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75-466: Uluru ( / ˌ uː l ə ˈ r uː / ; Pitjantjatjara : Uluṟu [ˈʊlʊɻʊ] ), also known as Ayers Rock ( / ˈ ɛər z / AIRS ) and officially gazetted as Uluru / Ayers Rock , is a large sandstone monolith . It crops out near the centre of Australia in the southern part of the Northern Territory , 335 km (208 mi) south-west of Alice Springs . Uluru

150-501: A striptease , golfing and nudity, led to renewed calls for banning the climb. On 1 November 2017, the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park board voted unanimously to prohibit climbing Uluru. As a result, there was a surge in climbers and visitors after the ban was announced. The ban took effect on the 26 October 2019, and the chain was then removed. A November 2017 NT News poll found that 63% of respondents did not support

225-684: A 1963 suggestion from the Northern Territory Reserves Board, a chain was laid to assist tourists in climbing the landmark. The chain was removed in 2019. On 26 October 1985, the Australian government returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara people, with a condition that the Aṉangu would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife agency for 99 years and that it would be jointly managed. An agreement originally made between

300-483: A decrease in the number has implications for the condition and health of the landscape. Moves are supported for the reintroduction of locally extinct animals such as malleefowl , common brushtail possum , rufous hare-wallaby or mala, bilby , burrowing bettong and the black-flanked rock-wallaby . Pitjantjatjara language Pitjantjatjara ( / p ɪ tʃ ən tʃ ə ˈ tʃ ɑː r ə / ; Pitjantjatjara: [ˈpɪɟanɟaɟaɾa] or [ˈpɪɟanɟaɾa] )

375-464: A line below: The underline represents that the consonant in question is retroflex , rather than alveolar . The only word in Pitjantjatjara that uses at least one letter absent from the Pitjantjatjara alphabet is the word Jesu ("Jesus"), which uses the letter ⟨s⟩ which is not present in the Pitjantjatjara alphabet. Furthermore, the letter ⟨j⟩ is only present in

450-440: A number of differing accounts given, by outsiders, of Aboriginal ancestral stories for the origins of Uluru and its many cracks and fissures. One such account, taken from Robert Layton's (1989) Uluru: An Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock , reads as follows: Uluru was built up during the creation period by two boys who played in the mud after rain. When they had finished their game they travelled south to Wiputa ... Fighting together,

525-556: A popular destination for tourists since the late 1930s. It is also one of the most important indigenous sites in Australia. The local Aṉangu , the Pitjantjatjara people, call the landmark Uluṟu ( Pitjantjatjara: [ʊlʊɻʊ] ). This word is a proper noun , with no further particular meaning in the Pitjantjatjara dialect , although it is used as a local family name by the senior traditional owners of Uluru. On 19 July 1873,

600-574: A predominantly granite source, similar to the Musgrave Block exposed to the south. When relatively fresh, the rock has a grey colour, but weathering of iron-bearing minerals by the process of oxidation gives the outer surface layer of rock a red-brown rusty colour. Features related to deposition of the sediment include cross-bedding and ripples , analysis of which indicated deposition from broad shallow high energy fluvial channels and sheet flooding, typical of alluvial fans . The Mutitjulu Arkose

675-496: A total perimeter of 9.4 km (5.8 mi). Uluru is notable for appearing to change colour at different times of the day and year, most notably when it glows red at dawn and sunset. The reddish colour in the rock derives from iron oxide in the sandstone. Kata Tjuta , also called Mount Olga or the Olgas, lies 25 km (16 mi) west of Uluru. Special viewing areas with road access and parking have been constructed to give tourists

750-603: Is 50% feldspar, 25–35% quartz and up to 25% rock fragments; most feldspar is K-feldspar with only minor plagioclase as subrounded grains and highly altered inclusions within K-feldspar. The grains are typically 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) in diameter, and are angular to subangular; the finer sandstone is well sorted , with sorting decreasing with increasing grain size . The rock fragments include subrounded basalt , invariably replaced to various degrees by chlorite and epidote . The minerals present suggest derivation from

