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Whatsapp Tourists descend from their walk up Uluru

Each year, more than 300,000 people visit Uluru. Many climb the rock, despite the expressly stated wishes of the area’s traditional custodians that they do not. Why do people choose to climb Uluru, and why are they allowed to at all? Off Track takes a look.

‘Our traditional law teaches us the proper way to behave. We ask you to respect our law by not climbing Uluru. What visitors call the climb is the traditional route taken by our traditional Mala men on their arrival at Uluru in the creation time. It has great spiritual significance.’

If even one person died climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge it would probably be closed down. Certainly if 30 people had died we wouldn't be climbing it.

So reads the sign at the base of the climb to the top of Uluru. Yet barring rain, wind or extreme temperatures, hundreds climb the rock every single day.

A chain was installed by a private investor before the area became a national park, and while closing the climb has been considered by park authorities and traditional Anangu owners, at this point it remains open.

‘It's because of the history of the place, the way the management structure has been,’ says Tim Rogers, a visitor services officer, Uluru-Kata Tjutu National Park. ‘We work with Anangu and Anangu work with us. Things have been allowed and not necessarily liked.

‘One of the things that makes shutting the climb down hard is the fact that in Anangu culture, people are required to take responsibility for their actions. The individual should know what's right and what's wrong, so gates with signs telling people what not to do just isn't how things are done.’

'I'm petrified. I don't want to be disrespectful at all, but it is there and they have made it a facility to climb and therefore hopefully they will get a bit of money for their own culture moving forward. I have mixed views to be honest ... and I will be climbing it.’ -British tourist

Uluru was returned to its traditional owners in 1985, and they subsequently leased it back to the federal government for 99 years. Today the park is jointly managed through a board of management composed of representatives from local communities and Parks Australia.

There are other concerns about climbing, however: the path left by rubber from the soles of climbers’ shoes is visible from kilometres away and some tourists leave litter and damage the rock. Moreover, extreme heat and a lack of toilet facilities mean that large amounts of evaporated, concentrated human urine flow into the area’s waterholes whenever it rains.

'My nan and pop did it in the '70s, so I want to do it. I don't see any problem with it. I think as long as you're respectful when you do it, you abide by basic rules, you don't take anything, you don't break anything, I don't think it should be discouraged or encouraged. If you want to do it, you do it. It's everyone's, no one can claim it. Just like we were wrong to claim it from them, you could say they're wrong for claiming it from us now.' -Australian tourist

Perhaps most disturbingly, many people die climbing Uluru. Thirty people have died in recent decades, a fact that the site’s traditional owners reportedly find very distressing.

‘The fact that people die on something they are responsible for is very disturbing and worrying for [the Anangu],’ says the University of Sydney’s Professor Richard White, an expert on the history of Australian tourism.

‘Naturally they would advise people not to climb it. If even one person died climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge it would probably be closed down. Certainly if 30 people had died we wouldn't be climbing it. There would be a ban put on it.’

'For me it's like the spiritual heart of Australia. I'm a migrant to this country but I've learned so much about what is truly Australia. We jokingly said it's the great pilgrimage for Australians, it's the Hajj. You've got to come to the centre. It grounds you and gives you a sense of perspective ... no way [am I going to climb it], out of respect for the beliefs of the local Indigenous people. It's a massive enough experience and spectacle ... why would you want to climb it? It's a great experience sharing with the first Australians their homeland.' -Australian tourist

Parks Australia reports that, anecdotally, fewer and fewer tourists are choosing to climb Uluru. Perhaps an outright ban may prove unnecessary.

‘If you banned climbing, a group would stop going. But I think the core experience has been shifting away from climbing being the significant thing to other kinds of experience,’ says White.

‘A lot of tourists now own the sense that they haven't climbed it ... the tourist shops sell T-shirts that say “I climbed Uluru”, but they also sell T-shirts that say “I didn't climb Uluru”.’

To climb, or not to climb? Listen to this episode of Off Track to hear Mike Williams confront tourists about why they want to climb Uluru.

Listen to a new outdoor adventure every week with Off Track.



