History of climbing Ayers Rock: Part 1 33000BC to 1873AD The proposed ban on climbing Ayers Rock will bring to an end a 35000 year old tradition of climbing that likely began when the first humans arrived at the foot of this grand rock outcrop. The arrival of humans in the arid region of central Australia is dated at about 35-29,000 BP [1] from two cave shelters: Puritjarra and Kulpi Mara in the Western MacDonnell Ranges about 160 km north of Ayers Rock. No dating has been undertaken at Ayers Rock, but it is reasonable to assume that the area probably saw intermittent habitation by humans around the same time, give or take a millennia or two. Given the universality of human curiosity and the strategic importance of Ayers Rock as a water resource and vantage point, it is likely that the first climbers of the rock were among those first arrivals 35,000 years ago. From their lookout they would have seen the end of the megafauna, and seen off the ice age that ended the march o...
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.