825-525: Is a canyon in the Northern Territory of Australia located at the western end of the George Gill Range about 321 kilometres (199 mi) southwest of Alice Springs and about 1,316 kilometres (818 mi) south of Darwin , within the Watarrka National Park . Luritja people have inhabited the area for at least 20,000 years. Ernest Giles was an early European explorer, who reached

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900-619: Is a dialect of the Western Desert language traditionally spoken by the Pitjantjatjara people of Central Australia. It is mutually intelligible with other varieties of the Western Desert language, and is particularly closely related to the Yankunytjatjara dialect . The names for the two groups are based on their respective words for 'come/go.' Pitjantjatjara is a relatively healthy Aboriginal language , with children learning it. It

975-443: Is about the same age as the conglomerate at Kata Tjuta , and has a similar origin, despite the different rock type. It is younger than the rocks exposed to the east at Mount Conner , and unrelated to them. The strata at Uluru are nearly vertical, dipping to the south-west at 85°, and have an exposed thickness of at least 2,400 m (7,900 ft). The strata dip below the surrounding plain and no doubt extend well beyond Uluru in

1050-564: Is common in Pitjantjatjara, especially among younger people. For example, among schoolchildren, the predominant language used in the classroom and on the playground is English, though Pitjantjatjara is occasionally used in both settings (more so the latter than the former). Furthermore, swearing and abuse is almost entirely done in English, while storytelling is virtually always in Pitjantjatjara. Outside school and business, Pitjantjatjara speakers use both Pitjantjatjara and English interchangeably, and

1125-496: Is derived from English, with some English loan words being used instead of some traditional terms. A common example of this is the usage of "and" in Teenage Pitjantjatjara. Furthermore, Teenage Pitjantjatjara loan words are often pronounced more like the original English word, even if this involves using the sound from a letter that does not traditionally exist in Pitjantjatjara, such as B , D , O , S and V . However,

1200-525: Is intended to prevent Aṉangu from inadvertently violating this taboo by encountering photographs of the forbidden sites in the outside world. In September 2020, Parks Australia alerted Google Australia to the user-generated images from the Uluru summit that have been posted on the Google Maps platform and requested that the content be removed in accordance with the wishes of Aṉangu, Uluru's traditional owners, and

1275-561: Is now its main business. The property covers 2,200 km (850 sq mi), of which 100 km (39 sq mi) is freehold, with the remainder being a pastoral lease . Tony McFadzean took over as CEO and co-owner some time after the Conways retired in April 2019. Kings Canyon Power Station is a photovoltaic power station. With a generating capacity of 225 kWp and electricity production of 372,000 kWh of electricity per annum. It

1350-633: Is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara , the Aboriginal people of the area, known as the Aṉangu . The area around the formation is home to an abundance of springs, waterholes , rock caves and ancient paintings . Uluru is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Uluru and Kata Tjuta , also known as the Olgas, are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park . Uluru is one of Australia's most recognisable natural landmarks and has been

1425-433: Is surrounded by extensive and relatively flat erosion lowlands in a hot, dry region. Uluru is also often referred to as a monolith , although this is an ambiguous term that is generally avoided by geologists. The remarkable feature of Uluru is its homogeneity and lack of jointing and parting at bedding surfaces, leading to the lack of development of scree slopes and soil. These characteristics led to its survival, while

1500-627: Is taught in some Aboriginal schools. The literacy rate for first language speakers is 50–70%; and is 10–15% for second-language learners. There is a Pitjantjatjara dictionary , and the New Testament of the Bible has been translated into the language, a project started at the Ernabella Mission in the early 1940s and completed in 2002. Work continues on the Old Testament . The Ernabella Mission

1575-605: Is the Luritja word for the local umbrella bush ( Acacia ligulata ) that grows in the vicinity. The national park thus gets its name from this landform. Kings Canyon is located 321 kilometres (199 mi) southwest of Alice Springs via Larapinta Drive (only accessible by 4WD ), or 474 kilometres (295 mi) along the Stuart Highway , Lasseter Highway , and the Red Centre Way , which are all sealed. In 1986, Kings Canyon

