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…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins