Climbing Australia’s red rock Uluru banned over ‘theme park’ concerns

Climbers have been banned from scaling the world’s largest monolith amid concerns that it was becoming a ‘theme park’ and undermining the giant red rock’s cultural significance, AFP reports. Scrambling up ‘Uluru’ - an icon of the Outback, also known as Ayers Rock - is seen by many tourists as a ‘must-do’ during their visits to Australia. However, they do so against the wishes of the traditional Aboriginal owners, the Anangu, to whom the site is sacred. The Anangu and National Park representatives came to a unanimous decision to ban the activity during a recent meeting of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board. The ban will come into force in October 2019. Tourists are urged to respect the ruling.