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1650-491: Is the Mala story. In this, the Mala ( rufous hare-wallaby ) people came from the north, and decided to stay at Uluru for a while, and perform the ceremony known as inma . The men decorated and raised the ceremonial pole ( Ngaltawata ) and began inma, while the women gathered and prepared bush food , storing seed cakes ( nyuma ) in their caves. The men hunted, made fires, and fixed their tools and weapons. Two Wintalka men approached from

1725-750: The Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service the following year. In July 1992, Yulara Development Company was dissolved and the Ayers Rock Resort Company was established, after which all hotels came under the same management. Since the park was listed as a World Heritage Site , annual visitor numbers rose to over 400,000 visitors by 2000. Increased tourism provides regional and national economic benefits. It also presents an ongoing challenge to balance conservation of cultural values and visitor needs. The local Aṉangu do not climb Uluru because of its great spiritual significance. They have in

1800-590: The Bible Society Australia . Pitjantjatjara Bible Translation Project, incorporated in 1981, completed a new translation of the New Testament and about 15% of the Old Testament , first published in 2002. In 2011 a new project to translate the rest of the OT was initiated, as of 2019 working on various OT books. 21st-century Bible Society missionary and local teacher since 1973, Paul Eckert, has worked with elders on

1875-524: The granite ranges to the south is now explained. The ancestors of the ranges to the south were once much larger than the eroded remnants we see today. They were thrust up during a mountain building episode referred to as the Petermann Orogeny that took place in late Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian times (550–530 Ma ), and thus the Mutitjulu Arkose is believed to have been deposited at about

1950-459: The woma python , lived in the rocks at Uluru where she fought the Liru, the poisonous snake. It is sometimes reported that those who take rocks from the formation will be cursed and suffer misfortune. There have been many instances where people who removed such rocks attempted to mail them back to various agencies in an attempt to remove the perceived curse. One of the major stories associated with Uluru

2025-445: The "Lost City". There are four short walks for visitors: The 22-kilometre (14 mi) Giles Track connects Kings Canyon to Kathleen Springs , and can be followed in either direction. It is advised to spend a night on the track. According to geologists, the valley was formed more than 400 million years ago. It cuts through a layer of Mereenie Sandstone, which was deposited here 400 million years ago. The sandstone can be viewed in

2100-442: The 1950s soon produced adverse environmental impacts. It was decided in the early 1970s to remove all accommodation-related tourist facilities and re-establish them outside the park. In 1975, a reservation of 104 km (40 sq mi) of land beyond the park's northern boundary, 15 km (9 mi) from Uluru, was approved for the development of a tourist facility and an associated airport , to be known as Yulara . In 1983,

2175-479: The Australian government under the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918 . The first tourists arrived in the Uluru area in 1936. Permanent European settlement of the area began in the 1940s under Aboriginal welfare policy and to promote tourism at Uluru. This increased tourism prompted the formation of the first vehicular tracks in 1948 and tour bus services began early in the 1950s. In 1958, the area that would become

2250-793: The Ayers Rock Campground opened, followed by the Four Seasons Hotel (later renamed Voyages Desert Gardens Hotel) and the Sheraton Hotel (Voyages Sails in the Desert) in 1984. The town square, bank and primary school were also established. After the Commonwealth Government handed the national park back to its traditional owners in 1985, management of the park was transferred from the Northern Territory Government to

2325-444: The Aṉangu on 26 October 1985. A chain handhold, added to the rock in 1964 and extended in 1976, made the hour-long climb easier, but it remained a steep, 800 m (0.5 mi) hike to the top, where it can be quite windy. It was recommended that individuals drink plenty of water while climbing, and that those who were unfit , or who suffered from vertigo or medical conditions restricting exercise, did not attempt it. Climbing Uluru

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2400-522: The Aṉangu to European foods and ways. Between 1918 and 1921, large adjoining areas of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory were declared as Aboriginal reserves , government-run settlements where the Aboriginal people were forced to live. In 1920, part of Uluṟu–Kata Tjuṯa National Park was declared an Aboriginal Reserve (commonly known as the South-Western or Petermann Reserve) by

