Wouldn't the sun rays hit different aspects of the rock at different times of the year? It would be be at one extreme at this time of the year. Maybe the viewing place was chosen to give the best average?

I have no real objection to Barnett's article but as a side comment, we should note that Alizee Sery has made herself considerably more marketable. Before she was just another French girl with an embarrassing tendency to strip down to her swim wear in odd places, now she is one who has managed to spark public outrage. She may benefit from the Paris Hilton effect. Someone with no talent or marketable skills apart from looking good in grainy videos can suddenly demand appearence money, and get it.
The best way to punish Sery for her transgressions would have been to ignore her.
Now everyone desperate for the public spotlight will rush to take their gear off on the rock.

Very quickly in response to Dan Fitzgerald before his comment is "forgotten" amongst newer arrivals.

Dan, the new viewing area (Talinguru Nyakunytjaku) is most certainly not the "best average" of lighting conditions for sunrise at Uluru. And this is because the new viewing area is on the south-east side of Uluru. While at the height of summer this side of the Rock will receive a considerable amount of direct light at sunrise, this is not the peak visiting time for tourists and especially not for Australian travellers who like going here during our winter months.

However on the other side of the Rock (the north-east side of Uluru), there was - and still is - direct sunlight hitting the rock surface all through the year at sunrise. Even in mid-summer when the light is more angled than in winter. And that is where the old sunrise viewing area was located.

Given that Uluru is 348 metres high you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realise that for much of the year Uluru will actually cast shadows across its south-east flank - which is what you see from Talinguru Nyakunytjaku. And that's because Uluru, like the rest of Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere and additionally is south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

A few years back before my partner and I renovated our house, we had an architect do some shadow diagrams for our next-door neighbour who was concerned that our extension would cast shadows over their backyard in winter. As it turns out there was going to be very little shadowing over their backyard from our proposed extension, as almost all the shadowing was caused by their own house shadowing their backyard in winter. So we went ahead with our extension and have had no problems with that neighbour.

It is a great pity that Parks Australia could not avail themselves of a similar professional who could have done shadow diagrams for them before they committed $21 million of taxpayers' money on a viewing area that is fourth-rate at best to see the sunrise.

- Ross Barnett

How ironic that the very same people whose ancestors spent 40,000
years wandering naked around the desert should object to a semi-naked
Frenchwoman. Must be the sinister subliminal influence of the evil
puritans who invaded their country.
Yes, I think we can blame this one on whitey too.

Lonely Planet needs a special travel warning on political correctness when visiting Australia.

Maybe if all visitors could sign general apologies on entry. Oh, and ban those attractive young French girls from entry lest they cause affront to the women's movement over body image as well. Maybe a 'minimum size' gate to ensure the correct 'voluptuousness' of women visiting Oz. Send the undersized straight back.

Can Kevin 07 be recalled so both he and Kate Ellis (might as well be proactive) can do a duet apology from the Edsel viewing platform? There just has to be some compo for this slight.

Aboirigines demanding respect for their culture.Hmm...mmm!
Maybe for the ROCK and other land forms and water ways.
Come to the cities and suburbs and see what respect there is for them and more importantly, what respect they have for themselves.

socratease