A visit to Ayers R ock-M t Olga N ational Park was to witness an ancient landscape com plete w ith prim itive inhabitants, offering an experience that in m any ways aligned it m ore with the m useum than w ith the scenic and recreational opportunities offered by Tongariro. T he declaration o f Ayers R ock-M t Olga N ational Park presented a quandary for park
m anagem ent. T he experience o f a desert wilderness and a ‘tim eless’ A boriginal presence was vital to attracting tourists, yet according to the definition o f a national park the landscape was to rem ain unoccupied. Follow ing the park’s declaration, the N o rth ern Territory Reserve Board attem pted to resettle the traditional ow ners outside the park’s boundaries on the surrounding outstations and m issions o f D o ck er River, E m abella and Areyonga. T he erasing o f an A boriginal presence from the park was, how ever, never com plete. Im proved roads, cars, welfare paym ents, and p erm an en t w ater encouraged the m obility o f A boriginal people into and w ithin the park, and sales o f artefacts provided them w ith an incom e. T he tourist experience o f the park, how ever, rem ained aligned with those early E u ro pean interactions established by G osse, Spencer and Clune, centred upo n tw o rituals: a pilgrimage to the sacred centre o f Australia, and the climbing, viewing and recording o f the m onum ental rock and its Aboriginal inhabitants.
T ou rist operators and rangers such as Bill H am ey continued to pro m o te the Rock as an A boriginal place despite its reinvention as a national p ark .n~ H arney’s 1963 b oo k To Ayers Rock and Beyond contributed to further em bedding the Rock in the national consciousness as an A boriginal place. In addition to m anaging the tourist dem ands on the park, H am ey recorded A boriginal perspectives o f the landscape, m any o f w hich he passed on to tourists. H arney’s sketch m ap, for exam ple, show n in Figure 31, describes places o f significance as
131 v p McGlone, "Interpreting the National Parks Act" (paper presented at the New Zealand National Parks Planning Symposium, Lincoln College, Canterbury, 20-23 August 1970). p. 7.
132 Before coming to Ayers Rock, Harney had twenty years experience working with Aboriginal people, employed as a patrol officer and Protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory.
told to him by his ‘two Aboriginal friends, Kudekudeka and Imalung.’133 Similar to Cowan’s first account of Tongariro, Harney recorded versions of Aboriginal lore and stories that presented the landscape as a sacred place, offering ‘living symbols of those creative heroes who dwell within it in the same fashion as do the Gods and archangels in other heavens.’134
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Figure 31 Sketch map of Ayers Rock and significant areas prepared by Bill Hamey. (Bill Harney,
To Ayers Rock and Beyond p.76)
Regardless, function and convenience formed the guiding principles for constructing tourist infrastructure, with minimal attention paid to sacred sites or the ecological fragility of the desert landscape. A ring road was constructed around the Rock in 1958, followed by an air strip some 600 metres from the Rock.135 Two camping areas were developed, the first at the eastern end o f Uluru catering for up to 100 people, and the second for bus tour groups accommodating 400 people. By 1967, five 21-year leases were offered to private companies for tourist accommodation, each with a nominal rent o f $2 an acre, resulting in a collection of hotels and lodges providing accommodation for 216 people. 136
Infrastructure altered little over the next fifteen years, with the plan (Figure 32) illustrating the state of the infrastructure in 1982 and the image in Figure 33, the bus camping ground.
133 Harney, To Ayers Rock and Beyond, p.85. Ibid. p.75.
135 Parks Australia, "Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Visitor Infrastructure Master Plan (Draft)," (Canberra: Parks Australia, 2000). p.20.
136 Ibid. p.21.
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Figure 33 Coach Camping Area 1982. [ap] Circles of Representation
Tourist interaction with the landscape was highly concentrated and orchestrated, following in the tradition of the earliest European encounters. Climbing, viewing and photographing Ayers Rock and the Olgas were central. These activities inspired what John Urry describes as a ‘circle of representation,’ where images from selected viewing points are reproduced in guide books, post cards and tourist literature, which are then replicated by tourists on their visit to the physical site. These activities emerged as rituals, with climbing the rock
assuming prominence as an Australian rite of passage. By 1976, a 444-metre long
continuous chain was installed along the climbing ridge o f the rock.n The formalisation of the route reinforced the ritualistic nature o f the climb, which was further formalised
through the sale o f postcards, t-shirts and climbing certificates. My own certificate is shown in Figure 34.
137 Initially sections of chain were installed on two steep sections of the climbing ridge in 1966, a response to two fatal falls, followed by the painting of white markers on the rock surface connecting the end of the top chain to the summit cairn.