Re-open Ayers Rock Call me a minga, but from where I sat, the only people who resemble ants are the ones below who never experienced the spiritual climbing thrall of this view. Fred Reiss 2017 Summit July 2018 The world-renowned walk (climb for some) to the summit of our greatest natural wonder Ayers Rock was closed to the public on Saturday 26 October 2019. It's impossible to put a dollar figure on the social cost of the closure - the loss of awe and wonder for 100,000s of visitors, but we can estimate the economic damage and it is extraordinary. Figures from Parks Australia show a three year average (2014-2016) of 295,000 visitors prior to the ban being announced in late 2017. Visitor numbers exploded between 2017 and the end of 2019 as 1000s and 1000s of people tried to climb before the ban - figures for 2018-2019 show a whopping 395,338 park visitors, just shy of the Sydney Olympic year (2000) record of 396,456! Since the climb closure, tourism in the red center h...
Our mountains belong to all of us. The Right to Climb them and bask in their views that inspire awe and wonder is as old as the human genome. This long-established cultural tradition is under threat by a small group of bureaucrats determined to impose their way on the rest of the world. It is right to Climb because we have the Right to climb. If you don’t exercise your rights you lose them. Don't let petty nanny state bureaucrats take them away.