From the 26th of October there is finally peace on the red rock. Then no more snakes on climbers pull over the flanks of Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock. Because from Saturday the monolith in the middle of the Australian desert can not be climbed any more. After decades, the Aboriginal people are filled with the desire for respect for their sacred mountain.
But in the days before there is an enormous crowd of climbers who want to climb this landmark of Australia just before the ban. The Anangu Aboriginal tribe, on whose land the Uluru is located, evokes incomprehension and annoyance.
"A mass of people without morals and ethos," Aboriginal Laura McBride wrote on Twitter about a snake of people climbing the Uluru. "One even climbed up with a toddler to teach the next generation how to be ignorant."
A mass of morally and ethically bankrupt people. One even hiked up toddler, teaching the next generation how to be ignorant. pic.twitter.com/L2oOVYxxhM
- Laura McBride (@wailwancurator) October 7, 2019Madeline Hayman-Reber from the Aboriginal national indigenous television also reacted angrily and called the tourist rush on the Uluru "shameful". "Imagine someone climbs Uluru before he closes, just so he can state that he is contemptuously treating the oldest surviving culture in the world," she mused on Twitter.
Prohibition also for security reasons
The Australian authorities emphasize that the ban on climbing has been imposed out of respect for Aboriginal culture, as well as for the protection of the environment and the safety of visitors. After all, people repeatedly lost their lives on the ascent on the steep rocks, which was mostly scorching heat. Just last week, a twelve-year-old injured herself several feet deep.
According to the Australian National Park Administration, more than 395,000 people visited Uluru in the twelve months to June 2019, about 20 percent more than in the previous year. 13 percent of the visitors completed the climb on the rocks.
Australian Tourism Tourism chief Stephen Schwer said the number of Uluru visitors has risen sharply over the past few weeks - also because the final days of the Uluru ascent coincide with Australian school vacations. There have even been problems to accommodate the visitors in the area. In view of the imminent closure, many people would have wanted to climb the Uluru. "It was more busy than in a normal holiday season," said Schwer.
Australian tourist Belinda Moore has traveled from Queensland to Uluru to climb the rock. "That was always on my list of things I wanted to do, and when I heard it was closed, we knew: now or never," said the 33-year-old. The ascent was a wonderful experience.
Disrespectful to the Aborigines, the tourist does not find her climbing tour. "It may be so with their people, because it is their holy place," Moore said. But you yourself do not believe in it.
Despite the expected decrease in visitors from Saturday, the local tourism providers are "not particularly worried," says Tourism Center boss Schwer. Apart from that, the climbing ban at Uluru serves social peace.
"People need to remember that we are a very interconnected community in Central Australia," Schwer said, adding, referring to the Aboriginal sentiments, "the people who challenge the climbing ban are our friends and colleagues."
