There’s more to Uluru than a rock climb

Buses deposit walkers and hikers at this rock formation every morning, where they can, totally unsupervised, amble through these intriguing rocky structures.

The Wintjiri Wiru drone show over Uluru.

It has rained a lot up Uluru way these past few seasons. The last two times I’ve visited – once in autumn, once in spring – there’s been the possibility of waterfalls on the rock. “Only the luckiest get to see the falls,” a local tells me. “It’s rare.” Turns out the clouds that loom on the radar in the days before this trip blow over and there will be no waterfalls this time. But all the rain has left an impression across this place they call the “heart of the nation”, because Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is blooming.

The waterholes on and around Uluru are full, the gum forests at the base of the rock are verdant, and at Kata Tjuta, Uluru’s sister rock formation (for a century called The Olgas, after a Prussian queen who never visited), wildflowers are running riot.  I am no expert in native flora, but to wander through this place after the rains is to discover an inland wonderland more flush with colour and life than the postcards of the ochre earth can possibly articulate. This national park is a veritable open-air florist.

Waterfalls on Uluru are rare but beautiful.

Kata Trjua at dusk.

We are in Uluru not to admire the flowers, though. Rather, this visit is to experience the newest attraction in the Red Centre: Wintjiri Wiru, a drone show that lights up the inky sky over Uluru each evening, relating the creation story of the Anangu people of Central Australia.

Wintjiri Wiru, launched in mid-2023, is a mesmerising 1000-drone, light and audio show that takes place after sunset on a purpose-built platform about 10 minutes from Ayers Rock Resort, Uluru’s central accommodation hub. Guests arrive by bus and start the evening with canapes that take their flavour cues from native ingredients. Nibble on lemon myrtle-infused crocodile Thai curry pies, or cauliflower mousse tartlets with bush tomatoes over a spiced apple gin and tonic that slides down rather well in the dry, desert blooms-scented air.

The drinks flow as the skies transform into streaks of gold over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. As darkness falls, guests take their seats to be delivered picnic hampers with more delicious morsels and to settle in for the story. As the skies slide to black and the stars begin to pop out like fireflies, drones fill a space above the desert, telling the Mala story, about the early people of this sunburnt region and their interactions with a “devil dog called Kurpany”. It’s a unique, exciting event, wonderful and thrilling, a brilliant innovation against an ancient landscape, played out on an eternal sky.

Wintjiri Wiru is one of a number of initiatives undertaken at Uluru in recent years in an effort to offer new adventures for tourists, and perhaps to negate the whingeing of a bitter minority who continue to protest the closure of Uluru to climbers. Scaling the rock was stopped on October 26, 2019.

Wintjiri Wiru lights up the sky over Uluru.

Wintjiri Wiru’s Kurpany devil dog.

A local guide tells us the climbing track – which has left a scar along a ridge of the rock – was slated to close when fewer than 20 per cent of Uluru visitors elected to make the climb. When that happened in 2018, the closure became a reality; the fact that between 1950 and 2019, 37 people died making the climb and 74 were medevaced out for injuries or heart attacks, combined with traditional owners’ objection to the climb, made it untenable.

Access to Uluru is now limited to the base, including to spots where the original inhabitants ate, slept and even birthed. You can see watering holes, caves, gum groves and the intricate face of the rock itself; it’s an incredible, mystical, almost spiritual place. It’s not possible to be near Uluru without being moved by its incredible otherworldliness.

Those who pine for closer access may be surprised to learn that trekking through and on nearby Kata Tjuta is still an option. Buses deposit walkers and hikers at this rock formation every morning, where they can, totally unsupervised, undertake a choice of two treks that amble through different passages of these intriguing rocky structures.

When the wildflowers bloom at Kata Tjuta

Papery and pretty: Kata Tjuta desert blooms

The first corridor offers a gentle, 50-minute walk through Walpa Gorge, taking in a beautiful spearwood grove, while the 7.4km circular route through the Valley of the Winds is a more challenging three-hour hike navigating spectacular terrain inclusive of gum forests, mountainous ridges of Mars-like territory and fields blanketed with papery desert flowers. It’s not an easy walk, but the effort is worth it, for nowhere is like this place – so weird, so beautiful, so vibrant: the red earth and verdant shrubbery brilliant against cerulean skies.

To walk across and through Kata Tjuta feels like a privilege and the respect of the walkers we pass is palpable. You can almost feel the story of ages echoing around you, as loudly as the Mala story that is told each night at Wintjiri Wiru.

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Checklist

Getting there: The flight to Uluru is about 3½ hours from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

Stay: Ayers Rock Resort, which has an ethos of employing Indigenous staff, is a collection of hotels clustered about 10 minutes from Uluru. Desert Gardens (1 Yulara Dr, Yulara) is a pleasant property and many rooms have views of Uluru. Rates from $420 a night, minimum three nights. ayersrockresort.com.au

Eat: Desert Gardens has good onsite bistro options or, for something fancier, walk to the slightly ritzier Sails in the Desert, where Ilkari restaurant offers an $89 dinner buffet. There are also cafes sprinkled around the resort.

Lemon myrtle crocodile curry pie.

Do: The Uluru Hop On Hop Off bus (uluruhoponhopoff.com.au) departs from Ayers Rock Resort before dawn and deposits passengers for self-guided walks at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. You can also take guided tours. Desert Awakenings (from $210 inclusive of a dawn breakfast) is an excellent six-hour guided minibus tour that runs from Ayers Rock Resort. The Wintjiri Wiru show offers different dining packages to suit various budgets. Prices start at $190 for adults (ayersrockresort.com.au/wintjiri-wiru). Try to make time, too, for Field of Light, the Bruce Munro light installation a short drive away, from $46 an adult.