Uluru, Yulara, Central Australia

Saturday, 10 May 2025

Uluru (aka Ayers Rock back in the day) – my multiple visits – I was back to Uluru in April 2025, with a family group, 17 of us, down to newborn baby Molly (definitely her first visit), Veda (aged 6) and assorted others, some on their first visit, some not. For me it was my 5th visit, it may have been even more for Maureen – she wasn’t with my 3rd visit, but she also visited Uluru when she was on the Northern Territory Tourist Board.

◄ Here’s a standard view of the big red rock from one of the viewpoints around Yulara, the tourist destination 15km north of the rock.

▲ Visit 1 was in 1974, Maureen and I rode there on our Yamaha DT2 trail bike, from Melbourne, via Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Cooktown, Mt Isa and Alice Springs. Back then it was still a dirt road to Uluru (and Yulara was yet to be created) and heavy rain had turned the final stretch to the rock into a quagmire. Lots of cars had given up and stopped by the roadside by the time Maureen took this photograph, but we were so covered in mud there was no way we were not going to get to the Ayers Rock campsite.

▲ Our second visit in 1987 with our small children Tashi and Kieran was much more civilised, we drove there in our Mazda 626. I’m willing to bet 90% of the world’s 4WDs never go anywhere near a track where four-wheel drive is required. We travelled to Uluru via Broken Hill, Arkaroola, Coober Pedy and other interesting stops and never had any trouble.

On the 1974 and 1987 visits we climbed the rock, of course nobody knew we were not supposed to do that back then! That was 45 years and 32 years before climbing the rock was banned. Who knows, perhaps in a few years time we’ll discover that surfing at Manly or Bondi in Sydney or kayaking on the Yarra in Melbourne will also be banned, because that’s holy water.

▲ On visit 3 in 2000 I approached Uluru from the west, driving in from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia along the Gunbarrel Highway. Now that’s an interesting route!

▲ This is a route where you do indeed need 4WD and permits for passing through indigenous territory.

▲ Maureen and I, Uluru sunset in 2015

Visit 4 in 2015 was my most luxurious visit to Uluru, with an international group of friends we made a circuit of Northern Australia which included, amongst other places, Birdsville, Mt Isa, Adels Grove, Darwin, Bamurru Plains, Mt Borraidale, Berkeley River Lodge, Kimberley Coastal Camp, Broome, Exmouth and Karijini before we flew in to Yulara from the Pilbara and then flew out to Coober Pedy. We stayed at Yulara in the very civilized Longitude 131.

▲ Gallery of Central Australia

This time we all stayed at Sails in the Desert in Yulara, not quite as lux as Longitude 131 but quite comfortable enough. It’s only a short walk to the Desert Gardens Hotel, passing the excellent Gallery of Central Australia on the way. Stop in there for an excellent introduction to the art of the Red Centre. A little desert stroll will take you past the Imalung Lookout to the Outback Hotel (the place for a cold beer in the evening) or the Ayers Rock Campground or you can ride there on the not-frequent-enough (and certainly not well signposted) Yulara Shuttle Bus.

▲ Circuit Walk of Uluru

I had time to walk the almost-10-km circuit of Uluru while I was staying at Yulara on this trip, but I am a long way short of impressed by the Hop On Hop Off Uluru bus service. For a start at A$49 for one round trip to the rock from Yulara it’s absurdly expensive. Plus the timetable is way short of convenient, to walk a circuit of the rock and get back without waiting hours for the final sunset bus I really had to step it out. I was prepared to hitch-hike back to Yulara, but should you have to? Plus the booking system was hopeless, go on to the bus website and it’s quite possible you’ll be told the bus is booked out for days to come. Ignore it we discovered, simply book on the next available bus, turn up at the time you want and you’ll probably find the bus is half empty. Fine if you know what to do, but hardly fair to international visitors.

A trip to Kata Tjuta is even less impressive at A$105 for an excursion that barely gives you time to walk in to the Walpa Gorge. You can – and should – take the longer bus trip that gives you time to walk the Valley of the Winds. Just don’t take our bus, which broke down.

Overall you’re far better visiting the Uluru National Park with your own wheels and not be subject to the limitations of the park’s expensive bus services. But don’t plan on renting a car at Yulara or the airport, expensive though they are they will probably be unavailable unless you book well ahead.

▲ Yulara camel trekkers

Most of our group went off camel trekking and quite a few of them did a Segway circuit of the big red rock as well. Great things to do, but I was unimpressed by our Kata Tjuta bus trip guide who proclaimed that they had to add these sort of activities after climbing the rock was banned, ‘because earlier visitors only came to Uluru to climb the rock.’ I’m all in favour of everything else they do today, but no way in the world did I come to Uluru on earlier visits simply to climb it, what an insult!

▲ Wintjiri Wiru drones – 6 drones are sent up, pre-show, to check the winds at different levels before the big drone launch

A definite Yulara highlight is the Wintjiri Wiru drone show and dinner. They hand out excellent picnic hampers with a wide variety of ‘bush tucker’ before you sit down to watch the show.

◄ A Wintjiri Wiru drone – how many of them does it take to put on the drone show? Well 700, 900, 1100 or even 1200, depending on which report you believe. Whatever, a hell of a lot of drones. Unfortunately the show itself is magic, but they certainly fall down on bringing that magic to life. Why can’t the six drones which go up pre-show to check the weather conditions be launched from right in front of the spectators, so we get a taste of what it’s all about?

▲  And then how on earth do you deploy all those drones? In fact they’re pulled out on what looks like filing cabinet drawers and, presumably, they all have to be packed away in the drawers after the show. And recharged! Why couldn’t they have one of those drone filing cabinets on display for the spectators, pre-show? What happens up in the sky is certainly magic, but they totally fail to show how that magic happens. Click here to get the ‘how it works’ back story.

▲ Field of Lights (photo Jamie Supple)

Another desert dinner features the 50,000 lights – ‘breathing and swaying through a sympathetic desert spectrum of ochre, deep violet, blue and gentle white’ – which were conceived and developed by artists Bruce Munro. You gaze out over the lights as you enjoy dinner and drinks and while the sweep of stars of the southern night sky above you are decoded by the resident ‘star talker’. The lights were impressive, but his knowledgeable and entertaining explanation of the night sky was an equally big attraction.

▲ Central Australia- our flight from Melbourne to Alice Springs

Anybody who has spent any time travelling on the trails of outback Australia knows exactly how impressive it is at ground level. From 35,000 feet, however, it often looks simply tedious. Fly from the Australian East Coast to Asia and on to Europe and it can feel like an awful lot of nothingness to be crossed. Sometimes, however, the view below can be simply magic. It certainly was for much of my flight from Melbourne to Alice Springs, before our Uluru visit.