A prominent cave painting at the base of Uluru has been vandalised with vegetable oil, according to the national park's visitor and tourism manager.

Key points: The park's tourism manager said up to a third of the cave was covered in vegetable oil, partially obscuring the paintings

The park's tourism manager said up to a third of the cave was covered in vegetable oil, partially obscuring the paintings A traditional owner said the rock art in the cave was very significant and important

A traditional owner said the rock art in the cave was very significant and important A police report has been made and the national park body is consulting with contractors to repair the damage

The rock art depicts traditional Aboriginal creation stories and the cave is a popular stop for tour groups undertaking the Uluru base walk.

It is on the opposite side of the rock to the former entrance to climb the rock, which closed in October last year.

The cave's basin is often filled with water when there has been rain and there is a viewing platform above this basin for tourists.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Visitor and Tourism Manager Steven Baldwin said up to a third of the cave was covered with vegetable oil, with the paintings still visible but obscured.

Mr Baldwin said he was "absolutely aghast" when he first heard about the damage to the paintings, which he estimated were tens of thousands of years old.

The national park has made a police report over the vandalism (painting pictured before the damage). ( ABC News: Emma Haskin )

"There is already a platform limiting how close people can get, but obviously the oil was thrown," he said.

"Senior men were down there from the Uluru family and were obviously quite upset by what happened."

The cave was temporarily closed on Tuesday and reopened on Wednesday afternoon.

Traditional owner says rock art is 'old and important to us'

Traditional owner Leroy Lester said the community was discussing its response to the damage.

Custodian Leroy Lester says he doesn't blame people for wanting to climb. ( ABC: Samantha Jonscher )

"It's pretty disappointing when the odd one or two people do their protests," he said.

"That comes down to why we need more education around Uluru's importance.

"The art is very significant, the rock art tells creation stories all around the base of Uluru that link to the landscape around Uluru, the stories told are pretty old and important to us.

"[Traditional Owners] are talking [and] if this continues we will have to close [parts of Uluru] permanently."

'It is criminal damage'

Mr Baldwin said the motive of the vandal was not yet clear.

"We don't know who did it, we couldn't even guess at this stage why," he said.

"We have lodged a report with police.

The Uluru climb closed in October last year. ( ABC News: Neda Vanovac )

"It is criminal damage.

"We are trying to identify who did it and how this damage was caused but we don't have any indication at this stage."

Traditional owners and Parks Australia are consulting with a contractor about how to restore the paintings without damaging them.

"We are consulting with a Melbourne-based consultant who is very experienced in rock art restoration, we will be taking his advice," Mr Baldwin said.

"Their advice was not to do anything reactively or quickly, so we will do it in a considered way."

Mr Baldwin said rangers were completing extra patrols of the area and taking steps to ensure something like this did not happen again.

"We take great pride in protecting Uluru, and staff are absolutely devastated," he said.