Tourist attraction and Aboriginal home Ayers Rock, now known as Uluru, is possibly closing to visitors. The main controversy is over issues of safety, the environment and indigenous community.
After having to tag-team ownership with the federal government 30 years ago, the Anangu people feel they’ve been denied of what was promised them. Out of the hundreds of thousands of visitors Australia’s favorite landmark receives every year, apparently only seven percent of the revenue goes back to the Aboriginal communities.
“On one side of the rock we are in poverty and the other side is some sort of dream world,” Ngaanyatjarra Aboriginal Coporation chairman Rameth Thomas told an Australian news site. “They are exploiting our culture here and making millions. If they don’t start listening to us we will close the rock.”
Due to the swell of travelers, the rock faces erosion and 36 climbers have died over the past several years. So if you’re in Australia any time soon, enjoy the rock while you still can—just don’t climb it.
McGee Nall is a travel intern with Paste and a freelance writer based out of Athens, Georgia.