2475-471: The Aṉangu, traditional landowners of Uluru: The world was once a featureless place. None of the places we know existed until creator beings, in the forms of people, plants and animals, travelled widely across the land. Then, in a process of creation and destruction, they formed the landscape as we know it today. Aṉangu land is still inhabited by the spirits of dozens of these ancestral creator beings which are referred to as Tjukuritja or Waparitja . There are

2550-440: The English word motorcar has now almost entirely been replaced by the shortened form of the word, car , the Pitjantjatjara word mutuka (derived from "motorcar") is still used as the Pitjantjatjara word for " car ". Similarly, the words for "car" in most other Aboriginal languages (as well as in some other languages, such as Fijian and Māori ) are borrowed from "motorcar". Like in many Indigenous languages, code-switching

2625-666: The Federal Government's Director of National Parks share decision-making on the management of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. Under their joint Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park Management Plan 2010–20, issued by the Director of National Parks under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 , clause 6.3.3 provides that the Director and the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa Board of Management should work to close

2700-459: The Prime Minister of Australia, Bob Hawke , promised to hand back the land title to the Aṉangu traditional custodians and caretakers and agreed to the community's 10-point plan which included forbidding the climbing of Uluru. The government set access to climb Uluru and a 99-year lease, instead of the previously agreed upon 50-year lease, as conditions before the title was officially given back to

2775-507: The Southwestern/Petermann Reserve and interaction between Aṉangu and white people became more frequent and more violent. Due to the effects of grazing and drought, bush food stores became depleted. Competition for these resources created conflict between the two groups, resulting in more frequent police patrols. Later, during the depression in the 1930s , Aṉangu became involved in dingo scalping with 'doggers' who introduced

2850-466: The Talinguru Nyakuntjaku viewing area opened to public visitation. The A$ 21 million project about 3 km (1.9 mi) on the east side of Uluru involved design and construction supervision by the Aṉangu traditional owners of 11 km (6.8 mi) of roads and 1.6 km (1 mi) of walking trails. The development of tourism infrastructure adjacent to the base of Uluru that began in

2925-564: The Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park was excised from the Petermann Reserve; it was placed under the management of the Northern Territory Reserves Board and named the Ayers Rock–Mount Olga National Park. The first ranger was Bill Harney, a well-recognised central Australian figure. By 1959, the first motel leases had been granted and Eddie Connellan had constructed an airstrip close to the northern side of Uluru. Following

3000-494: The ancestors still exist at Uluru today. Luunpa, now a large rock, keeps watch, while the men killed by Kurpany are still in their cave. Kurpany's footprints, heading eastwards and southwards, are still in the rock. The teaching from this story is that people need to heed warnings of danger, and to finish what they have begun. Historically, 46 species of native mammals are known to have been living near Uluru; according to recent surveys there are currently 21. Aṉangu acknowledge that

3075-509: The area in 1872, Giles sighted Kata Tjuta from a location near Kings Canyon and called it Mount Olga, while the following year Gosse observed Uluru and named it Ayers' Rock, in honour of the Chief Secretary of South Australia , Sir Henry Ayers . Further explorations followed with the aim of establishing the possibilities of the area for pastoralism . In the late 19th century, pastoralists attempted to establish themselves in areas adjoining

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3150-555: The area more than 10,000 years ago. Europeans arrived in the Australian Western Desert in the 1870s. Uluru and Kata Tjuta were first mapped by Europeans in 1872 during the expeditionary period, which was made possible by the construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line . In separate expeditions, Ernest Giles and William Gosse were the first European explorers to this area. While exploring

3225-410: The area, with at least 60 of them unique to the region. They include rare cycads , ferns, eucalyptus, acacia, and desert oaks . Kings Creek Station was established by Ian and Lyn Conway in 1981. It lies 36 km (22 mi) from Kings Canyon, and offers accommodation and tourist experiences. It was originally run as a cattle station and camel property, and still runs these animals, but tourism

