Moon over Uluru at dawn

Uluru (Ayers Rock), Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) and Yulara.
The greatest tourist attraction in the Northern Territory. An awesome sight particularly at both sunrise and sunset.
There is something totally awe-inspiring about Uluru. There it sits in the centre of Australia. A huge monolith, 862.5 metres above sea level, 1395 km south of Darwin and 465 km south west of Alice Springs, rising out of the desert. No wonder the local Aborigines regarded it as a sacred site. The average white Australian, clinging to the shores of this vast continent, also regards 'the greatest stone on earth' as something very special.

Uluru rises 348 metres above the surrounding countryside, has an area of 3.33 sq. km and a circumference of 9.4 km. It experiences an average of 200-250 mm of rainfall per annum and a typical desert temperature range which can fall to -8°C at night-time in winter and rise to 47°C during the day in summer.

People clambering over the rocks at Olga Gorge

In the language of the local Aborigines 'Uluru' is simply a place name which is applied to both the rock and the waterhole on top of the rock. 'Yulara', the resort located 21 km from the base of the rock, means 'crying' or 'weeping' (which is what happens when most people see their accommodation bill) in the language of the local Pitjantjatjara and Yunkunytjatjara peoples.

There is some scientific disagreement about the origins of Uluru. The most widely held theory is that both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are remnants of a vast sedimentary bed which was laid down some 600 million years ago. The bed was spectacularly tilted so that Uluru now protrudes at an angle of up to 85°. The rock is actually grey but is covered with a distinctive red iron oxide coating.

No one is sure when the first Aborigines moved into the area but the best evidence suggests that it was at least 10 000 years ago. The notes on the history of Uluru National Park explain the Aboriginal understanding of Uluru in the following terms: 'In the beginning the world was unformed and featureless. Ancestral beings emerged from this void and journeyed widely, creating all the living species and the characteristic features of the desert landscape you see today. Uluru and Kata Tjuta provide physical evidence of feats performed during the creation period. Anangu are the direct descendants of these beings and are responsible for the protection and appropriate management of these ancestral lands. The knowledge necessary to fulfill these responsibilities has been passed down from generation to generation from the Tjukurpa.' An excellent and more detailed account of the Aboriginal history of Uluru appears in Robert Layton's Uluru: An Aboriginal History of Ayers Rock published by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in 1986.

The arrival of Europeans in the area was part of the exploration of the centre during the 1870s. Ernest Giles travelled through the area in 1872 and named both Lake Amadeus and Mount Olga. His original names, Lake Mueller and Mount Ferdinand in honour of Baron Ferdinand von Mueller (Giles' benefactor) were changed by the Baron to the names of the reigning King and Queen of Spain.

Giles returned to the area in 1873 but was beaten to Uluru by William Gosse who sighted the monolith on 19 July and named it after the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. Giles also was the first European to climb the rock which he did accompanied by an Afghan camel driver named Khamran.

The inhospitable nature of the terrain ensured that few whites ventured into the region. Pastoralists were defeated by the lack of water and the only whites to pass through the area were trappers, quixotic miners like Harold Lasseter, and the occasional missionary. The area was declared the Petermann Aboriginal Reserve in the early 1900s and this existed until the 1940s when road access (the first graded road was built in 1948), the possibility of gold in the area, and the tourist potential of Uluru, all showed how fragile the original reserve had been.

Ayers Rock was created a national park in 1950. In 1957 Bill Harney came to the area and in 1958, when the rock was combined with the Olgas to form the Ayers Rock National Park, he was appointed the first official curator. In 1959 a motel lease was granted near the rock and soon after an airstrip was built. In 1976 the Commonwealth Government set up the lease at Yulara and in 1983-84 the old tourist locations near the rock were closed down. In 1985 the title to the rock was handed back to the traditional owners who, in turn, granted the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service a 99 year lease on the park. Today over 30 local Aborigines work in the park and the Board of Management is dominated by the traditional owners.

Although they are quite close to each other Uluru and Kata Tjuta have quite different geological and human histories. Where Uluru is a sedimentary rock which has been tilted nearly 85°, Kata Tjuta has only been tilted some 20°. They are made of a much coarser sediment and contain quite large pebbles of granite and basalt.

