78 Australian Geographic
I
N 2010 the Uluru-Kata Tjuta NP board of manage-
ment forecast in its 10-year management plan that
it would “work towards closure of the climb”. Their
prerequisite requirements included the creation of
sufficient new alternative visitor experiences and that
the proportion of visitors climbing had declined to below
20 per cent.
Spend time there now and you won’t run out of things
to do. There are tours on segways, bicycles, dune buggies,
helicopters and camels and they encompass astronomy,
arts and crafts, ecology and garden walks. It’s also a
foodie paradise, with traditional bush tucker the theme.
There’s coffee at the site’s Mala car park, where a joint
venture between a traditional owner and two Victorian
businesspeople serves a brew that would be highly rated
in any Melbourne laneway cafe. Another new business
is targeting the growing number of Chinese visitors,
for whom the brightness of the arid night sky is a huge
drawcard after the airborne pollution back home.In a demountable at the back of the park’s adminis-
tration centre, a traditional Aboriginal dot painting
hangs on the wall. It features a red circle ringed by white
and brown seated figures – four Anangu women, four
Anangu men and four non-Anangu: the 12-person board
of management surrounding the park with a yuu
(traditional windbreak), representing the protection
their decisions and policies provide for the culture and
environment of the park and its visitors.
It was here, on 1 November 2017 that, with all pre-
conditions met, all 12 board members voted to end
the climb. The decision allowed for almost two years
preparation before the closure, which was scheduled for
26 October 2019. It’s an important date for the park’s
traditional owners, being the 34th anniversary of the
1985 handing back of the rock.
“People were in tears,” Steve Baldwin, the park’s
operations and visitor services manager, says of the deci-
sion to end the climb. “We were crammed in to the PHOTO CREDIT: NEWS LTD/NEWSPIX