Uluru climbers a conga-line of cretins

WHAT do these twits not understand? Sunday Territorian columnist HAYLEY SORENSEN writes why she thinks people clambering for a last minute Uluru climb are wrong.

Climbers heading up Uluru in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park on one of the last days before the climb closes on October 26.

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WHAT do these twits not understand?

This picture on the front page of yesterday’s Weekend Australian in the final weeks before Uluru is finally closed to climbers, was breathtaking.

A conga-line of cretins scrambling up its sacred surface, determined to thumb their noses to the local Anangu people.

Generally speaking, I don’t think it’s particularly helpful to name-call or accuse people of racism.

I prefer to think most people are — for the most part — relatively reasonable. I’d like to think once the reasons for the objections of the Anangu were explained, visitors to Uluru would make the choice to respect their wishes.

But for these handful of people I’d be wrong.

They’re not willing to engage in a respectful discussion so it’s time to call them out for what they are.

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They are disrespectful dipsticks and clearly, there is no speaking sense with them.

It’s hard to imagine how Uluru’s Traditional Owners could have more sensitively managed the decision to close the climb.

The park’s latest management agreement made clear that the climb would close permanently when the proportion of visitors choosing to climb fell below 20 per cent.

That milestone was reached and exceeded by almost a quarter before the axe fell.

Then they gave two years notice of the climbing ban, meaning those who still wanted to climb — despite the politely made objections of Traditional Owners — had ample opportunity to do so.

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But that has all been wasted on the baying mobs online, weeping about how this was all political correctness gone mad, taking away their God-given right to do whatever they like.

For decades, the Anangu have politely asked visitors to respect their wish not to climb the Rock.

Most did so — on the days the climb was open between 2011 and 2015 only 16 per cent of visitors to Uluru chose to make the trek to the top.

But while the disrespectful ninnies might be in the minority, they’ve also been the loudest.

Allow me to address a few of the more popular arguments among online commenters.

“But the objection to climbing is recent — local Aboriginal men took explorers up to the top as far back as the 1940s.”

Mutitjulu leader Craig Woods addressed this argument in the Weekend Australian — how were they to know that in a few decades the bootprints of thousands of trekkers would have carved a scar into Uluru’s surface?

“If they had known, then they would’ve said no,” he said.

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It’s also relevant to note that a large part of the objection by Traditional Owners comes from the fact climbing Uluru is dangerous — at least 35 people have died attempting the ascent.

The Anangu feel a duty of care to their visitors.

“But you can climb to the dome of St Peter’s Basilica.”

Great. I imagine that would stop pretty fast if people started urinating and defecating all over the place.

“But it belongs to all Australians.”

No. It doesn’t.

Uluru and its surrounds were handed back to its Traditional Owners in 1988. They hold the title deeds. It belongs to “all Australians” just as much as your house does.

“But this is all just a conspiracy by agents of wokeness to make me feel bad and divide Australians along race lines.”

No. It isn’t.

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When the ban was announced in 2017, Anangu senior traditional owner and board chairman Sammy Wilson said Australians should be proud of the decision to shut the climb.

“This decision is for both Anangu and non-Anangu together to feel proud about; to realise, of course it’s the right thing to close it,” he said at the time.

“The land has law and culture. We welcome tourists here. Closing the climb is not something to feel upset about but a cause for celebration.”

The only people driving division in this saga are the spoiled brats making their last, entitled scramble for the top.

Hayley Sorensen is the Sunday Territorian’s resident columnist