Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park
Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, located in the Northern Territory of Australia, is a significant geological and cultural site covering 512 square miles. It features the iconic Uluru, a 1,142-foot sandstone monolith, and the domed rock formation Kata Tjuṯa, with its highest peak, Mount Olga, reaching 1,791 feet. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1987, the park is celebrated not only for its natural beauty but also for the rich cultural heritage of the Anangu people, the traditional custodians of the land. This area has been inhabited by the Anangu for over 30,000 years, and their beliefs and history are deeply entwined with the landscape, particularly through the concept of Tjukurpa, connecting them to their ancestors and the land.
The park was officially returned to the Anangu in 1985 after a long campaign for Aboriginal land rights, leading to a joint management agreement with the Australian government. While climbing Uluru was permitted for many years, it was permanently banned in 2019 at the request of the Anangu, reflecting a growing recognition of the cultural significance of the site. In a new development, a multiday hiking experience, the “Uluru-Kata Tjuṯa Signature Walk,” is set to launch in 2026, allowing visitors to experience the park more intimately while respecting its cultural heritage. The park stands as a testament to the successful integration of indigenous rights and natural preservation, making it a unique destination for both tourists and those interested in learning about Aboriginal culture.
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Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park
Site information
- Official name: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
- Locations: Northern Territory, Australia
- Type: Geological/Cultural
- Year of inscription: 1987
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is a 512-square-mile national park that includes Uluru, a 1,142 foot sandstone mountain, and the domed rock formation Kata Tjutu, with the highest dome, Mount Olga, rising 1,791 feet. Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, is widely considered to be Australia's best-known natural landscape feature and receives 250,000 annual visitors. The renaming of the site marked a milestone in the emerging recognition of Australian indigenous culture, and its World Heritage listing underscores efforts of cooperation and joint land management.
History
The five-hundred-million-year-old rock formations of the park are sedimentary, consisting of granite and basalt, interwoven with sandstone deposits. While separated by twenty-five miles of flat surface, both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are the visible tips of rock slabs that extend down as far as 3.75 miles underground.
Uluru rock is made of arkose, a coarse sandstone with large deposits of feldspar. Kata Tjuta is a conglomerate of pebbles, cobbles, and boulders cemented together with sand and mud deposits. Rainwater erodes the looser sandstone, creating striking crevasses on the faces of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The mineral content in the rocks, with its erosion and subsequent oxidation, causes visible changes in the surface color as the sun rises and sets. Midday sun illuminates the rock formations as ochre brown, while at dawn and sundown the rocks appear to be burnished orange, fading in the visible light to darker red and finally charcoal grey.
European exploration of central Australia and the region now known as Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park were undertaken in 1872, as surveyors mapped the continent in their construction of the Overland Telegraph line, a nearly two-thousand-mile-long stretch of cable connecting the port city of Darwin in the central north tip of the Northern Territory to Port Augusta in South Australia. William Ernest Powell Giles sighted Kata Tjuta and named the highest peak Mount Olga, after the daughter of his benefactor, the Russian Tsar Nicholas I. On a separate expedition, William Christie Gosse encountered Uluru and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia. Yet the aboriginal history of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park runs much deeper.
Indigenous inhabitants, specifically the Pitjantjatjara- and Yankunytjatjara-speaking people, who call themselves the Anangu, had a presence in the area for at least thirty thousand years prior to European contact. In multiple interactions with the landscape, certain Australian aboriginal beliefs connect their culture with the creation of the Earth, through the concept of "Dreamtime," where their ancestors still occupy the lands in a living history. The Anangu see themselves as the direct descendants of the beings who created the world and believe they are responsible for the protection and management of land, flora, and fauna found around Uluru and Kata Tjuta under the concept of Tjukurpa, a binding law linking people to the land. The Anangu believe these rock formations are a testament of physical evidence that connect back to their original creation.