The name Kata Tjuta means 'head' and 'many' in the language of the traditional owners.

Artistically Kata Tjuta is noted for its engravings and its rock piles whereas Uluru is famous for its rock paintings. Both the engravings and the geometric rock piles are believed to have been created by the Spirit Ancestor during the Dreamtime.

Things to see:  

Climbing The Rock
The decision to walk to the top of the rock is one which should be based on fitness (it really is only suitable for healthy people) and your level of respect for the Aboriginal notion that this is a sacred site. The traditional owners have resigned themselves to the inevitable despoliation of the rock. You have to decide if you want to be part of that despoliation. There are now signs around the rock which make it perfectly clear that the traditional owners, the Anangu people, would like the 400,000 visitors to the rock to 'respect our law by not climbing Uluru'.

It is worth noting that the average tourist stays at Uluru for 1.6 days, only 10% of all tourists actually climb the rock, and the number of people who have died from heart attacks as a result of climbing the rock is now quite substantial. A lot of people die some days later and consequently are never part of the statistics for heart attacks on the rock. The current estimate is that, on average, one person per month dies either directly (quite a number wander too far and fall off the edges) or indirectly as a result of climbing the rock.

The poet Rex Ingamells captured the mystery the rock holds to all who see it when he wrote 'It remains for individual discovery so long as the human mind retains its capacity for wonder.'

Maruku Arts and Crafts Complex
One of the most interesting 'traditional' activities in the area is the Maruku Arts and Crafts Complex behind the ranger's station near the base of Uluru. Here there is a fine exhibition of Western Desert artifacts as well as a good range of local art works for sale.

The caves around the base of the rock abound with hundreds of paintings which depict Aboriginal life. These paintings were still being done as recently as the 1930s. The technique was to make a brush from the chewed end of a piece of bark and to paint the predominantly abstract designs with a combination of red and yellow ochre, charcoal and white pipe clay. The caves to the left of the car park have quite a lot of interesting paintings and can be reached by an easy ten minute walk around the base of the rock.

Olga Gorge

Kata Tjuta
To the north of Uluru lie the 36 smaller monoliths known as Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). The highest of the monoliths is Mount Olga which rises to 546 metres. The Olgas are spread across an area of some 3500 hectares and the distance around the group is approximately 22 km. It is thought that Kata Tjuta may have once been one gigantic monolith many times the size of Uluru. Millions of years of erosion have reduced the single monolith to a series of smaller monoliths.

Ernest Giles, who named The Olgas, was to write of them: 'Mount Olga is the more wonderful and grotesque; Mount Ayers the more ancient and sublime.'

Yulara
The one strength of Yulara is the Information Centre which has large displays which are simple, easy to understand and comprehensive. It is a good overview of the area and an ideal starting point.

The best time to see Uluru is at sunrise. At sunset, the more convenient time, there are literally hundreds of people all jockeying for position in the sunset viewing area.

If you have your own transport there is no reason why you have to join the crowds. Choose a suitable sand dune within a few kilometres of the rock, climb it and enjoy the spectacle of sunset on the rock as well as the glow of evening over Kata Tjuta.

	Motels
	Desert Gardens Hotel/Motel Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2100 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2156 Rating: ***
	Spinifex Lodge Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 89 56 2131 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2163
	Hotels
	Outback Pioneer Hotel Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2000 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2320 Rating: ***
	Sails In The Desert Hotel Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2200 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2018 Rating: ****
	Resorts
	Yulara Maisonettes, Yulara Resort Yulara Resort Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (089) 562131
	Apartments
	Emu Walk Serviced Apartments Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2000 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2328 Rating: ***
	Camping & Other
	Ayers Rock Campground Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2055 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2260 Rating: **
	Restaurants
	Desert Gardens Hotel/Motel Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2100 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2156
	Outback Pioneer Hotel Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2000
	Sails In The Desert Yulara Dve Uluru NT 0872 Telephone: (08) 8956 2200 Facsimile: (08) 8956 2156