ULURU Made by Meika Lindsay

WHERE IS ULURU LOCATED? Uluru is located in the geographic centre of Australia in the southwestern part of the Northern Territory. It's surroundings are red dirt, no green grass only large amounts of brown spinifex, very few trees and no hills. The day time temperatures in Winter are around degrees, in summer degrees. At night the temperatures drop below zero in Winter but stay as high as 37.5 degrees at night in Summer. Because Uluru is in a desert, you are probably thinking that it doesn't get much rain and if you guessed that, you’re right! Uluru only gets around 250mm or 10 inches each year. I hope that now you have a better understanding of what sort of climate Uluru is located in.

I am here

THE GEOLOGY OF ULURU Uluru is estimated to be around 600 million years old, it originally would have sat at the bottom of the sea. With time Uluru has made it's way to the surface and today it stands 348m above flat desert and 863m above sea level. Amazingly, 2.5km of Uluru is believed to be still buried underground! Uluru is 3.6km long, 1.9km wide and is about 9.4km around the base. I rode around the base on my bike and it was a long way!

Uluru is made up of 50 per cent feldspar per cent Quartz and up to 25 per cent rock fragments. Uluru is actually grey on the inside but because of the chemical reaction with the sun, rain and air it has created red rust which makes it look red on the outside. Here is a close up picture of the red rust flaking off to reveal the grey inside.

ABORIGINAL CULTURE The Aboriginal people at Uluru were called the Anangu people and they always knew that Uluru was a special place. The Anangu people have been at Uluru for 10s of thousands of years now and they know this place better then anyone. They have many stories and traditions that help them take care of the land and survive in such a harsh place. For example, there is a little waterhole on one side of Uluru that is known to never dry up. When they approach this waterhole it is law that they don’t just go and drink the water from the waterhole. They must go about 10m down from the it and dig a hole that was around 1m deep until they reached water level and then they would drink out their hole instead. Using this method they got two huge benefits. One, they got nice clean water so there were no bugs or beetles that had fallen in and died and could make them sick if eaten and two, they aren't leaving their scent at the waterhole so the animals can still go to the it to feed and drink making sure plenty of animals came to the area to hunt. Clever!

Aboriginal people would only hunt as much as they needed for their family. They wouldn't over hunt just for the fun of hunting because they knew that animals won't be there anymore for their kids and grandchildren to hunt when they grew up. Aboriginal dreamtime stories were a very strong learning tool and these stories were taught to them as they grew older. It was always taught to them by someone who was older then them. They would learn their laws, how to behave, how to hunt and how to protect their environment and their food sources for future generations through these stories.

Rock art was a very good way of teaching these stories. It was like a classroom for the Indigenous people. Girls and boys were often split up to hear these stories. Just by walking around Uluru you can see just how special and sacred Uluru is to the Anangu people and why it’s so important to them to maintain their culture.

Run your mouse over the picture and an audio display will appear. Press play to hear a Dreamtime Story that took place at Uluru.

Tourism at Uluru Each year more than 400,000 people visit Uluru. It is an amazing rock! It was incredible to see how massive it is. It is a magical place and shows a very rich Aboriginal culture and history. There is a heap of Rockart around Uluru that tells so many stories through detailed drawings about the life and culture of the Anangu people. You can fly over Uluru, walk or ride around the base, go on many ranger talks or if you must, climb it. The Cultural Centre at Uluru is worth visiting because it has so much information about Uluru, the animals in the area, the environment and the Anangu culture.

A big drawcard to visit Uluru used to be to climb it. Thankfully only 35 per cent of the people that visit Uluru now decide to climb. It is a big come back since around 80 years ago when a devastating 75 per cent chose to climb. But why climb Uluru? Uluru is a sacred place to Aboriginals. It is very disrespectful to climb it because their ancestors climbed it only for sacred ceremonies. The Aboriginal people believe that if you climb, then you are walking in the steps of the spirits which in their culture is very disrespectful unless you are chosen to attend ceremony. The Indigenous people of this area are also afraid that you might hurt yourself. Many people have been hurt or even died climbing it. They feel like it would be their fault if that happened because they failed to keep you safe while passing through their country, which is very important to Indigenous people. So they ask you not to climb it and simply enjoy its magic by walking around it.

ULURU QUIZ Q1 How old is Uluru estimated to be? Q2 Uluru is made up of 50 per cent … A) feldspar B) Quartz or C) rock fragments? Q3 How many people visit Uluru each year? Q4 What colour is Uluru from the inside? A1 600 million A2 A) feldspar A3 400,000 people A4 Grey

THANKS FOR WATCHING, THE END!