2018-11-08
By Max Larkin, GI Co-editor
Seven News just promoted Jetstar Australia’s new budget-priced direct flights from Brisbane to Uluru, not mentioning once the cultural significance of the landmark.
I’m one of those push comes to shove kind of guys that really wants to do everything in the world especially if someone else says I’m not allowed. What’s the point of cultural awareness and why not continue with my pedestaled ignorance? It’s not like I have to deal with real issues that face our planet.
Besides if they say I’m not allowed to climb Ayres Rock, that means I’m not allowed the freedom that I was born with. I’m climbing Ayres Rock because it’s my right to climb anything in Australia because Australia is my home, my people’s home and I wear an Australian flag on Australia day.
Despite the natural and spiritual import Uluru holds with First Nations and conservationists alike, it is still being climbed and with more than 10 % of visitors opting to climb the rock and why not? The climb will be closed for good on October 26 2019, might as well get going while the goings good.
Seven News: “hundreds of thousands of people every year flock to Uluru to see the rock, now thirty thousand people from Brisbane will be able to appreciate its natural beauty.”
Yeah, let’s climb Ayres Rock! Let’s help exacerbate erosion and add to the permanent scars on the great big rock. It’s just a rock anyway, and if we need to go to the toilet, we’ll just defecate on the mountain and let the fragile ecosystem deal with it. Later we can watch all the dried faeces cascade down into the only water source animals have for miles.
Yeah, it’s just a rock, who cares? It’s not that it is a sacred site for an ancient people of the world’s oldest civilisation. It’s not that it’s exactly the same as defecating on the Sistine chapel or the Notre Dame Cathedral, it’s more that I don’t care that it is.
Climbers literally crush the eggs of one of the areas rarest animals; the tadpole shrimp lives on Uluru and their eggs are adapted to long periods of drought and are hatched by rain. The shrimp are on the verge of extinction. But, it’s just a rock and they are just a part of one of the rarest and most fragile ecosystems on earth.
Besides, at 179 dollars direct from Brisbane, who’s complaining? Maybe it’ll spark a plane ticket price war and we can travel all over Australia destroying sacred landmarks and cultural icons. According to Seven News it’s on “most international tourists bucket lists” so I’m just going to forget about the great sadness and responsibility the Anangu people feel whenever a fatality or injury happens on the climb and go for it!
The Northern Territory is astounding in its beauty as it represents Australian uniqueness and nature in its grandeur but, unfortunately, it is most known for its stony desert Island, Uluru. Which is why most tourists travel to the NT even though they could witness some amazing natural beauty just up the road. The NT is packed full of natural wonders and White Australia decides they need to climb a rock that has nothing to do with them.
"101 different tours and experiences?" Nah, I’m climbing the rock.
Header photo: A cloud in the form of an angel spreads its protective wings over Uluru, NT. Gypsy888 Creative Commons