Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Australia

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Australia

Short Report

This park, formerly called Uluru (Ayers Rock - Mount Olga) National Park, features spectacular geological formations which dominate the huge red sand plain of central Australia. Uluru, a giant monolith and Kata Tjuta, the rock domes located to the west of Uluru, are part of the traditional feel of one of the oldest human societies in the world. The traditional owners of Uluru-Kata Tjuta are the Anangu aboriginal people.

Wide Report

Located on the southern edge of the large Amadeus sedimentary basin, the park consists of extensive sand plains and dunes and alluvial desert, punctuated by the monolith Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Uluru consists of hard sandstone that is exposed as a result of folding, nothing wrong and the erosion of the surrounding rocks. The monolith is a base circumference of 9.4 km, smooth sloping sides of up to 80° slope and a relatively flat top. Large surface area of the sheet rock erosion with layers 1 t/m 3 m thick, parallel to the existing surface break; deep parallel cracks that extend from the top and sides of the monolith; and a number of caves, coves and insert at the base formed by chemical degradation and sand erosion.

Kata Tjuta comprises 36 steep-sided rock domes of soft bracket Mount Currie conglomerate consisting of phenocrysts of fine-grained acid and alkaline rocks, granite and gneiss in a epidote-rich matrix. Kata Tjuta has often hemispherical peaks, almost vertical sides, steep-sided intermediate valleys and is exposed by the same process as Uluru.The vegetation, amended by substrate stability, climate and fire, can be divided into five main categories arranged concentrically around the monolith formations. First, Uluru supports hardy eternal grass in the ground and sedge on very shallow soil; secondly the Kata Tjuta foothills support annual grasses; thirdly, the fans and outwash alluviums around the monolith a complex of open grassland, low trees and shrubs. During rainy periods this vegetation can lush. Fourthly, the plains area supports dense bunches of mulga, acacia and native fuchsia pink. Fifth, the sand dunes, rises and plains are dominated by spinifex grass. There are 22 indigenous mammals in the park, including dingo, red kangaroo, a marsupial mole, hopping from mouse multiple bat species including false Australian vampire, bilgy, occasional short-nosed the echidna, and various small marsupials and native rodents. The red fox, cat, mouse and rabbit, next to wild dogs and camels, compete with native species. More than 150 bird species that are included in the park, and all five Australian families reptiles are represented.

The park, and in particular the monolith Uluru, is one of the many important and interconnected centers of local and religious significance which are distributed in the vast field of western central Australia inhabited by aboriginal people. Cave Paintings of Uluru, some of which are considered old, indicate the length of time Aboriginal People are present in the area. Traditional religious philosophy, Tjukurpa, offers an interpretation of the current landscape, flora, fauna and natural phenomena in terms of the trips and the activities of ancestral creatures and therefore binds the people social, mental and historically on the ground. The site is an excellent example of a traditional human settlement representative of Aboriginal culture, directly connected with the religious and cultural traditions.

Historical Data

Archaeological research shows that parts of central Australia are inhabited for at least 30,000 years (although probably only on a temporary basis in the most arid phases). A period of 'intensification' and social and cultural adaptive evolution by Anangu began about 5000 years ago, in which the new programs were introduced, new forms of rock art, and new camping patterns. A broader diet was established, including the operation of the seeds of different types of grass as additional sources of food. More complex patterns of social organization reflected in this period with the appearance of a larger base camps and the emergence of contemporary forms of rock art.

The evolution of the Anangu hunting and gathering culture took place in parallel with the development of agriculture, but also in a contrasting ecosystem: both are human cultural reactions to the changing post-glacial climate. An important function of the Anangu adaptation was the mapping of social groups on the landscape in such a way that each local group held pre-eminent rights over a certain base camp next to a semi-permanent water supply. The group is responsible for the management of food in the country (ngura ) around the camp, but not claim exclusive rights to these sources: mutual rights were allowed to neighboring groups. Both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are traditional base camps of this type; 20% of Anangu living today on the rime in the Mutitjulu community are visitors from other municipalities in the region. The efficiency of this system is demonstrated by the archaeological evidence of a substantial increase in the population density in the region over the last 5000 years.

The first European see Uluru was the explorer Gosse, name Ayers Rock after the then secretary of New South Wales. The year for Ernest Giles bad name Kata Tjuta Queen Olga of Wurtemberg. A short period of the competing exploration started to investigate the possibilities of the area for pastoral extension once the overland telegraph, Built in the 1870s, bath made it more accessible for colonization, but in less than twenty years the sponsors of these explorations have withdrawn, conclude that this country is to arid for occupation.

In the first decades of the 20th century the British Commonwealth, South Australia, and the Western Australian Governments declared substantial reserves in central Australia as a sanctuary for the Anangu speakers of different related dialects, Designed to protect against adverse contact with white Australians while they were re-trained in European culture. Anangu oppose assimilation, often abandoned missions and government settlements to return to a traditional way of life and for the transfer of the tjukurpa of their children. A din-road was printed in 1940 and so Anangu were unable to take advantage as a source of independence from government distributes.

The Uluru-Kata -Tjuta area was she made from the South-west Reserve in 1958 and reserved as Ayers Rock-Mount Olga National Park, under the care, control and management of the then Northem Territory Management reserves. A number of tourists motels were built in the vicinity of Uluru early in the existence of the Park. Although the Reserves Board was strongly opposed to any encouragement of the Anangu presence in Uluru, the welfare Branch confirmed a lease within the Park which the Ininti store was built as a Anangu state company.

In 1973 a parliamentary inquiry was in relation to the management of the Park and recommended that tourist accommodation should be moved outside of the Park boundaries for environmental reasons. He also recommends protection of Anangu holy places on Uluru and the training of Anangu rangers. The Uluru (Ayers Rock-Mount Olga) National Park, about 1325 km2, was on May 24, 1977 in the National Parks and Nature Conservation Act 1975).  Daily line was carried out by the conservation of the Northern Terri Gaughan tory That Has Increased customer retention, with financial and general political direction of the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service. Some Anangu were employed as rangers but no place in the formal management of the Park.

In November 1983, the Minister announced that the intention of the Commonwealth Government to grant title of Uluru National Park to the Aboriginal traditional owners with a lease-back of the area to the Director of the National Parks and Wildlife, in accordance with the wishes of the traditional owners. Freehold title was transferred to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta Aboriginal Land Trust on October 26, 1985, and in April1986 a Board was set up, the Park in cooperation with the Director of National Parks and Wildlife. It was of Anangu request that the official name was changed in 1993 to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, in order to take account of the Aboriginality of the Park and of the cultural landscape.

Source:whc/unesco