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CLIMBING THE WORLD’S largest monolith Uluru was has been amid concerns it was becoming a “theme park”, undermining the giant red rock’s deep cultural significance.
Scrambling up the symbol of the Outback, also known as Ayers Rock, is seen by many tourists as a must-do on their visit to Australia.
But they do so against the wishes of the native Aboriginal owners, the Anangu, to whom the site is sacred.
At a meeting of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board, made up of traditional owners and National Park representatives, a unanimous decision was made to ban the activity.
It will come into force in October 2019.
“This decision is for both Anangu and non-Anangu together to feel proud about; to realise, of course it’s the right thing to close it,” board chairman Sammy Wilson said.
Speaking to state broadcaster ABC after the decision, he added that the site was not a “theme park”.
“Some people in tourism and government for example might have been saying we need to keep it open but it’s not their law that lies in this land,” he said.
It is an extremely important place, not a playground or theme park like Disneyland.
The rock’s traditional Aboriginal owners’ connection to the site dates back tens of thousands of years and it has great spiritual and cultural significance to them.
Wilson urged tourists to respect the ruling.
“If I travel to another country and there is a sacred site, an area of restricted access, I don’t enter or climb it, I respect it,” he said in the statement.
“It is the same here for Anangu. We welcome tourists here. We are not stopping tourism, just this activity.”
Park authorities have long looked to close the climb permanently. It is currently left up to visitors to decide whether to tackle the sandstone monolith, which soars 348 metres.
About 300,000 people visit each year and, while there are no official figures on how many climb, their numbers are reported to have declined significantly.
Tackling Uluru’s sandstone slopes is not an easy exercise and there have been numerous deaths over the years on the rock, where summer temperatures often hit 45 degrees.
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We should adopt sterling as our currency, Sterling is more natural choice for Ireland than the €uro as we are economically and culturally closer to Britain than to Europe. Also the sinners should like it as we would have an all Ireland currency
In theory this would be a good move for both countries but I don’t think it will ever happen because of the politics behind a move like this, there would be riots ha
And have the British government control Irish economic policy as well as foreign trade. Why stop there, let’s go all the way and cede power and administration to Westminster…oh yeh, I forgot, we tried that for 800 years and it didn’t work.
Sean
Well we made a mess of things well enough on our own, surely being with Sterling would be better
You need to let go of the past and think of the future
I’m Australian, Ireland’s past is of limited interest to me. I just made a non emotive forensic analysis of the facts and gave an honest opinion. Your argument suggests that Irish people cannot be trusted to be in charge of their own destiny. Maybe the quality of Irish people you meet in Australia is unrepresentative and you may be right, but I don’t think so.
I’m Australian, Ireland’s past is of limited interest to me. I just made a non emotive forensic analysis of the facts and given an honest opinion. Your argument suggests that Irish people cannot be trusted to be in charge of their own destiny. Maybe the quality of Irish people you meet in Australia is unrepresentative and you may be right, but I don’t think so.
Apologies for the double post
@derek.. Riots????? Are you having a laugh, the only people that riot here are the three or four hundred, Celtic top, drug infused non educated thugs … Who have no clue why there throwing bricks
The problem is credibility. How can one believe that such a policy could succeed with fragmented political oversight. The ECB could launch such a policy in good faith but one can imagine the German Bundestag getting very nervous if there was a major speculative attack requiring the ECB to take up say 10% ot Italian debt.
The markets will remain unsettled until such time as the eurozone members surrender fiscal control to the centre. Such controls could be limited to the budgetary envelope – size of deficit etc. leaving individual states to set their own taxes within mandatory limits. Shared soveriegnity?
I think Joe Weisenthal might be having a bit of a lend of us in this article. If the ECB capped interest rates within the EU it would make the EU very attractive to Islamic banking, to the exclusion of western banks. Islamic banks don’t charge interest on loans. They have a number of other very clever mechanisms for cost recovery without charging interest. Joe would know this, maybe he’s really advocating for Arab oil money to underwrite EU the same way China underwrites the USA.
Irish trade unionists don’t protest because they are almost all in the public sector and they have already arranged to suck the German Taxpayer dry via Benchmarking and the Croke Park Agreement.
If you offer the markets a take it or leave it option, you will probably find the Market leaving it.
Last week the EFSF failed to raise €3 billion intended for Ireland. Even Germany has had failed auctions.
The fact is there will continue to be an increasing numbers in the Market trying to raise credit. Lenders can become increasingly fussy who they lend to.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/german-10-year-bund-auction-fails-cover-issuance-contagion-rages-core
This proposed solution is ultimately printing press economics. Germany and the ECB have set their face against this as it will lead to runaway inflation.
http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/hyperinflation-1921-1923/
There are many ways to do it, and this is one, but ultimately the crisis can only be resolved by making government debt a joint responsibility of all euro countries. Unfortunately all ways of doing this are illegal, including the proposal here.
I don’t agree with the general criticism of too-little-too-late that is directed at the euro governments. If Greece was fully bailed out last year they wouldn’t have bothered implementing harsh austerity. 60 year old German workers would still be paying for 50 year old Greek retirees. We need to keep dancing until the offending countries get themselves into a condition worth guaranteeing. Behind the scenes, the euro politicians need to figure out how to make this legal without a referendum which would be doomed to failure. Not exactly democratic…..
Toddy. You are clutching at straws.
In what way?
have your say