Tourists Trash Sacred Site of Uluru

Thousands of tourists on self-driving trips are climbing Australia’s sacred Uluru before the site is finally closed to the public on October 26, and the sooner the better, for these last walkers are throwing rubbish at their backs, pouring harmful chemicals in organic fields and defecating on the top of the sacred indigenous site.

Uluru is a sacred rise in the indigenous Australian landscape which began forming about 550 million years ago and while climbing to its summit has always been discouraged by the park’s owners, the aboriginal Anangu people, the sacred center now features an unsightly white scar from the hundreds of tourists trudging the same path, every day.

Stephen Schwer, chief executive of Tourism Central Australia, told the ABC “with camping venues at capacity, tourists were veering off-track, with potentially long-lasting damage” and in an article on SMH he is quoted saying “We are seeing increases in rubbish and illegal roadside camping and generally the kind of behavior which degrades the environment. ”

With only a few months left before the sacred site is closed, last minute visitors are failing to book in advance and when getting there and realizing no camping sites are available they pull up on road side or drive off-road across private property to camp.

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