I'm not sure what the hooo=haaa is all about but 'EYRES ROCK' is just that. A rock! Now I don't speak this funny lingo that the abo's speak and I don't do political correctness, so I say to everyone it's proper name is Eyres Rock. Personally I don't see the attraction then you add all the pain and expense involved in going anywhere near it, you can keep it. Australia is not a tourist destination. We have a FEW places worth seeing but the truth is the time it takes to get here then the expense once you are here, it's just not worth it. Europe, USA, Canada, and so the list goes on. Now these are countries worth seeing I know so I suppose if your into big rocks and flies, snakes, spiders, oh I won't go on, you get it.

Dear ALTRAV,

Ayers Rock is more than just "a rock."

It is the world's largest monolith - millions of years old.
It also happens to be Australia's mot famous natural
landmark and an Aboriginal sacred site. The oxidized iron
in the sandstone gives it its rusty-red colour.

It happens to attract over 250,000 tourists a year. Why?
Because Australia's red heart has fun, adventure, and
excitement to offer for all.

There are over 65 tours and experiences on offer both at
Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and around the Ayers Rock Resort.
There's plenty to pick and choose from.

There's helicopter tours, camel rides and wildlife experiences,
All sorts of cultural experiences, walking tours, small tour
experiences, Sunrise experiences, Sunset experiences,
Kings Canyon Day tours, Adventures beyond Uluru, and the list
goes on and on.

Still some people I suppose may agree with you that -
Ayers Rock is just a "rock." Same as they may also view
Australia in the following way:

"I love this ripper country
Of funnel-webs and sharks
With blowers big as eagles
Where your car gets booked by narks
Where your team gets trounced each Saturday
And the pubs run out of beer
Where there's redbacks on the toilet seat
And you're nagged by Germaine Greer."

Whereas, "I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains ..."
You know the rest.

To me Uluru is and will remain
something very special.

No offence intended, but Uluru wouldn't make 100th on the list for me and then not for the days/weeks we like to spend travelling, exploring and savouring.

Uluru is more along the Clark Griswold 'must sees', had there even been a National Lampoon 'Oztralian Vacation'

I guess when all's said and done - there's
nothing more Australian than spending time in
somebody else's country.

Foxy your reply reads like a travel brochure. I afford you the right to make your case. I do appologise for wandering off topic though. I was not focusing but I would, never-the-less like to retain my points. The real problem at Ayers Rock is just as the name suggests. It does not belong to any minority whether or not they say they were here before us. They may be capable of managing issues pertaining to their culture and history, but aborigines have absolutely no history in business and management in the twenty first century. By 'giving' land back to them has alienated the rest of the population and made to feel like outsiders. Ayers Rock, is just another 'asset' owned by all Australians not just a few. If we are to accept the demands made by the abo's we would find ourselves beholding to them as tenants and they being the Landlords. The British landed and colonised Australia and therefore as far as I am concerned we are ALL Australian! That's that!

Alt-Rav,

You need to distinguish between British sovereignty and ownership of/relationship to land. At least in SA (and why not the other colonies ?) Aboriginal rights to use the land as they always had done were recognised from the outset, as part of the English Common Law, and recognising Aboriginal people as British subjects (which, when you think about it, is no more absurd than assuming some tenant in Galway or Scottish crofter are 'British subjects'). Those rights were formally written into the SA Pastoral Act of (?) 1851.

Ayers Rock, as part of the NT, came under SA administration in about 1865, so those laws would have extended to Ayers Rock: that Aboriginal people had the right to use that area as they always had done. Those rights were re-affirmed in the NT Aboriginal Lands Act in (?) 1981 - in fact, extended to recognise their ownership in a more Western sense, ownership, group ownership, not just land-use rights. So it's not public property, it belongs to the Pitjantjatjara. End of.

Joe