historical research would be of wider interest to others, and perhaps help effect political change. Something that might be read in the two hours or so it takes to fly from Perth or Sydney to Ayers Rock.  Anthony Cappello at Connor Court did not let me down. Once again he delves deep into those dangerous ideas main stream publishers are too afraid to go near. Thankyou Anthony for giving civilisation a chance to save itself once again. I’d also like to thank the doyen of adventure travel Dick Smith; former Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Adam Giles, and the ever sensible Psychologist Anthony Dillon for writing a few kind words about the book that appear on the back cover. Brave men one and all. 

Everyone I spoke with who had climbed the Rock seemed re-energized by recounting their experiences and found it difficult to reconcile the wonder of their adventure with the sanctimony and misery of the new rules at Uluru. In times I was struggling to find time to collect facts and figures, or having to respond to, or ignore, outrageous irrational taunts from people who are unable to separate the simple act of enjoying the natural world from the politics of race; I would recall their joyous accounts and be invigorated. Thank you to all those climbers!     I would also like to thank the XNatmappers former surveyors of the Division of National mapping, who helped survey this immense country, for their assistance in obtaining documents and providing permission to reuse photographs and text excerpts. Thanks also to Rachel Kucher at the Lutheran Archives for permission to use frames from Lou Borgelt’s remarkable 1946 movie. Thanks to Edna Saunders, one of the original Petty Coat safari members, who has been to places on the Rock few will ever get to see, for permission to use a photo of the Petticoat Safari girls at the summit and for discussing her experiences at the Rock with me. A special note of thanks to Ranger Steven Baldwin at the Park for doing his best to answer questions, but most of all for returning “The Last Logbook”. Thanks also to Bobby Roff wife of Derek for filling in details about times when the Park was a more enjoyable place to visit. Thanks also to my family and friends for their patience with my obsession to get the truth out.

The book is dedicated to the 7 million brothers and sisters of the Rock who have climbed it, especially former head Ranger Derek Roff who successfully managed the Park for 18 years between 1968 and 1985 during a time of dramatic political and social upheaval; and Anangu man Tiger Tjalkalyirri who was one of the first climbing guides and entertained tourists into his old age. Their common sense, good humour, patience and understanding have been missing from the Red Centre for far too long.

As an example of the misinformation put out by the Board, and this one is quite new so it’s not in the book. The Australian newspaper recently reported on a claim I have lodged with the Human Rights Commission that argues the ban on climbing breaches the Racial Discrimination act because after the ban is enforced Anangu will be able to climb for cultural reasons but non-Anangu visitors will not be able to celebrate their cultural heritage of climbing Ayers Rock. When presented with Lou Borgelt’s 1946 film footage that shows Tiger Tjalkalyirri, Mitenjerry Mick, Lou and his mate Cliff Thompson on the summit, splashing about and dancing in the puddles on the plateau and joking about at the small pile of rocks that used to mark the Rock’s highest point. Board Chairman Sammy Wilson said he believed Tiger had been “chasing a white­fella” for money  and “The whitefella was brainwashing him”. What utter nonsense! Tiger Tjalkalyirri was an extraordinary Australian. To get a glimpse of his character I recommend reading his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Tiger was a proud Anangu man and played a pivotal role in participating in the land rights claim that resulted in the hand back of Ayers Rock, he died just prior to the handover in early 1985. He was also a great entertainer and Derek Roff recounts a wonderful story about Tiger entertaining campers at the base of the Rock. The National Library has recordings of Tiger singing in Pitjantjatjara; telling legends of Uluru and Kata Tjuta; bush tucker; tribal lifestyle and history. It seems that Mr Tjalkalyirri’s interpretation of Tjukurpa, the aboriginal religion, differs from the current Board. As Mr Tjalkalyirri had lived a traditional life it can be argued that his interpretation of the rules surrounding access to the summit that provide for non-Anangu visitors is the correct one. A view shared by Principal Owner Paddy Uluru and other senior Anangu men. Paddy famously stated “if tourists are stupid enough to climb they are welcome to it". He also said  “the physical act of climbing was of no cultural interest”. It is a great insult to suggest Tjalkalyirri was “Brainwashed” and the Chairman of the Board should apologise for slighting this man’s good name.

In the newspaper article the Chairmen when told his Grandfather Paddy Uluru had no objections to tourists climbing suggested he was intimidated by white men like Derek Roff.  Look I’m calling shenanigans on this one also. As Roff outlines in his 1997 interview with the NT Oral History Unit the two men were in fact very close friends and Roff had the greatest respect for Paddy Uluru. In his interview with the Northern Territory Oral history unit Roff states: 

You know, of all the indigenous people that I have worked with _ _ in fact, I'm thinking, at the moment, I should say that of all the people that I have worked with, Paddy Uluru stands out.

He stands out with knowledge, the gift of friendliness. He was a mighty man. I haven't got the words. You know, he really was a tremendous person. And everybody respected him. The Aboriginal people respected him very much, and I certainly respected him very much.

Derek Roff was pivotal in closing off public access to the men's initiation cave at Mr Uluru’s insistence, and for facilitating the return of Aboriginal people to the their traditional lands and was entrusted with Aboriginal sacred artefacts. The suggestion that Paddy Uluru was intimidated by Derek Roff is utterly ludicrous. The Board Chairman owes both men an apology. 

In fact as you will find out when you read the book, with their ridiculous, unjustifiable decision to ban the world’s most iconic nature walk the Board and Parks Australia owe the whole world an apology.