The Anangu get only 25% of the millions of dollars paid by tourists but the money is spent wisely and carefully across the region

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

The Anangu traditional owners of Uluru receive only a quarter of the millions of dollars in entry fees paid by tourists who visit the national park. But they have made that 25% go far.

At Mutitjulu, the small Pitjantjatjara community on the “other” side of Uluru, the community saved for years to build and run a swimming pool.

The Tjurpinytjaku pool officially opened in 2013 and clocked up about 6,700 visits last season in a community of only 350.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cool customers: children in the Mutijulu pool. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The pool is a safe and healthy place for kids to play, brings relief from extreme temperatures and helps reduce skin and respiratory infections. The “Yes pool, yes school” program helped boost class attendance rates and it is also a haven for the elderly and mobility impaired, with a electric hoist for easy access to the water.

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Each year the traditional owners of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park allocate some of their rent income to community development projects in communities across the region where the park’s traditional owners live.

Last year Anangu at Mutitjulu approved just under $1m for three projects.

The main one was to keep the pool going for another four years. Running a public pool is expensive in the suburbs, let alone in a remote location in central Australia where water is a precious resource. But the joy it brings is clear.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Joshua Smythe warms up poolside in Mutitjulu. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Building an inma (dance) ground in the area in front of the pool at Mutitjulu will be a significant project for 2020.

The rent money also supported dialysis patients across the region. Traditional owners invested just over $500,000 in a project run by the Purple House dialysis clinic.

The park’s broader traditional owner group approved $997,820 for five projects over two years. Ara Irritja is a three-year project to put computers in eight communities and train Anangu to collect and preserve history, culture, stories and language.

It will also fund primary and secondary education opportunities for young people, as well as bush culture camps, a new cool room for the remote community of Imanpa, and restoring the church at Pukaja (Ernabella).

Traditional owners have decided these projects are important.

Across the region Uluru traditional owners are paying to upgrade cemeteries, building fences and finding and marking graves.

Two months on from the historic closure of the climb at Uluru, the traditional owners say they are happy that new tourism opportunities will be open to visitors.

“Uluru and Kata Tjuta are surrounded by beautiful places, by many homelands and so much Tjukurpa. We want to take people into this beautiful country,” a traditional owner and chairman of the Central Land Council, Sammy Wilson, said.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sammy Wilson, chairman of the Central Land Council, with his grandson Jacob at Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

“More and more people are coming on tours to learn from us Anangu. I enjoy people asking about and wanting to learn about our country.”

Parks Australia, which runs the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park, has foreshadowed an increase in visitor fees to the park from November 2020. The fee has not gone up in 16 years.

A spokesperson for the council, which helps traditional owners manage their rent money through its community development program, says any increase in money received by Anangu either from higher gate fees or an increased share of the gate fees “will help to support more Anangu initiatives”.