Row Over Climbing At Ayers Rock

July 9, 2009

Author: Nick Bryant

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8141614.stm

A dispute has erupted in Australia over the issue of whether tourists should be banned from climbing Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock.

It is one of the country's biggest tourist attractions.

The national park which runs the site has proposed a ban for cultural and environmental reasons, supported by the local indigenous community.

But the government in the Northern Territory says it is against a ban, which could hurt tourism.

Uluru is Australia's most instantly recognisable landform, a stunning red sandstone rock that rises from the outback.

For Aborigines, it is a sacred site, and the local indigenous community has campaigned for more than two decades to prevent tourists from climbing it.

Aboriginal elders have likened it to scrambling over a Buddhist temple or the dome of St Peter's Basilica in Rome.