Huge decision to affect all tourists visiting Uluru
The board of the Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park has made a huge decision that will impact all tourists who are visiting Australia’s most iconic monolith in future, voting unanimously to close the rock to people wanting to climb to its summit.
While the date of the climb’s actual closure will be delayed another two years, David Ross, the director of the Central Land Council, said it was, “righting a historic wrong.”
"This decision has been a very long time coming and our thoughts are with the elders who have longed for this day but are no longer with us to celebrate it," Mr Ross said.
Uluru’s management has been urged to close the rock to climbers for years, with senior traditional owner Sammy Wilson saying it is, “not a theme park like Disneyland”.
The 12-member board that manages Uluru and the surrounding area voted to close the climb permanently, while keeping the park open to tourists.
"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," Mr Wilson said.
"It is an extremely important place, not a theme park like Disneyland.
"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. It is the same here for Anangu. We welcome tourists here. We are not stopping tourism, just this activity.
"After much discussion, we've decided it's time," he said.
Mr Wilson added that he did not believes this would affect tourism.
"There is so much else besides that in the culture here," Mr Wilson said. "If we have the right support to take tourists outside (the park) it will benefit everyone.
"We have a lot to offer in this country. So instead of tourists feeling disappointed... they can experience the homelands with Anangu and really enjoy the fact that they learnt so much more about culture."
What are your thoughts? Think this is the right call?
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