Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia. The park is home to both Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It is located south of Darwin by road and south-west of Alice Springs along the Stuart and Lasseter Highways. The Outback Highway linking Western Australia and Queensland, and being developed as Australia's third east-west transcontinental route, shares the main road through the park.
The park covers and includes the features it is named after: Uluru and, to its west, Kata Tjuta. The location is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site for natural and cultural landscape in 1987.
Overview Uluru / Ayers Rock is considered one of Australia's most recognisable landmarks, and has become a focal point for Australia and the world's acknowledgement of Australian indigenous culture. The sandstone monolith stands high with most of its bulk below the ground. To Anangu, the local indigenous people, Uluru / Ayers Rock is a place name and this "Rock" has a number of different landmarks where many ancestral beings have interacted with the landscape and/or each other, some even believed to still reside here. Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga, meaning 'many heads' in his aboriginal name, is a sacred place relating to knowledge that is considered very powerful and dangerous, only suitable for initiated men. It is made up of a group of 36 conglomerate rock domes that date back 500 million years.
Anangu are the traditional Aboriginal owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. They believe that their culture was created at the beginning of time by ancestral beings. Uluru / Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga provide physical evidence of feats performed during the creation period. They often lead walking tours to inform visitors about the local flora and fauna, bush foods and the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories of the area.
The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act was passed in 1976, meaning that after many years Aboriginal law and land rights were finally recognised in Australian law. Nine years later on 26 October 1985 the traditional owners were presented with the freehold title deeds for the park, who, in turn, leased the land back to the Australian Government through the Director of National Parks (formerly the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service) for 99 years.
The Director is assisted by Parks Australia, a division of the Australian Department of the Environment and Energy. Since hand-back, Anangu and Parks Australia staff have worked together to manage the park. This process of working together is known as 'joint management'.
History Uluru and Kata Tjuta were formed about 350 million years ago during the Alice Springs Orogeny.
The Anangu have connected to the area for thousands of years and some records suggested that they may have lived there for more than 10,000 years.
Europeans came to the western desert area of Australia in the 1870s. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were first mapped by Europeans during the expeditionary period made possible by the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872.
In separate expeditions, William Ernest Powell Giles and William Christie Gosse were the first European explorers to this area. In 1872 while exploring the area, Ernest Giles sighted Kata Tjuta from near Kings Canyon and called it Mount Olga, while the following year Gosse saw Uluru and named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia. Further explorations followed with the aim of establishing the possibilities of the area for pastoralism.
In the late 19th century, pastoralists attempted to re-establish themselves in areas adjoining the South-Western/Petermann Reserve and interaction between Anangu and white people became more frequent and more violent. Due to the effects of grazing and droughts, bush food stores were depleted. Competition for these resources created conflict between pastoralists and Anangu. As a result, police patrols became more frequent.
Between 1918 and 1921 large adjoining areas of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory were declared as Aboriginal reserves, as sanctuaries for a nomadic people who had virtually no contact with white people. In 1920, part of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was declared an Aboriginal Reserve (commonly known as the South-Western or Petermann Reserve) by the Australian Government under the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918.
During the Depression in the 1930s, the Anangu became involved in dingo scalping with "doggers" who introduced Anangu to European foods and ways. The first tourists visited the Uluru area in 1936.
The Ayers Rock National Park was recognised in 1950, and in the same year an Alice Springs resident Len Tuit accompanied a group of schoolboys on a trip to Uluru. He recognised the enormous tourism potential of the rock and began offering regular tours in 1955, with guests camping in tents and drinking water carted in from Curtin Springs. Kata Tjuta was added to the national park to create the Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park in 1958. The first permanent accommodation was constructed the same year, while a new airstrip allowed the first fly-in, fly-out tour groups.
In 1958, in response to pressures to support tourism enterprises, the area that is now the park was excised from the Petermann Aboriginal Reserve to be managed by the Northern Territory Reserves Board as the Ayers Rock – Mt Olga National Park. The first ranger was the legendary central Australian figure, Bill Harney.
The site came to attention on 17 August 1980 when two-month-old Azaria Chamberlain was found dead as a result of being taken by a dingo.
On 1 October 2015, traditional owners declared more than of Aboriginal freehold land surrounding the National Park an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) named Katiti Petermann Indigenous Protected Area. As the fourth largest IPA on mainland Australia, it is larger than Switzerland, and completes a huge network of nine IPAs in Central Australia.
Geography
Geology
These domed rock formations are composed of conglomerate, a sedimentary rock consisting of cobbles and boulders of varying rock types including granite and basalt, cemented by a matrix of sandstone. The crevasses are due to erosion, primarily by water. Although it is a dry region, the large area of these domes collects a lot of rainwater, which runs off in steep waterfalls during rain.
