Mount Warning: Ayers Rock Redux

In October 2018 Parks Australia banned public access to the summit of Ayers Rock/Uluru on the basis of spurious safety and environmental reasons and contested cultural claims. They ignored the views of Aboriginal elders who had been born at the Rock, who had acted as climbing guides and encouraged people to climb and had made it clear by their words and actions that the famous climb was not a significant cultural issue, in favour of a mob whose roots lie elsewhere. The real reasons for the ban had to do with Parks Australia’s Canberra-based bureaucracy being unable to adequately manage the very low risk of being sued by walkers injuring themselves or dying while making the world-famous climb. I fought against the ban with facts, figures and logic but sadly for the hundreds of thousands of Australian and international visitors, myth and superstition won out against logic and reason, and the ban went ahead. To add insult Parks Australia destroyed the summit monument and removed…