Re-open Ayers Rock! Cost of ban $44M per year!

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 has languished. It was smashed by ridiculous travel restrictions during the covid pandemic. Visitor numbers post-covid with the ban in place (2022-2025), average 251,000 visitors per year, down 44,000 visitors annually since the prior the ban on climbing being announced (figures from Parks Australia Annual report 2025).

The simple joy of walking the track to the summit of Ayers Rock and basking in the glorious desert scenery was the essential red centre experience Australia was known for, for decades. It seems it's considerably less attractive to tourists with the climbing ban in place. Which other country shuts off its natural wonders to the public and so eagerly shoots itself in the foot and causes so much damage for irrational reasons?

The cost for red centre travel in Australia is extraordinary. Average travel and accommodation costs for a "budget" three day Ayers Rock visit are put at $1000 per person (AI), higher for better accommodation and more tour options, and up to $4000 for a luxury visit that might include a helicopter flight near the Rock.

Uluru has now become a circus as managers attempt to replace the simple majesty of the "Climb" experience with a side show alley of carnival attractions. The park is being turned into a crass Disneyland-like experience -Drone shows (from $310 per adult), plastic lights littering the desert dunes ($50) and segways ($190) around the "base". The ridiculous bans on photography remain ("no one owns the copyright on these beautiful natural formations" - Ken Duncan 2010).

The Uluru "Blimp" - SkyShip Uluru (2018) - failed to deliver!

Using the budget figure of $1000 per visitor, the total annual loss to the economy due to the climbing ban given the drop in visitation, is at least $44,000,000 (yes $44 million!) per annum. Lost income to Mutijulu owners (25% of the $38 gate fee) is $418k per annum - I'm sure that loss is being felt.

With common sense rational decisions being made about public access to the summits of the Glass House Mountains, and Mt Warning, it is long overdue that we look towards reopening our greatest tourist asset. Not only for economic reasons, but also to allow the world back into one of the most awe-inspiring experiences of the natural world on the planet.

We are looking to open a dialogue with Park owners and managers about reopening the Ayers Rock climb.

The closure was based on myths and lies - the truth will win in the end.

REOPEN AYERS ROCK!

Watch this space!

Mt Warning closure - 4 years of lies and misinformation

Mt Warning closure - 4 years of lies and misinformation March 30 (Easter Saturday) marks the 4-year anniversary of the "temporary" closure of the Mt Warning summit track. Some thoughts and rambled musings below. I spoke with Ben Fordham about the anniversary on the Ben Fordham Breakfast show on 2GB. Ben's response a classic: "If you want to climb, just climb it!" Link to that interview HERE . 4 year anniversary of bureaucratic madness We know the exact date of the closure thanks to bushwalker: Tertia Starr Maynard, who posted a photo of a note left on her windscreen by NPWS rangers to the reopen Facebook page . It was dated and read “NPWS advises Wollumbin National Park is closing from today due to covid19. Gate is not locked but please close behind you as you exit. Thanks NPWS.” Photo by T Maynard - the last walkers out. In the 4 years since, after other parks were reopened, Mt Warning remained closed and the reason for the temporary closure morphed to in...

BOMBSHELL DOCUMENT LEAK - WCG MEETING MINUTES 2011-2024

WCG MEETING MINUTES 2011-2024 We have been given access to minutes of meetings of the Wollumbin Consultative Group between 2011 and 2024. On the basis of the minutes it is clear the time for an independent public inquiry into management of Mt Warning National Park and the entire NSW Parks estate is long overdue. Documents are made available as a matter of deep public interest in current management practices in our National Parks. What is happening at Mt Warning will be occurring in other Parks across NSW as NPWS continue to push for and develop handback and lease agreements of our public parks. In our view these plans are divisive: they prevent public involvement in managing public land, they will add considerable cost to managing our parks, and they will result in further irrational bans and limits on public access. NPWS: "Custodians are looking at ways to progress handback at the June meeting. We envisage it will take 10-15 years for handback across the whole state."...

17th death on the Rock

17th death on the Rock ABC report that a 76 year old Japanese man collapsed on the steep part of the climb and despite first aid, was not able to be revived. The elderly Japanese man likely died as a result of heart complications, probably brought on by existing (perhaps unknown) medical conditions and over exerting himself. He appears to have died revelling in the opportunity life provides. RIP Brother of the Rock. Our thoughts with his family and the first attenders who did their best to treat him. It's sad, but life goes on, and so should the climb. His death marks the 17th death ON the Rock since 26 May 1962 when 16 year old school boy Brian Strieff, on a school excursion with Carey Grammar, wondered off the main path in heavy fog on the way down and fell to his death. ABC's report indicate it is the 37th death, but these figures from Parks Australia have not been substantiated. It seems that many of the deaths Parks Australia claim to have occurred ON the Rock occurr...

Right to Climb

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