500 million years ago, the entire area was covered by an inland sea and over many centuries, sand and mud fell to the bottom of the sea, creating rock and sandstone. Kata Tjuta's domes are the eroded remains of sedimentary rock from the seabed, while Uluru is a relict of the coarse grained, mineral-rich sandstone called arkose.
Climate and seasons The park receives an average rainfall of 307.7 millimetres per year. Temperature extremes in the park have been recorded at during the summer and during winter nights. UV readings on most extreme summer days reach between 11 and 15.Welcome to Aboriginal land: Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park; visitor guide and maps, Colemans Printing, Darwin, January 2006. While the Central Australian environment may at first seem stark – a barren landscape supporting spectacular rock formations – closer inspection reveals it as a complex ecosystem, full of life.
Plant and animal life have adapted to the area's extreme conditions and it subsequently supports some of the most unusual flora and fauna on the planet. Many of these have long been a valuable source of bush tucker and medicine for local Aboriginal people.
The Aboriginal Australians recognise six seasons: Piryakatu (August/September) – Animals breed and food plants flower Wiyaringkupai (October/November) – The really hot season when food becomes scarce Itanju- (January/February) Sporadic storms can roll in suddenly Wanitjunkupai (March) – Cooler weather Tjuntalpa (April/May) – Clouds roll in from the south Wari (June/July) – Cold season bringing morning frosts
Ecology
The park is ranked as one of the most significant arid land ecosystems in the world. As a Biosphere Reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program, it joins at least 11 other reserves in Australia and an international network aiming to preserve the world's major ecosystem types.
Biology
Flora
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park flora represents a large portion of plants found in Central Australia. A number of these species are considered rare and restricted in the park or the immediate region. There are many rare and endemic plants at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. A number of other species, while found elsewhere in central Australia, may be endangered within the park.
The desert flora has adapted to the harsh conditions. The growth and reproduction of plant communities rely on irregular rainfall. Some plants are able to survive fire and some are dependent on it to reproduce. Plants are an important part of Tjukurpa, and there are ceremonies for each of the major plant foods. Many plants are associated with ancestral beings. Collection of plant foods remains a culturally important activity, reinforcing traditional links with country and Tjukurpa.
Flora in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park can be broken into the following categories: Punu – trees Puti – shrubs – flowers Ukiri – grasses
Trees such as the mulga and centralian bloodwood are used to make tools such as spearheads, boomerangs and bowls. The red sap of the bloodwood is used as a disinfectant and an inhalant for coughs and colds.
Others such as the river red gum and corkwood trees like grevillea and hakeas are a source of food themselves. The white flaky crust from river red gum leaves can be rolled into balls and eaten like a lolly and the nectar from the flowers of the corkwood trees can produce a sweet drink.
The witchetty bush looks like a shrubby mulga with broad round-ended leaves. Witchetty grubs are found in the roots of this tree. Daisies and other ground flowers bloom after rain and during the winter. Others such as the wattles bloom as spring approaches. Anangu collect wattle seed, crush and mix it with water to make an edible paste which they eat raw. To make damper, the seeds are parched with hot sand so their skins can be removed before they are ground for flour.
The prickly hard spinifex hummocks have enormous root systems that prevent desert sands shifting. The hummock roots spread underground beyond the prickly clump and deeply into the soil, forming an immense cone. Anangu use a resin gathered from the gummy spinifex to make gum. They thresh the spinifex until the resin particles fall free. These particles are heated until they fuse together to form a moldable black tar which Anangu work while warm. The gum is used for hunting and working implements, and to mend breaks in stone and wooden implements.
The naked woolybutt and native millet have seeds that are important Anangu foods. Women rub the seedheads from their stalks and then separate the seeds from the chaff by skilful winnowing. Using grinding stones, they then grind the seeds to flour for damper.
There are several rare and endangered species in the park. Most of them like adder's tongue ferns (Ophioglossaceae sp.) are restricted to the moist areas at the base of the monoliths, which are areas of high visitor use and subject to erosion.
Since the first Europeans arrived, 34 exotic plant species have been recorded in the park, representing about 6.4% of the total park flora. Some such as perennial buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) were introduced to rehabilitate areas damaged by erosion. It is the most threatening weed in the park and has spread to invade water and nutrient rich drainage lines. Where infestation is dense, it prevents the growth of native grasses – a source of food for animals and humans. A few others such as burrgrass were brought in accidentally, carried on cars and people.
Fauna