3300-558: The area... The walls of Kings Canyon are over 100 m (330 ft) high, with Kings Creek at the bottom, with several Aboriginal sacred sites . Part of the gorge is an Aboriginal sacred site . The Garden of Eden is a permanent waterhole surrounded by plant life, and while visitors are permitted on the walking track, the waterhole is an important men's sacred place for the traditional owners , with particular Dreaming stories associated with it, so visitors are not allowed to swim in it. There are some distinctive rock formations known as

3375-423: The ban. A 2019 Essential poll found that only 44% supported the ban. The Aṉangu request that visitors do not photograph certain sections of Uluru, for reasons related to traditional Tjukurpa (Dreaming) beliefs. These areas are the sites of gender-linked rituals or ceremonies and are forbidden ground for Aṉangu of the opposite sex to those participating in the rituals in question. The photographic restriction

3450-707: The beautiful Sleepy Lizard Women and did not show up. In response, the angry hosts sang evil into a mud sculpture that came to life as the dingo. There followed a great battle, which ended in the deaths of the leaders of both tribes. The earth itself rose up in grief at the bloodshed, becoming Uluru. The Commonwealth Department of Environment's webpage advises: Many other Tjukurpa such as Kalaya ( emu ), Liru ( poisonous snake ), Lungkata ( blue-tongue lizard ), Luunpa ( kingfisher ) and Tjintir-tjintirpa ( willie wagtail ) travel through Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park . Other Tjukurpa affect only one specific area. Many exploits of Tjukurpa involve ancestral beings going underground. Kuniya,

3525-479: The best views of both sites at dawn and dusk. Both Uluru and the nearby Kata Tjuta formation have great cultural significance for the local Aṉangu people, the traditional inhabitants of the area, who lead walking tours to inform visitors about the bush, food, local flora and fauna, and the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories of the area. Archaeological findings to the east and west indicate that humans settled in

3600-484: The canyon in 1872. Kings Creek runs along the bottom of the canyon, and gives it its name. The creek was named by Giles in 1872. He wrote in his book Geographic Travels in Central Australia from 1872 to 1874 : "I called King's Creek after Mr. Fielder King... an old and kind friend of mine". The Aboriginal ( Luritja and Arrernte ) name for the creek and canyon is "Watarrka" (pronounced what-ARR-kah ), which

3675-585: The child.' It can be contrasted with the following sentence with an intransitive verb, where the subject takes the absolutive case: Tjitji child. ABS a-nu. go. PAST Tjitji a-nu. child.ABS go.PAST 'The child went.' In contrast to the ergative-absolutive pattern that applies to nouns, pronouns show a nominative-accusative pattern. Consider the following examples, with pronoun subjects: Ngayu-lu I. NOM tjitji child. ABS nya-ngu. see. PAST Kings Canyon (Northern Territory) Kings Canyon , also known as Watarrka ,

3750-399: The climb upon meeting any of three conditions: there were "adequate new visitor experiences", less than 20 per cent of visitors made the climb, or the "critical factors" in decisions to visit were "cultural and natural experiences". Despite cogent evidence that the second condition was met by July 2013, the climb remained open. Several controversial incidents on top of Uluru in 2010, including

3825-413: The community and Prime Minister Bob Hawke that the climb to the top by tourists would be stopped was later broken. The Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu , with a population of approximately 300, is located near the eastern end of Uluru. From Uluru it is 17 km (11 mi) by road to the tourist town of Yulara , population 3,000, which is situated just outside the national park. On 8 October 2009,

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3900-422: The digraph ⟨tj⟩ . Some features distinctive to the Pitjantjatjara dialect, as opposed to other Western Desert Language dialects, include -pa endings to words that simply end in a consonant in other dialects (this is reflective of a general aversion in Pitjantjatjara to words ending with a consonant), and a reluctance to have y at the beginning of words. Pitjantjatjara uses case marking to show

3975-590: The first official dual-named feature in the Northern Territory. The order of the dual names was officially reversed to "Uluru / Ayers Rock" on 6 November 2002 following a request from the Regional Tourism Association in Alice Springs. The sandstone formation stands 348 m (1,142 ft) high, rising 863 m (2,831 ft) above sea level with most of its bulk lying underground, and has

