49 Fun Facts About Uluru

In which part of Australia is Uluru?

Northern Territory: Uluru lies 335 km south-west of Alice Springs, near the centre of the continent, in the far south of the Northern Territory.

What kind of rock is Uluru made of?

Sandstone: Uluru is a coarse arkose, a sandstone rich in feldspar, laid down as sediment in the Cambrian and later tilted nearly vertical.

Which surveyor sighted the rock on 19 July 1873 and named it Ayers Rock?

He was a surveyor; the name honoured a South Australian politician of the day.

Who was Sir Henry Ayers, after whom the rock was named?

Chief Secretary of South Australia: Henry Ayers, who made his fortune from the Burra copper mines, headed South Australia's government as Chief Secretary five times between 1863 and 1875.

Which language do the Anangu, the traditional owners of Uluru, speak?

Pitjantjatjara: the Anangu speak Pitjantjatjara and the closely related Yankunytjatjara, both Western Desert languages; in them 'Uluru' is simply a place name with no further meaning.

How high does Uluru rise above the surrounding plain?

348 metres: Uluru rises 348 metres above the plain to a summit 863 metres above sea level, and most of its bulk lies underground.

What is Uluru's total perimeter?

9.4 km: the Uluru Base Walk follows the rock's 9.4-kilometre perimeter at ground level and takes around three and a half hours.

What gives Uluru its red colour?

Fresh rock beneath the surface is grey; oxidation of iron-bearing minerals rusts the outer layer.

What geological term, meaning an isolated hill rising abruptly from a flat plain, do geologists prefer for Uluru over 'monolith'?

Inselberg, German for 'island mountain': Uluru is a classic inselberg, the exposed tip of a rock body that continues far below the plain, which is why 'monolith' is a misnomer.

Roughly when was the sand that became Uluru deposited, during the Petermann Orogeny?

About 550–530 million years ago: sand eroded from the Petermann Ranges was laid down in alluvial fans during the Petermann Orogeny, then tilted almost vertical in the Alice Springs Orogeny some 400-300 million years ago.

What English name do Europeans use for Kata Tjuta, the park's other great rock formation?

The Olgas: the name comes from the tallest dome, Mount Olga, christened in 1872 after a European queen; the formation lies 25 km west of Uluru.

What does 'Kata Tjuta' mean in the local Aboriginal language?

Many heads: in Pitjantjatjara 'kata' is head and 'tjuta' means many, describing the cluster of rounded conglomerate domes.

How many domes make up Kata Tjuta?

36: Kata Tjuta's 36 domes cover about 21.7 square kilometres and are conglomerate, a cemented mass of boulders and pebbles, unlike Uluru's arkose sandstone.

Which is taller, Uluru or the highest point of Kata Tjuta?

The Olgas' peak, by about 198 metres: Mount Olga reaches 1,066 metres above sea level, about 546 metres above the plain, against Uluru's 348 metres.

Mount Olga was named in 1872 by the explorer who first sighted it, in honour of a queen of which German kingdom?

Württemberg: Giles named the peak at the request of his patron Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, whom King Charles and Queen Olga of Württemberg had ennobled in 1871; Olga was a daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.

Which explorer sighted Kata Tjuta in 1872, a year before Uluru was reached?

Ernest Giles sighted Kata Tjuta in October 1872 from across Lake Amadeus, which stopped him reaching it, and named its highest dome Mount Olga; Gosse reached Uluru the following July.

On what date did the Australian government hand ownership of Uluru back to the Anangu?

26 October 1985: Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen handed the title deeds to the Anangu at a ceremony at the rock, and they leased it straight back to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service under joint management.

Which prime minister promised the handback in December 1983 and agreed to the Anangu's ten-point plan?

Bob Hawke's government promised the handback in December 1983 and accepted the Anangu's ten-point plan, which included forbidding the climb, but then made continued climbing access a condition of the title.

For how long did the Anangu lease Uluru back to the national parks agency in 1985?

The government had originally agreed 50 years, then made 99 a condition of the handback.

On what date did the ban on climbing Uluru take effect?

26 October 2019: the climb closed permanently on the 34th anniversary of the 1985 handback, following the park board's unanimous vote in November 2017, and the guide chain was removed.

How many deaths related to recreational climbing had been recorded at Uluru as of July 2018?

37: at least 37 people had died on the climb by July 2018, many from heart attacks and falls on the steep 800-metre route, which was closed whenever winds at the summit were high.

What was installed on Uluru in 1964 to make the climb easier?

A chain handhold: a chain was bolted along the steepest stretch of the climb in 1964 and extended in 1976; it was removed after the climb closed in 2019.

Which incidents on the summit in 2010 renewed calls to ban the climb?

A striptease, golfing and nudity: in 2010 a French tourist stripped on the summit, a man hit golf balls off it and another went naked, stirring fresh demands for a ban.

What did a November 2017 NT News poll find about public opinion on the climbing ban?

63% were against it: an NT News poll in November 2017, as the board announced the closure, found 63 per cent opposed to banning the climb; a 2019 Essential poll found 44 per cent for the ban and 30 against.

Why do the Anangu ask visitors not to photograph certain sections of Uluru?

Traditional Tjukurpa beliefs about sacred sites: some sites are gender-restricted under Tjukurpa, and photographs could expose Anangu to images they may not see; in 2020 Parks Australia asked Google to remove user-uploaded summit photos.

In the Mala story, the Mala who came to Uluru to perform the inma ceremony were what kind of creature?

