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Thousands Flock to Australia's Uluru Before Climbing Is Banned on the Landmark Monolith
Thousands Flock to Australia's Uluru Before Climbing Is Banned on the Landmark Monolith
Jan 17, 2024 3:34 PM

Uluru as seen from the sunset viewing area on August 13, 2019, in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia. The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park board decided unanimously that the climb will close permanently on October 26, 2019.

(Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

At a Glance

Uluru is sacred to its traditional Aboriginal owners, known as Anangu.The Anangu have long asked visitors not to climb on the monolith.Thousands of tourists are inundating the area for one last chance to climb.

Thousands of tourists continue to flood into central Australia to scale the massive rusty red monolith known as Uluru before it is closed to climbing next month.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, rises 1,141 feet out of the scrubland in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. It has been one of Australia's top tourist attractions since the 1950s. The national park is also recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Area.

To its traditional Aboriginal owners, known as Anangu, Uluru is a sacred site.

“It is an extremely important place, ,” Sammy Wilson, chairman of the park’s board of management, said in a 2017 statement. “We want you to come, hear us and learn.”

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"Whitefellas see the land in economic terms where Anangu see it as Tjukurpa. If the Tjukurpa is gone so is everything," Wilson said, referring to that links Anangu to the environment and their ancestors.

Later that same year, the park board unanimously voted to ban climbing on Uluru on Oct. 26, 2019.

Since the ban was announced, the park has been filled with visitors. As hotels and campgrounds filled, , the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. The report also said tourists were dumping trash, lighting fires and emptying their campers' sewage tanks on private property.

Safety has also been a concern. Since the 1950s, 37 confirmed deaths have been confirmed on Uluru. The most recent was a 76-year-old , according to The Guardian.

“It is very busy at the moment, and that is largely to do with the closure of the climb," Stephen Schwer, the chief executive of Tourism Central Australia, told the New York Times. “ on the existing infrastructure.”

Visitors begin the Mala Walk trail at Uluru on August 12, 2019, in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia. According to Parks Australia Uluru has welcomed 244,075 visitors this calendar year, an increase of 18.7%.

(Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

In 2018, more than up 20% from the year before, and 2017 was up 20% from 2016, Steven Baldwin, park operations and visitor services manager, told Skift, a travel news site. The park has seen 244,075 visitors so far this year, Parks Australia reported.

“Clearly the numbers are increasing as we approach the climb end date," Baldiwn said, "and I’m expecting further growth, particularly during the upcoming school holidays in late September, early October.”

Since 1992, Anangu have placed signs at the base of the rock reading, “This is our home” and “Please don’t climb.” As visitors learned the sacred place Uluru held in the lives of Anangu, fewer climbed the monolith.

In the 1990s, , according to National Geographic. By 2015, the number of climbers fell to 16 percent.

Mike Misso, manager of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, said he expects many visitors to continue coming to the park after the climbing ban takes effect next month. He said there will be more focus on culture and history at the park.

"These ideas will provide visitors with but also give benefits for traditional owners," Misso told ABC.

Wilson, the park board's chairman, said, "We're not moving the rock away from visitors to come visit us. It's just this one thing."

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