4050-520: The first time, and the people became literate in their own language before English. The first draft of the New Testament 's Gospel of Mark , Tjukurpa Palja Markaku , was completed in 1945 by Reverend Bob Love and Ronald Trudinger at the Mission, and was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1949. Work continued over the next 20 years, with publication of a shorter New Testament in 1969 by

4125-504: The following consonant inventory, orthography shown in brackets: Pitjantjatjara has three vowels: Pitjantjatjara vowels have a length contrast , indicated by writing them doubled. A colon ⟨:⟩ used to be sometimes used to indicate long vowels: ⟨a:⟩ , ⟨i:⟩ , ⟨u:⟩ . Pitjantjatjara orthography includes the following underlined letters, which can be either ordinary letters with underline formatting, or Unicode characters which include

4200-593: The form of 30-m high cliffs, and as you go deeper, you can witness the softer Carmichael Sandstone, which has been present here for 440 million years. These two layers of sandstone are divided by a thin layer of purple shale or mudstone which depicts the environmental changes between the two formations. Birds in the canyon area include the spinifex pigeon , zebra finch , several species of honeyeater , purple-backed fairywren , budgerigar , rufous grasswren , nankeen kestrel , and many more. Other animals include: More than 750 plant species have been recorded in

4275-454: The form of a ghost ( mamu ). Luunpa (the kingfisher woman) spied him first, and warned the Mala people; however, they did not listen to her. Kurpany attacked and killed some of the men, and the remaining Mala people fled southwards, into what is now the state of South Australia , with Kurpany in pursuit. This story continues among the Indigenous peoples of South Australia. Aṉangu believe that

4350-485: The granites of the growing mountains to the south. The layers of sand were nearly horizontal when deposited, but were tilted to their near vertical position during a later episode of mountain building, possibly the Alice Springs Orogeny of Palaeozoic age (400–300 Ma ). As with many sites around Australia, there are stories from The Dreaming associated with Uluru that date back thousands of years. According to

4425-419: The letter C is never used. There are slightly different standardised spellings used in the Northern Territory and Western Australia compared to South Australia , for example with the first two writing ⟨w⟩ between ⟨a⟩ and ⟨u⟩ combinations and a ⟨y⟩ between ⟨a⟩ and ⟨i⟩ , which SA does not use. Pitjantjatjara has

4500-414: The national park's Film and Photography Guidelines. Google agreed to the request. During heavy rain, waterfalls cascade down the sides of Uluru, a rare phenomenon that only 1% of all tourists get to see. Large rainfall events occurred in 2016 and the summer of 2020–21. Uluru is an inselberg , meaning "island mountain". An inselberg is a prominent isolated residual knob or hill that rises abruptly from and

4575-404: The past requested that visitors not climb the rock, partly due to the path crossing a sacred traditional Dreamtime track, and also due to a sense of responsibility for the safety of visitors. Until October 2019, the visitors' guide said "the climb is not prohibited, but we prefer that, as a guest on Aṉangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing". On 11 December 1983,

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4650-770: The programs were defunded, and teaching reverted to English only. In December 2018 it was announced that the South Australian Government would commit to teaching in the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara languages , with English as an additional language, by 2029. Pitjantjatjara includes several loan words from other languages, predominantly from English. Some older loan words are derived from other Indigenous languages and from English, while newer loan words are almost entirely borrowed from English. Like other Indigenous languages, some older loan words that are still commonly used in Pitjantjatjara derive from English terms that are now uncommon or obsolete. For example, while

4725-554: The project for many years. The Book of Daniel was published in 2015, and the Pitjantjatjara version of the New Testament is available online. In 2017 members of the Pitjantjatjara Bible Translation Project and partners began a multi-voice recording of the Pitjantjatjara New Testament, with 50% completed by 2017. APY lands schools taught a bilingual curriculum until the late 1980s, when

4800-513: The role of nouns within the clause as subject, object, location, etc. Pitjantjatjara is a language with split ergativity , since its nouns and pronouns show different case marking patterns. Consider the following example, where the subject of a transitive verb is marked with the ergative case and the object with the absolutive case : Minyma-ngku woman. ERG tjitji child. ABS nya-ngu. see. PAST Minyma-ngku tjitji nya-ngu. woman.ERG child.ABS see.PAST 'The woman saw