Rufous hare-wallabies: the Mala, hare-wallaby people, came from the north to hold their inma at Uluru, and the devil-dog Kurpany, sent by the slighted Wintalka men, attacked them and chased the survivors south.

What do some visitors reportedly do after taking rocks from Uluru?

Mail them back to lift a perceived curse: so-called 'sorry rocks' arrive by post at the park with letters blaming bad luck on the theft, and rangers return them to the base of Uluru.

Kuniya, who fought Liru the poisonous snake at Uluru in Anangu tradition, is what kind of animal?

A woma python: Kuniya, the woma python woman, fought Liru the poisonous snake at a waterhole on Uluru's southern side to avenge her nephew, and the marks of the battle are read in the rock there.

In which year was Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park first listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site?

1987: the park was inscribed for its natural values in 1987 and again for its cultural landscape in 1994, one of the few sites listed for both; it is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

What area does Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park cover?

1,326 square kilometres: the park takes in both Uluru and the domes of Kata Tjuta to its west, and is managed jointly by the Anangu traditional owners and Parks Australia.

What was the protected area called when it was excised from the Petermann Aboriginal Reserve in 1958?

Ayers Rock–Mount Olga National Park: excised from the Petermann reserve in 1958 and run by the Northern Territory Reserves Board to serve tourism, it took the name Uluru in 1977 and Uluru-Kata Tjuta in 1993.

What distinction did the two-part name adopted on 15 December 1993 give the landmark?

The first dual-named feature in the territory: 'Ayers Rock / Uluru' became the Northern Territory's first official dual name on 15 December 1993; the order was reversed to 'Uluru / Ayers Rock' in 2002 at tourism operators' request.

What is the name of the resort town just outside the park's boundary?

Yulara: the township was gazetted in 1976 to replace the motels and airstrip at the base of the rock, and its Ayers Rock Resort opened in 1984 some 17 km from Uluru.

What is the Aboriginal community of about 300 people near the eastern end of Uluru called?

Mutitjulu: the community of about 300 Anangu sits near the waterhole of the same name at Uluru's south-eastern base; the rock's arkose formation is also called the Mutitjulu Arkose.

Which body bought the Ayers Rock Resort in 2011?

The Indigenous Land Corporation bought Ayers Rock Resort in 2011 for about $300 million and runs it through its subsidiary Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia; Philip Cox's firm designed the original resort.

By what other name is the Ayers Rock airfield, six kilometres north of the resort town, known?

Connellan Airport: the airfield is named for Eddie Connellan, the bush aviation pioneer whose Connellan Airways had built the first airstrip near the rock's northern side by 1959.

Annual visitor numbers to the park rose to what level by 2000?

Balancing conservation, culture and visitors remains the park's central challenge.

Which baby was killed by a dingo during a family camping trip to Uluru on 17 August 1980?

Azaria Chamberlain, nine weeks old, was taken by a dingo from the family tent on 17 August 1980; her mother Lindy served more than three years for murder before new evidence freed her.

What discovery in 1986 led to Lindy Chamberlain's release from prison?

Azaria's jacket near dingo lairs: in February 1986 searchers looking for a fallen climber found the baby's matinee jacket near dingo lairs at the base of the rock, and Lindy Chamberlain was released days later.

In which year did coroner Elizabeth Morris finally rule that the Chamberlain baby had been taken by a dingo?

2012: at the fourth inquest, on 12 June 2012, coroner Elizabeth Morris ruled that a dingo took Azaria, 32 years after her death; Lindy had received $1.3 million compensation in 1992.

The 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart called for which two new institutions?

A First Nations Voice and a Makarrata Commission: the statement, adopted at a convention at Uluru in May 2017, sought a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament and a commission to oversee agreement-making and truth-telling.

What did Australians decide about the First Nations Voice at a referendum in 2023?

They rejected it: at the referendum on 14 October 2023 about 60 per cent of voters and every state voted No; the Turnbull government had already dismissed the Voice as 'radical' in October 2017.

Roughly how long ago did humans first settle the Uluru area, according to archaeological finds?

More than 10,000 years ago: archaeological finds to the east and west of Uluru show people living in the area more than 10,000 years ago; Europeans did not reach it until 1872.

What percentage of Uluru's rock is feldspar on average?

Quartz makes up 25–35% and rock fragments up to 25%; the minerals point to a granite source like the Musgrave Block.

Under the 2010–20 management plan, the climb was to close once fewer than what share of visitors were climbing?

20 per cent: the 2010-20 plan set closure once fewer than one in five visitors climbed, a threshold clearly met by July 2013, yet the climb stayed open until 2019.

Which architect designed the park's Cultural Centre on the main road to Uluru?

Gregory Burgess: his Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre, opened in October 1995 on the tenth anniversary of the handback, curls in mud brick and timber like the ancestral snakes Kuniya and Liru.

What did the Anangu become involved in with 'doggers' during the 1930s Depression?

Dingo scalping: during the 1930s Depression the Anangu collected dingo scalps for the bounty alongside white 'doggers', who introduced them to European foods and ways.

Which monitor lizard, Australia's largest, lives in the park's dunes and rocky country?

Perentie: Australia's largest lizard, growing to more than two metres, ranges across the arid interior and is among the park's seventy-odd reptile species.

Which introduced plant is considered the most threatening weed in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park?

Buffel grass: introduced to stabilise eroded ground, it spread along the park's drainage lines, crowding out native plants and fuelling hotter fires.