Protected places and prehistoric pints

Respecting sacred sites The Aboriginal people of Australia have succeeded in having Uluru closed to tourists because their behaviour was deemed to be incompatible with the red rock’s spiritual significance. The people of the region regard Uluru as the place where the spirits of the ancestral beings continue to reside – tourists climbing the rock in large numbers are incompatible with the respect that the resting ancestors are due. Instead of climbing the rock, visitors can now walk round the base – a distance of 10km – and learn about the creation stories associated with the rock’s many caves and fissures. An official ban on climbing Uluru, which is a site of great spiritual