Australia’s Uluru to Ban Climbing

Australia’s Uluru, the famed red rock in Australia’s Outback, will come to an official end, as announced by traditional owners and national park managers last month.

The decision will be enacted in October 2019. Anangu, the people indigenous to central Australia, long advocated for the closure. There’s been a sign at the rock’s base asking people not to climb it, though it often goes ignored. Now, there will be an official policy in place banning the practice.

The site is a sacred place for the Anangu, but they also feel a responsibility for the high number of injuries and deaths that occur at the site by climbers. There have also been complaints of tourists urinating at the top, which, in addition to being deeply disrespectful, can potentially contaminate water sources.

Climbing of the central Australian rock kicked off in the 1930s. A chain link fence was installed in 1966, when two people died. Since the 1950s, there have been at least 36 known deaths and 74 rescues that required medical attention from 2002 to 2009.