Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park covers an area of 126,132 hectares.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (Mt Olga) are amongst the world's great natural wonders. Uluru is the biggest monolith in the world, and encountering it for the first time is quite an experience. The Olgas are quite different in appearance with their conglomerate rock and 36 domes.

There is a great deal to enjoy in this park, including the magnificent views, photography, sunset and sunrise over the rock and walks up and around both the Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

Apart from the sheer size of Uluru, there is also the fact that at different times during the day, depending on the light and various other atmospheric conditions, the rock actually changes colour, never remaining the exact same permanent hue.

The Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock means 'Great Pebble'. The famous rock was named after the South Australia premier Henry Ayers in 1873 by William Gosse, and the mountains were called after Queen Olga of Spain a year earlier by Ernest Giles.

These two men were part of rival groups exploring the area back in the 1870s. Baldwin Spencer came to the area in 1894 and was one of the first white settlers to recognise the importance of Aboriginal anthropology that was in evidence in the area. Other white people followed them, including the missionaries. The meeting of the two cultures was far often far from ideal, with great differences clearly emerging.

The area formed a part of the Peterman Aboriginal Reserve for some years and in 1950 the National Park was established. This followed the completion of the first graded road in the area some two years earlier.

In November of 1984 the Hawke Government announced that it was going to ensure the transfer of ownership of Uluru to the Aboriginals of the area. This officially took place in October of 1985, following which an arrangement came into being whereby the land was leased back for use as a National Park, although many of the sacred sites which are associated with the legends of the Dreamtime are not open for public inspection.

In 1977 the UNESCO status of International Biosphere Reserve was bestowed upon the park.

Today the National Park is leased to the Commonwealth Government and is managed by both the traditional owners of the land and the Parks Service. Owned by the traditional Aboriginal people, the Anangu, these areas are of significant religious and cultural meaning to these people.

Even today, the Uluru and its surroundings is closed of to the public for ten days every year to allow the Anangu boys to partake in the initiation ceremony. Indeed, although you are certainly permitted to climb the rock (if you have a head for heights and are fit), they actually prefer that you do not. This is because the climb is the traditional route taken by ancestral Mala men once they had arrived at Uluru.

There are three free ranger guided tours. The Mala Walk takes about one and a half hours to complete and will inform you of the Anangu people and what Uluru means to them, and how they are working together with the Rangers to maintain the park. The walk starts out at the Mala Walk carpark at the base of Uluru at 10.30 every day.

The Kuniya Walk will explain to you about the Kuniya, the ancestral python and its involvement in the creation of the surrounding landscape features. You will also be informed on some of the details of the Tjukurpa and what it means to the Anangu in the context of today's world.

The walk lasts about one and a half hours, and it leaves from the Mutitjulu carpark at 3 pm every day. The Liru Walk is led by both rangers and Anangu. You will learn all about the Tjukurpa, traditional skills of the Anangu and their quite unique relationship with the land. This starts out from the Park Visitor Centre and you do need to make a booking for it, tel. 56 2299. This walk also only takes place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Amazingly there are an estimated 150 bird species, 22 mammals and reptiles and 400 plant types within the park. Amongst the plants are desert oak, spinifexes and mulga. The plants in the area are of great importance to the Anangu.

Taking the example of the mulga, its wood is used for firewood and in the production of spearheads, boomerangs and digging sticks, as well as the branches being used in the construction of shelters. There are numerous fruits in this area too, which play a role in the Anangu diet.

These include Kampurarpa, the desert raisin and tjilka, wild tomatoes. Of course, not all of the wild fruits are edible, and the Anangu can distinguish quite easily between the tasty, healthy variety, and the more harmful poisonous kind. All plants in this area have adapted themselves to the harsh climate and have thus managed to survive.

There are various food sources which the Aborigines traditionally use to get a range of food: the Honey Grevillea provides a sweet nectar; Witchetty Grubs are to be found in the roots of Acacia bushes; a source of flour for making damper are the seeds of the Woollybut grass and hakea tree, which are ground and mixed with water.

With regard to the birds, the Anangu have a clever system of identifying the various birds, that is by their different calls, and it is from each birds unique call, that the Anangu names for the birds are derived. The birds are to be found in various habitats ranging from spinifex and shrubs to grasslands and dunes. For more information on these matters a visit to the park's Visitor Centre is recommended.

A knowledge of the whereabouts of water is also crucial to survival. This has led to the search not just in more usual places that you would expect to find water, like waterholes, but also rather more unusual places.

The Parakeelya plant has succulent leaves, and the Desert Oak has water in its root system and sometimes in hollows in its upper branches. The Cyclorana, a frog, buries itself with an abdomen full of water in the dry season as it waits for the next rains to arrive.

Aborigines search for these frogs and then squeeze them for their water.

It has been estimated that these people have lived in the area for an amazing 22,000 years, and over that period of time they have acquired all of the vital skills and information which has allowed them to survive the harsh climate.

Absolutely crucial to their world is the Tjukurpa. This provides them with an explanation of the origin of the land and its features, and ultimately it also provides them with a law which has guided the way they live. For the Anangu, the presence of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta are evidence of the various activities of the ancestral beings.

As you walk around the rock on the eight kilometre walk, you will encounter all sorts of interesting features which will explain something of these peoples traditional ways. There are various rock paintings.

Aborigines have traditionally never communicated through the written word, and what you will find is that these paintings are often messages which were left for other clans who may nomadically have passed through the area. The paintings indicate such things as the whereabouts of water and other crucial information.

The Anangu people also painted for religious purposes and as a means of both teaching and storytelling. It was a means of passing on the crucial information relating to the Tjukurpa.

Accommodation and camping facilities are available in Yulara, but no camping is allowed in the Park. Rangers run activities and tours.

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