'A curse will fall on them': Backlash as people rush to climb Uluru for last time

There’s been chaos and crowds galore as clocks tick down on the last day tourists will be allowed to climb Uluru before it is officially banned at 4pm on Friday.

Eager people started lining up from 4am on Friday to climb the 348-metre high landmark in Alice Springs, in the Northern Territory, but faced an even longer wait when the original start time of 7am was delayed until 10am due to strong winds.

Once park rangers gave the go-ahead to climb, tourist began the hike, but many have criticised the masses calling it “disrespectful” and “insensitive”.

Marcia Langton AM, the Foundation Chair in Australian Indigenous Studies at the University of Melbourne, tweeted those climbing the sacred site in the final hours are cursed.

“A curse will fall on all of them,” she tweeted.

“They will remember how they defiled this sacred place until they die and history will record their contempt for Aboriginal culture.”

‘It’s like climbing a church’

Uluru is a sacred site and of great spiritual significance to local Aboriginal groups, including the Pitjantjatjara Anangu traditional owners who live in nearby Mutitjulu.

But that hasn’t stopped visitors with some coming from overseas for the final climb.

Jayson Dudas, from the US state of Nevada, told the Sydney Morning Herald he heard about the closure six months ago.

He’s now 36 but said he first climbed “Ayers Rock”, as he called it, 14 years ago.

"I know, people say it’s like climbing a church," Mr Dudas told the publication.

"But it’s a national site, and I’m going to take care that I’m not damaging the rock in any way, or leaving trash behind, or painting graffiti on it.”

On Twitter, people were full of contempt for those who chose to climb Uluru on its final day.

“The more I see this vision and coverage across the media, the more upsetting this blatant disregard becomes. I can only imagine what how hard it is for Indigenous folk, especially traditional owners,” one person tweeted.

Another added it’s “not only about cultural disrespect” but also about the environmental impact climbing Uluru has on the rock.

AAP noted that the marks from millions of pairs of feet scrambling up the rock for decades will take a long time to erode, possibly hundreds of years or even longer.

“Imagine standing in line to disrespect a forty-thousand-year-old culture,” another person tweeted.

A local traditional owner, Vincent Forrester, booed the crowd as they began the climb.

At the front of the queue early on Friday morning were Adelaide couple Joseph and Sonita Vinecombe, who flew into the area on Thursday.

"We just got here early, mate," Mr Vinecombe told AAP.

Mr Vinecombe said they were aware of the cultural sensitivities around the climb.

"You want to be respectful, and I do respect the issues regarding it. There's thousands of people doing it and it is a conundrum," he said.

Behind them were the Derks family, including mother Kelly and her daughters Madison and Georgia, from Victoria.

Madison, 19, was climbing for the second day in a row.

"It was good to climb it, you feel really proud, and you've got to do it while you've got the chance," she said.

Although backlash online has been loud, the final day of the climb is also a celebration for traditional owners of the land and those who support keeping the sacred site closed to climbers.

“Momentous day for Traditional Owners as Uluru climb closes,” Senator Malarndirri McCarthy wrote on her offical Twitter account.

The National Park board decided in 2017 to ban the climb from this Saturday, which marks 35 years since the land title to the Anangu was given back on October 26, 1985.

The Anangu people will celebrate with a ceremony at the rock on Sunday night.

—With AAP

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