The Last Logbook of Ayers Rock. Part 5

The Last Logbook of Ayers Rock. Part 5 - Pages 71-90

This series of posts showcase the contents of the Last Logbook on Ayers Rock.

Part 5: Cover and pages 71-90.

Last July when I climbed the Rock with my daughters I left a blank 192 exercise book in a tupperware container at the summit memorial. The front cover looked like this:

The text on the cover reads:
Signing the summit logbook has been an important cultural institution at Ayers Rock since the 1890s. Sadly, since the late 1980s Park Management have denied Australians and International visitors the opportunity to record their achievement. The first climbers to leave a note marking their achievement were Allan Breadon and W Oliver on March 4, 1897: “We added a few stones to the pile and left two wax vesta boxes (tins) with names and date thereon.”
Glass coffee jars held the names of climbers between 1932 and the 1950s. In September 1950 the jars held the names of about 70 climbers.
Formal log books, termed the “Achievers’ book”, replaced the assorted collection of jars and tins lodged at the summit cairn in 1966. These were maintained by the Conservation Commission of the NT into the late 1980s, until Parks Australia without consultation, and against the conditions of the lease agreement, stopped maintaining them. Shamefully in the 2000s the log book shelf in the pedestal was clumsily sealed over preventing access - an act of vandalism against our cultural heritage.
For the period between 20/05/1966 - 24/05/1986 171 logbooks recorded the names of about 1.3 MILLION climbers. Until the pedestal was completed in 1970 log books were housed in a tin container on the stone cairn. The whereabouts of the jars left by McKinnon with the slips of paper signed by the first climbers is unknown.
This is the LAST logbook on Ayers Rock. We request the last person to sign it, place it in the envelope provided and post it. We will direct it to join the 171 others in the NT Archives.

The book was returned by Parks Australia using the self-addressed envelope I left with it. The first names were ours written at 4pm on the 17th of July 2018. The last date was the 21st of August, 2018. Over that time more than 2400 people had signed the book from 33 countries. The majority of comments were made by families like ours, visiting the summit to gain an experience of the natural world, bask in those glorious world heritage listed views and create memories to last a lifetime. The oldest climber was an 83 year old woman, the youngest not yet born. The contents make a mockery of claims by Parks Australia that few want to Climb. In fact people from all over the world will enjoy the Climb up to the last minute the gate is shut for good, and darkness descends on the Park.

The Last Log Book Pages 71-90