This series of posts showcase the contents of the Last Logbook on Ayers Rock. Part 4: Cover and pages 51-70. 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 ...
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.