4875-502: The same time, hence then in Gondwana (now in Australia). The arkose sandstone that makes up the formation is composed of grains that show little sorting based on grain size and exhibit very little rounding; the feldspars in the rock are relatively fresh in appearance. This lack of sorting and grain rounding is typical of arkosic sandstones and is indicative of relatively rapid erosion from

4950-449: The subsurface, but the extent is not known. The rock was originally sand, deposited as part of an extensive alluvial fan that extended out from the ancestors of the Musgrave , Mann and Petermann Ranges to the south and west, but separate from a nearby fan that deposited the sand, pebbles and cobbles that now make up Kata Tjuta. The similar mineral composition of the Mutitjulu Arkose and

5025-554: The surrounding rocks were eroded. For the purpose of mapping and describing the geological history of the area, geologists refer to the rock strata making up Uluru as the Mutitjulu Arkose , and it is one of many sedimentary formations filling the Amadeus Basin . Uluru is dominantly composed of coarse-grained arkose (a type of sandstone characterised by an abundance of feldspar ) and some conglomerate . Average composition

5100-440: The surveyor William Gosse sighted the landmark and named it Ayers Rock in honour of the then Chief Secretary of South Australia , Sir Henry Ayers . In 1993, a dual naming policy was adopted that allowed official names that consist of both the traditional Aboriginal name (in the Pitjantjatjara , Yankunytjatjara and other local languages) and the English name. On 15 December 1993, it was renamed "Ayers Rock / Uluru" and became

5175-464: The two boys made their way to the table topped Mount Conner , on top of which their bodies are preserved as boulders. (Page 5) Two other accounts are given in Norbert Brockman's (1997) Encyclopedia of Sacred Places . The first tells of serpents who waged many wars around Uluru, scarring the rock. The second tells of two tribes of ancestral spirits who were invited to a feast, but were distracted by

5250-561: The two languages are sometimes mixed together. This includes both in their local communities and whilst they are on holidays. Below is an example of code-switching in Pitjantjatjara, taken from a conversation among a group of teenagers playing a game of Monopoly : Teenage Pitjantjatjara is a distinct variety of Pitjantjatjara spoken by younger Pitjantjatjara people. The main differences between Standard Pitjantjatjara and Teenage Pitjantjatjara are in vocabulary and pronunciation. A much greater proportion of Teenage Pitjantjatjara vocabulary

5325-413: The west, and invited the Mala people to attend their inma, but the Mala people declined the invitation, as their inma had begun and could not be stopped. The Wintalka men went back and told their people, who got angry and created an evil spirit, in the form of an enormous devil-dog called Kurpany, in order to wreck the Mala inma. Kurpany approached the Mala people, changing form as he did so, including taking

5400-532: Was established by Charles Duguid and the Presbyterian Church of Australia in 1937 at the location now known as Pukatja , supported by the South Australian government . The Mission aimed to keep the language and culture alive, with the missionaries learning the language themselves and teaching it in the school as well as delivering sermons in it. This meant that the language became a written language for

5475-437: Was generally closed to the public when high winds were present at the top. As of July 2018, 37 deaths related to recreational climbing have been recorded. According to a 2010 publication, just over one-third of all visitors to the park climbed Uluru; a high percentage of these were children. About one-sixth of visitors made the climb between 2011 and 2015. The traditional owners of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park (Nguraritja) and

5550-634: Was listed on the Register of the National Estate , when it was described by the Department of Environment as follows: One of the most spectacular canyons in Central Australia. Kings Canyon contains some 60 rare or relict plant species and a total of 572 different plant species and 80 species of birds. It is a 'living plant museum' and is notable for its stands of cycads & permanent rock pools. There are some well-preserved Aboriginal paintings and engravings in

5625-620: Was the largest single installation of its kind in Australia when it began operation in December 2003. Kings Canyon Power Station, part of the Territory Generation network, is the only commercial source of electricity in the Kings Canyon area. It provides up to 1.1MW from a combination of solar and diesel generation. King's Canyon featured in the 1994 film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert , as

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