Uluru: The Center of Australia 2 November

We flew west from Cairns, on the eastern coast of Queensland, to Ayers Rock Airport, in the middle of the Red Center in the middle of the Northern Territory in the middle of Australia.  "Ayers Rock" itself, however (not the airport) has reverted to its Aboriginal name of Uluru, just as the rock itself was handed back to the indigenous people twenty-five years ago.  Shortly before the turnover, all tourist accommodations were moved outside what was to become the national park area, and located about 11K away in the town of Yulara.  To call it a town is an overstatement; it is indeed a captive resort town, and today bears the name of the Ayers Rock Resort.

Flying into the area was a treat in itself.  We wish we had gotten pictures from the air: the sky was azure blue, the white clouds few and far between, and the landscape below unreal. The earth was a brilliant burnt orange, at points with swirls of white (salt lakes).  Rising from the earth we saw what we thought was Uluru -- but was in fact another flat-topped mountain, Atila (or Mt. Connor).  If you have never done it, check out the area on Google Earth; the colors are unbelievable.

Flying here underscored the vastness of Australia, and the emptiness of its interior.  The Mercator projection does not do justice  to the size of the country.  It is roughly the same as the continental United States, as you can see below.

The Northern Territory y covers one-sixth of Australia, but is home to only 1% of Australia's population of about 19.5 million.  Very isolated and a great introduction to the Outback.   But more about that in another blog entry.

We realized when we arrived that this trip has taken us to four of the six Australian States -- Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland but not Western Australia or South Australia.  We have also been in one federal territory, the Northern Territory, but not the second, the Australia Capital Territory [Canberra].  For those of you may be interested, there are fascinating comparisons between the Australian federal system (federation did not occur until 1901) and that in the US (but we won't bore the rest of you here).

 



Tomorrow we visit The Rock..