Exploring Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in style

Words: Victoria Laurie Producer: Louise Starkey

After four parched years, good rains have breathed life into Uluru — a widely recognised symbol of Australia.

Cryptic critters are reproducing in niches all over it, from shield shrimps and burrowing frogs to microbats and bottle swallows. Picture: Bird Life Australia

The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is a living place, not just for the birds and bees but for the Anangu people whose story is at Uluru’s heart.

On behalf of The Australian, Victoria Laurie got up close and personal with the region, staying at the Desert Gardens Hotel and checking out the Mutijulu waterhole after arriving.

A 10km walk around the base retraces the steps of nomadic families who made Uluru home in certain seasons.

On the Mala Walk, you enter caves where a smooth, flat rock was used to grind seeds; elsewhere is Kitchen Cave, where women prepared food, and an Old Men’s Cave, chosen for elders to enter.

Another tourist attraction is Kata Tjuta’s Walpa Gorge, which had 400,000 visitors arrive annually before the Covid-19 pandemic and cars would stretch back a kilometre just to get in before daybreak.

On the shady lawn of Yulara’s town square, Anangu-owned Maruku Arts holds dot-painting workshops twice daily.

There’s no clutter of buildings at Yulara , no unsightly barrier between it and the golden spinifex and spindly desert oak landscape that extends all the way to Uluru.

The Field of Light Sunset Tour is a must-do, involving a chilled glass of sparkling wine, canapés and a view of Uluru from a sand dune.

As night falls, a field of dancing illuminated desert flowers — 50,000 glass globes on stems — becomes visible. It is the creation of English artist Bruce Munro.