Aboriginal playing the didgeridoo
Tourism NT

Highlights

Exploring Uluru

The Anangu prefer tourists not to climb Uluru. There are four guided walks as an alternative: a 9.4 km walk around the base; the Mala walk to art sites; the Kuniya walk, which introduces creation stories; and the Liru walk, explaining the use of bush foods and materials, such as quandong fruit.

Kata Tjuta

Uluru’s sister formation, Kata Tjuta, meaning ‘many heads’, comprises 36 magnificently domed and coloured shapes covering about 35 sq km. The 3-hour Valley of the Winds walk winds through the crevices and gorges of the rock system.

Kings Canyon

Spectacular Kings Canyon has sandstone walls rising to 270 m. A 6 km return trail scales the side of the canyon and leads past beehive formations to the Garden of Eden. Within Watarrka National Park, this is the traditional land of the Luritja people, and also includes lush vegetation and classic red sand dunes.

Devils Marbles (Karlu Karlu)

This is one of the most iconic outback destinations, where massive red and orange boulders sit precariously atop each other in a broad desert playground. The four-metre-high, egg-shaped monoliths are an Aboriginal sacred site; legend has it that they are the eggs of the Rainbow Serpent. A network of informal tracks meanders through the rock formations, best seen at dawn or dusk when they’re bathed in a magnificent orange glow.

Hermannsburg

This Aboriginal-owned site was established as a German Lutheran mission in 1877. The missionaries
started a school and learned the local Arrernte language, even translating the New Testament. Today the historic precinct displays preserved buildings from that time, as well as works of art from the acclaimed Hermannsburg School, of whom Albert Namatjira is the most famous.

Finke Gorge National Park

This park has four-wheel-drive access only. Its unique feature is Palm Valley, a 10 000-year-old oasis with 3000 red fan palms. The Finke River, which has carved out Finke Gorge, has maintained its course for over 100 million years and is possibly the world’s oldest river.

Ruby Gap Nature Park

This far-flung park in the East MacDonnell Ranges is well worth the trip by four-wheel drive. Its 850 million-year-old landscape includes the garnet-strewn gorge at Glen Annie and, on the Hale River, another that is considered by many to be Australia’s most beautiful. There are no facilities, although bush camping is permitted.

Simpson Desert and Chambers Pillar

The world’s largest sand dune desert was formed around 18 000 years ago after the continent’s central lakes dried up. Much of the desert is impossibly remote, however this northern section is accessible by four-wheel drive. The main attraction is Chambers Pillar, a sandstone obelisk towering 50 m above the plain.

Focus On: The story of Uluru

Uluru lies in the territory of the Anangu people. European explorer William Gosse named it Ayers Rock in 1873. Along with The Olgas (now Kata Tjuta) and surrounding land it became a national park in 1958. In 1985 it was returned to its traditional owners and gazetted as Uluru. The rock is Australia’s most identifiable natural icon. It is a massive, red, rounded monolith rising 348 metres above the plain and 863 metres above sea level, and reaching 6 kilometres below the earth’s surface. Uluru’s circumference measures 9.4 kilometres. It has no joints – so despite its valleys, fissures and caves, it is a true monolith. Uluru attracts tourists because of its size and singularity. For the Anangu, however, the rock is not a single spiritual object but a thing of many parts; Uluru and Kata Tjuta were laid down during the Tjukurpa (creation period) and are joined by the iwara (tracks) of the ancestral beings that created all the land.