Uluru cave paintings defaced

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UPDATE 12.52pm: We received this photo a few minutes ago. What appears to be stains of a dark fluid are clearly visible.

 
By ERWIN CHLANDA
 
Parks Australia, which manages the Uluru National Park, has circulated a confidential email to Ayers Rock Resort staff on February 25, saying ancient rock paintings near the Mutitjulu waterhole have been defaced.
 
The Alice Springs News has been given unconfirmed information that the offenders were local children and they used car engine oil.
 
We are making enquiries with the police and the Parks Service, and will update this report.
 
UPDATE 2.47pm
 
Parks Australia provided the following statement: “On Tuesday evening Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park investigated what appears to be vandalism in two of the national park’s caves, where some rock art has been affected.
 
“After consultation with traditional owners and seeking expert advice, the area reopened on Wednesday for visitor access and enjoyment.
 
“With experts and traditional owners, the park will look closely at all options available for remediation of the area.”
 
 
UPDATE March 3, 11am
 
Parks Australia says it does not have any information about an individual or individuals who may be responsible for the vandalism discovered and reported last week.
 
NT Police are continuing to investigate the incident. We encourage anyone with information that they believe is relevant to this incident to contact NT Police.
 
Image below: The waterhole.
 

 
 
 

9 COMMENTS

  1. Sad. No respect for their own culture and the leftist policy makers / do gooders shrug their collective shoulders and mutter “not their fault”. Where do we go from here? One word: Education.

  2. This is a reality check.
    Aboriginal kids trash a sacred painting and the elders do not react.
    Parks Australia are dealing with it.
    In days gone by there would have been an instantaneous reaction of rage and fury.
    The kids and / or their parents might have been killed.

  3. This is the perfect example of setting double standards. There would be national media coverage if it were non-Aboriginal people who did this.
    Blame the parents because when the kids come to town they will do the same things.
    Take control of their welfare basic card, or better still get Sudanese security guards to guard the icon of Aboriginal existence and finance this through the gate money cash handouts.

  4. Can the Alice Springs News confirm vandalism was by local children?
    Parks Australia are guilty of their own vandalism of heritage on The Rock as when removing the summit cairn. They destroyed an important survey marker under the cairn.

  5. @ Marc Hendrickx: Thank you for your comment. We are making further enquiries with Parks Australia.
    Erwin Chlanda, Editor.

  6. If you take a look at the photos taken in the 1940s by Lord Mountford of those paintings, you will see there were very few on that rock face. The rest were added by Paddy Uluru in the 1960s under instruction of tour operator Len Tuit.

  7. Seeing as it’s quietly being swept under the carpet we can all come to our own conclusions who did it.

  8. People will probably never be sure of who did this. There’s no point blaming anyone for something another race could have done, even if it was the same as the ancestors who made those painting.
    All that matters is they have been defaced, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is, at least they weren’t destroyed to the point where they couldn’t be displayed.

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