In 1920 the area of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was declared the Petermann Aboriginal Reserve, separating the nomadic Anangu from all but sparse, and often violent, contact with European settlers. In 1936 the first tourists arrived to view the monolithic Uluru formation and walk around its 5.8 mile circumference. In 1948 the first vehicular track was constructed to reach Uluru, allowing for tour bus visitation and increasing tourism. Citing concerns for aboriginal welfare and tourist promotion, in 1958 the area that is now the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was removed from the Petermann Aboriginal Reserve to be managed directly under government control as a national park. It was named the Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park.
After thirty-five years of campaigning, in 1976 the Aboriginal Land Rights act was passed, recognizing Aboriginal law and land rights within Australian national law. In 1985, Ayers Rock and Mount Olga were returned to the Aboriginal community as the traditional owners and custodians of the land. In what became known as the "handback," the Anangu in turn leased Uluru/Ayers-Kata Tjuta/Mount Olga back to the Australian Parks and Wildlife Service in a ninety-nine-year contract. The Anangu and Parks Australia thus jointly manage the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, with 25 percent of the revenue collected by tourist entry fees going directly the Anangu community.
The agreement recognizes both ownership of the area by the Anangu, granting full residency permission to the community, and the national significance of the park in Australian culture and ideology. The handback is hailed as exemplar of land rights reform. As part of the handback, the park was officially named Uluru-Kata Tjuta, the aboriginal name of the monoliths and surrounding land. Every year, on October 26, commemoration events are marked at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park with celebrations of the joint-management success.
Although climbing the Uluru rock was technically legal and marked trails led to the top of the formation, the local aboriginal people requested visitors not climb Uluru out of respect for their beliefs. Despite this, thousands of people still climbed to the top each year. In 2017, the Parks and Wildlife Service voted to permanently ban climbing on Uluru. The ban took effect in October 2019. In 2024, authorities announced the creation of a multiday hike set within the park became the first instance in which visitors were allowed to stay overnight within the park. The hike, called the "Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk," will take guests between Uluru and Kata Tjuta over a five-day journey. The first hike was planned to launch in 2026.
Significance
While the stunning geological formations of Uluru and Kata Tjuta helped cement its international allure and fame, it was the 1985 handback that earned Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park its UNESCO World Heritage listing. In the December 1987 report of the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO "commended the Australian authorities on the manner in which the management of this property gave an appropriate blend of the cultural and natural characteristics" of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The site exists as important from both geological and cultural heritage perspectives. Following the innovative blending of management and control under the handback, environmental procedures were envisioned along the same theme of aboriginal return. The landscape was deemed to belong to the native inhabitants, and in its return to these traditional owners, the region became a site for further reintroduction of native flora and fauna to the surrounding areas.
Bibliography
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Figueroa, Robert Melchior, and Gordon Waitt. "Cracks in the Mirror: (Un)covering the Moral Terrains of Environmental Justice at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park." Ethics, Place & Environment, vol. 11, no. 3, Oct. 2008, pp. 327–49.
Foxlee, Jasmine. "Meaningful Rocks: The Sorry Rock Phenomenon at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park." Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief, vol. 5, no. 1, March 2009, pp. 123–24.
Palmer, Mark. "Sustaining Indigenous Geographies through World Heritage: A Study of 'Ulua Yu-Kata Tjua,' a National Park." Sustainability Science, vol. 11, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 13-24.
"Report of the 11th Session of the Committee." World Heritage Cultural Centre. UNESCO, whc.unesco.org/archive/repcom87.htm#447. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
"Uluru Climb Closure." Parks Australia, 2019, parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/discover/culture/uluru-climb/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. World Heritage List. World Heritage Cultural Centre, UNESCO, 2016. whc.unesco.org/en/list/447. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
"Welcome to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park." Department of the Environment and Energy. Australian Government.K "http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/national-parks/uluru-kata-tjuta-national-park" http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/national-parks/uluru-kata-tjuta-national-park. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.
Woodley, Melissa. "A World-First Multi-Day Hike Is Set to Launch WIthin Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park." TIimeOut, 12 Nov. 2024, www.timeout.com/australia/news/a-world-first-multi-day-hike-is-set-to-launch-within-uluru-kata-tjuta-national-park-111124. Accessed 5 Dec. 2024.