Final climbers booed as ban on ascending Uluru comes into force
● Last group of tourists scale Oz landmark held to be a sacred site
Nature seemed to be siding with indigenous Australians’ demand for Uluru to be respected as a sacred site when high winds threatened to prematurely end the final day before a ban on ascending the sandstone monolith.
Rangers yesterday warned hundreds of anxious tourists who gathered at the base of the iconic rock before dawn they would miss their last opportunity to ever scale its 348 metre summit unless blustery conditions subsided.
But the winds calmed and the first of around 1,000 climbers started their ascent at a chain handhold up the steep western face three hours later than scheduled. An indigenous onlooker booed them.
The ascent was permanently closed to climbers late in the afternoon. Those already on the rock had until sunset to find their way down.
Janet Ishikawa flew from her Hawaiian home to central Australia to make the climb on the final possible day. She likened the Uluru controversy to a furore over plans to build a giant telescope on Hawaii’s highest peak, which protesters consider sacred.
“It’s a total over-reaction,” she said. “All of a sudden they want to take ownership of all this stuff. They say you shouldn’t climb because of all this sacred stuff. I can still respect it and climb it.”
The ban was a unanimous decision made two years ago by 12 members of the Uluru-kata Tjuta National Park board of management, but it is an outcome that has divided both indigenous Australians as well as the wider world.
The polarity of opinions has been highlighted in recent months as thousands of visitors converged on one of Australia’s most famous landmarks to make a final trek to the top. Tourists have been illegally camping on roadsides for miles because the local camping ground and accommo dation were booked. Today – the day from when climbing becomes punishable by a 6,300 Australian dollar (£3,354) fine – marks 34 years since the federal government gave the Anangu the land title to the national park in which Uluru stands.
Sammy Wilson, who chaired the board that banned the climb, described the prohibition as a cause for celebration. Mr Wilson is a member of the Anangu tribe who are Uluru’s traditional owners.
“If I travel to another countourist try and there is a sacred site, an area of restricted access, I don’t enter or climb it, I respect it,” he said.
“It is the same here for Anangu.”
There has long been tension within the indigenous population around the money that climbers bring and the rock’s significance as a sacred site.
“I am happy and sad, two ways,” said Kevin Cooley, a resident of the Mutitjulu indigenous community in the rock’s shadow who collects the Uluru tourists’ garbage. He fears numbers and the local economy will decline.
The biggest drop in foreign visitors could be the Japanese, who have proven to be the most committed climbers. Signs around the rock have long discouraged climbing, describing Uluru as a “place of great knowledge” and noting that Anangu traditional law prohibits climbing.
The proportion of visitors who climb has been steadily declining, with more than four in five respecting the Anangu’s wishes in recent years.
The Anangu refer to tourists as “munga” or ants. The analogy was clearest in recent weeks with queues forming long before the climb opens at 7am each day at the base of the rock’s steep western face.
While the rock had been known as Uluru for thousands of years, British-born explorer William Gosse was credited with discovering it in 1873 and named it Ayers Rock after the then-premier of the British colony of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers.
In 1993, it became the first official dual-named feature in the Northern Territory.