Uluru open to climbers for final day

October 25, 2019

1 NEWS Australia corresponded Ryan Boswell is there.

After the last climber shuffles down Uluru's steep descent today, workers will waste no time trying to ensure he or she is the final person to do so.

All evidence climbing was ever allowed on the 348-metre tall red sandstone rock will immediately start being removed.

That will include all signage associated with the climb urging people not to do it.

The chain handhold built in 1964 and later extended, enabling visitors to get up and down the sheer western face of what used to be known as Ayers Rock, will also be removed.

The rush to beat the ban on climbing Uluru from Saturday or crazy "climb fever" as the ranger in charge Greg Elliot calls it, has continued right to the end.

Extreme heat this week including a 40 degree top on Thursday restricted the climbing horde to a 7am-8am window.

A mild 33-degree forecast for today means it is likely the climb will be open all day, potentially creating huge numbers.

The Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park board decided in 2017 to ban the climb from Saturday, which marks 35 years since the land title to the Anangu was given back on October 26, 1985.

There has been a surge in visitors, particularly in the past six months with hotels and the campground at the Ayers Rock Resort at Yulara full, leading to people camping illegally on private land.

Uluru is a sacred site and of great spiritual significance to local Aboriginal groups, including the Pitjantjatjara Anangu traditional owners who live in Mutitjulu near the rock.

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for tens of thousands of years, so the brief time tourists have climbed on Uluru is tiny, Mutitjulu resident and Central Land Council chair Sammy Wilson said.

"It is just a blip in the middle, this whole climb thing; it is going back to normal by banning the climb."

The Anangu people will celebrate the end of the climb with a ceremony at the rock on Sunday night, including indigenous musicians.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley and Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner will speak.

There is plenty of opposition to the ban.

Geologist Marc Hendrickx, who wrote a book 'A guide to climbing Ayers Rock' and runs the 'right to climb' blog, previously lodged a Human Rights Commission complaint alleging racial discrimination over the ban.

He said this week he would climb Uluru again regardless of the ban.

However, former Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board Chair Donald Fraser said "it's about time the rock had a rest, rather than the tapping of shoes all the time.

"That is a sensitive area and we need to close it."

SHARE ME

More Stories