An Uluru climber who illegally scaled the sacred rock will be fined $2,500 – the first to be fined since it was banned three years ago
- A Victorian man is the first to be convicted of illegally climbing Uluru
- Simon Day, 44, was found guilty in Alice Springs Magistrates Court on Thursday
- He was fined $2,500 for walking and horseback riding on a Commonwealth reservation
- The ability to climb the sacred rock was banned back on October 26, 2019
A man who climbed Uluru despite the practice being banned three years ago has been fined $2,500.
Simon Day, 44, of Victoria, was found guilty in Alice Springs Magistrates Court on Thursday of running or horse riding on a Commonwealth reserve and entering a restricted or prohibited area.
The 44-year-old is the first person to be convicted of climbing the Northern Territory’s landmark since access was restricted in 2019.
A man who climbed Uluru illegally, despite the practice being banned three years ago, has been fined $2,500 (climbers pictured before the rock’s closure in October 2019).
Victorian Simon Day was found guilty and fined $2,500 in Alice Springs Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (pictured are tourists at Uluru before the ban).
The traditional owners of the Anangu land had demanded the implementation of laws to prevent visitors from climbing the sacred rock, which towers 348 meters into the sky.
Tourists were finally banned from climbing Uluru in October 2019.
Hundreds of thousands of tourists climbed the rock every year until the ban.
The traditional owners regard Uluru as an intensely spiritual place, an area where their tjukurpa (creation stories) that guide their ceremonies, art and rules of life converge.
The Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Directors voted unanimously to ban the climb
A spokesman for Parks Australia said they take the protection of sacred sites “very seriously”.
“Traditional owners have a cultural responsibility to care for the Uluru rock formation and the surrounding park area,” they told the ABC. ‘
A fence was installed at the base of the rock to prevent people from climbing.
Traditional landowners welcome the closure of the Uluru climb in October 2019