Red Centre
Mark Rayner's Photographic Australia
Australia's Nature Photography Showcase
Australia's Red Centre is the heart of
Outback Australia. Uluru, Australia's most famous rock monolith,
and the town of Alice Springs are the central areas to set up
base.
Uluru used to be better known as Ayers Rock, and is an iconic image
of Outback Australia located in the Northern Territory in the very
heart of Australia.
“The Rock” is the worlds greatest monolith being 9 km in
circumferance and rises an impressive 348 metres. Surrounded by a
wide, sandy floodplain covered in spinifex and desert oak it is a
trul inspiring sight. The enormous size of the rock is astonishing
when you realise that two thirds is below the ground.
Uluru and the surrounding area is an ancient sacred place for the
Anangu people. Uluru holds a significant place in the Anangu,
traditional owners, creation stories and law. Many of these stories
relate to how the ancestral beings formed Uluru and all of its
marks and crevices.
At the base of Uluru there are cave paintings and carvings made
over many thousands of years by Anangu belonging to the Luritja,
Yankuntjatjara and Pitjantjatjara language groups.
In 1985 the entire area was handed back to its indigenous owners
and its sights reassumed their traditional names.
A 9 kilometre, 5.6 mile walking track circles the base of Uluru
giving visitors the opportunity to see some Aboriginal rock art and
also the Mutitjulu Waterhole.
There is a treacherous 1.6 kilometre, 1 mile climb to the top of
Uluru however the route follows a sacred religious track. Anangu
prefer visitors respect their site by choosing the trails around
and near Uluru and not by climbing it.
The walk trails around Uluru reveal Anangu stories and law as you
reach each significant site. Your behaviour will determine the
depth of your experience at Uluru. The area around the Mala
waterhole, for example, bequests silence in respect for the
significance of the place. Take the time to fit in with the
appropriate behaviours and you will be rewarded with a very soulful
experience of Uluru.
The Australian Outback is full of very well-adapted wildlife,
although much of it may not be immediately visible to the casual
observer. Many animals rest during the heat of the day, such as
kangaroos and native dogs, the dingo.
Birdlife is prolific, most often seen at waterholes at dawn and
dusk. Huge flocks of budgerigars, cockatoos, corellas and galahs
are often sighted. Various species of snakes and lizards bask in
the sun in winter, on bare ground or roads, but they are rarely
seen during the summer months.
Feral animals such as Camels thrive in central Australia, brought
to Australia by the early Afghan drivers. Wild horses known as
'brumbies,' are station horses that have run wild. Feral pigs,
foxes, cats and rabbits are also imported animals that degrade the
environment, and time and money is spent eradicating them, to help
protect fragile rangelands.
In the centre of Australia surrounded by red desert lies Alice
Springs, population 22,488, in Arrente country. The original Alice
Spring, that the town was named after, is still there. It is a
permanent waterhole that clinched the location of an Overland
Telegraph Station and was named after the wife of the Postmaster
General of South Australia. Although Alice may have once been a
remote outpost, the second biggest town in the Territory now has
all the conveniences of a modern city.
The township was originally called Stuart but officially became
Alice Springs in 1933.
From the first residents in the 1870s until the completion of a
railway service between Adelaide and Alice the town grew very
little and supplies were brought in by camel train. The railway was
completed in 1929 and the service became known as The Ghan after
the Afghan camel drivers. A surfaced road link was not completed
until the 1940s.
Since the 1970s a huge increase in tourism has brought fast growth
and Alice Springs is now a lively city. Although the population is
around 22 000, 400 000 travellers visit every year.
Alice can be used as a base to travel to the Simpson Desert,
MacDonnell Ranges, Uluru Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta The Olgas.
The Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre, Jukurrpa Artists and Warumpi
Arts are all Aboriginal owned and can be found in the centre of
Alice Springs.
CAAMA radio is a station dedicated to providing a quality service
to Aboriginal people has quickly become popular with Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal people due to its different and appealing approach.
An art and souvenir retail outlet, CAAMA Shop, owned by Aboriginal
community of Alice Springs can be found just out of Alice Springs
town centre.
Kata Tjuta, sometimes written Kata Tjuta{Kata Joota}, and also
known as Mount Olga (or colloquially as The Olgas), are a group of
large domed rock formations located about 365 km southwest of Alice
Springs, in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central
Australia. Uluru, 25 km to the east and Kata Tjuta form the two
major landmarks within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The 36
domes, covering an area of 21.68 km², are composed of conglomerate,
a sedimentary rock consisting of cobbles and boulders of varying
rock types including granite and basalt, cemented by a matrix of
sandstone. The highest point, Mount Olga, is 1066 m above sea
level, or approximately 546 m above the surrounding plain (203 m
higher than Uluru). Kata Tjuta is located at the eastern end of the
Docker River Road.
The Pitjantjajara name Kata Tjuta means 'many heads'. The site is
as sacred to the Indigenous people as Uluru.
The alternative name, The Olgas, comes from the tallest peak, Mt
Olga. At the behest of Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Mt Olga was
named in 1872 by Ernest Giles, in honour of Queen Olga of
Württemberg. She and her husband King Karl had marked their 25th
wedding anniversary the previous year by, amongst other things,
naming Mueller a Freiherr (baron), making him Ferdinand von
Mueller; this was his way of repaying the compliment.
On 15 December 1993, a dual naming policy was adopted that allowed
official names consisting of both the traditional Aboriginal name
and the English name. As a result, Mount Olga was renamed Mount
Olga / Kata Tjuta. On 6 November 2002, following a request from the
regional Tourism Association, the order of the dual names were
officially reversed to Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga.
Reference: Wikipedia 2009