Uluru

Uluru – Have you been to Uluru or planning about it? Here’s what you should know about Uluru before head off.

Uluru might be one of Australia’s most iconic landmarks, but it’s also a hugely important part of the country’s cultural history. Uluru is more than just a rock, it is a living cultural landscape that is considered sacred to the Yankunytjatjara and Pitjantjatjara people. These people of the land are the traditional owners and guardians of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. 

This special place carries great spiritual and cultural significance for these local indigenous tribes with over 40 sacred aboriginal sites and eleven Tjurkurpa or Dreaming trails present in the area. Aboriginal Australians have been living on and cultivating these lands since the beginning. They were here for centuries before European invasion in the 1800s. Across the country there were more than 500 Indigenous nations. Out of the 500 nations estimated to have lived here, there were over 260 distinct language groups and 800 dialects.

Owned by the Anangu people, they still act as guardians of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and are the oldest culture known to man.

• The Anangu People Hold numerous traditional Customs at Uluru

If you visit Uluru and its surrounding landscape today, you’ll see that these cultural connections are still a strong part of life there. With numerous customs and rituals taking place nearby its looming formation. The Anangu people work hard to protect their lengthy, fascinating history, and continue to live in the same way they did thousands of years ago.

• Uluru is an Important Geological Site

These days, it isn’t just the Aboriginal people who find this site significant. Although the Anangu people have their own beliefs on its creations, scientists have studied the rock, and found it to be an extremely unique geological site. The structure is said to have formed 500 million years ago, first beginning in water when the entire region was underwater.

• It plays a vital role in Conserving our Environment

For the Anangu people, the sacred site expands past the rocks ends, and goes into the nearby riverbanks and trees surrounding the site. Due to its outstanding worth, protecting the area is vital to maintain the country’s success. This has resulted in majority of the region protected under the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.