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Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park closure extended amid traditional owners virus fears

Members of the Mutijulu Community Aboriginal Corporation attempt to blockade an entrance into Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.

Members of the Mutijulu Community Aboriginal Corporation attempt to blockade an entrance into Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Photo: Glenn Irvine

Parks Australia says a temporary closure of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park will be extended after traditional owners expressed concerns that visitors were transiting through COVID hotspots on a flight from Brisbane into Yulara on Monday.

On Monday, Parks Australia decided to temporarily close the park until midday on Tuesday after members of the Mutitjulu Aboriginal Community Corporation blockaded an entry point to the park, sparked by the group’s worry that visitors had transited through coronavirus hotspots.

Parks Australia said extending the closure was taking into account the organisation’s “utmost respect” for Uluru-Kata Tjuta’s traditional owners.

“At the request of Mutitjulu Aboriginal Community Corporation and following further discussions with MCAC, Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia, the Central Land Council, Central Australian Aboriginal Congress and the Northern Territory Government, the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park will remain closed while re-opening protocols proposed by MCAC are considered,” it said in a statement on social media.

“We have the utmost respect for Uluru-Kata Tjuta’s traditional owners and are continuing to work in good faith with them and all other parties to keep Mutitjulu residents safe.”

Mutijulu is an Aboriginal community about 30 kilometres from Yulara Airport.

Traditional owners from the area, the Anangu, have ownership of the land contained in the National Park, but have leased it to Parks Australia to manage under a joint agreement.

Glenn Irvine from the MCAC said the organisation wanted all future flights to Uluru from any COVID-19 hotspots to be cancelled.

This would mean travellers from NT declared hotspots would not be able to fly into Yulara Airport.

At the moment those hotspots include: Victoria, Greater Sydney, Port Stephens and Eurobodalla Shire in NSW and Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan in Queensland.

As for the tourists who arrived yesterday, they will all be tested for COVID-19.

Mr Irvine said if there were no positive results returned from that cohort, the park would be reopened.

Why was there a blockade on Monday?

On Monday, the Mutitjulu community blockaded the entry to Uluru after a flight from the declared coronavirus hotspot of Brisbane arrived at the nearby Yulara airport.

The blockade ended in the afternoon after Parks Australia announced it would temporarily close the park.

A press release from MCAC, released while the Brisbane to Yulara flight was in the air, called for all passengers be transported to Alice Springs for quarantine or return to Brisbane immediately.

As it stands, travellers transiting through COVID-19 hotspot areas do not have to quarantine upon arriving in the NT.

MCAC had remained consistent on their position for months in regards to interstate tourists.

A meeting to discuss the corporation’s concerns was held on Friday and involved MCAC, Parks Australia, Chief Minister Michael Gunner, and Voyagers, the company who operate the airport and accommodation facilities at Yulara.

MCAC chief executive Thalia Bohl-Van Dem Boogaard said the meeting left the corporation with the understanding that no flights would arrive in Yulara from declared COVID-19 hotspots.

“It was agreed upon that no flights would go to the airport direct from any capital city hotspots as declared by the [Northern Territory Government], yet one landed on Monday,” she said.

What about the economy?

The CEO of Voyages, Grant Hunt, said the airport had followed all NT health guidelines to the letter and was the only operator in the country using independent contractors to perform contract screening from departure airports.

Mr Hunt said they had introduced temperature checking upon arrival at Yulara Airport as an additional safety measure.

He said he did not understand the singular focus on this airport, when there were more than 400 drive-in travellers in the area from all over the country.

From an economic perspective, Mr Hunt said if the airport was forced to close again, it would stay shut until international arrivals return, meaning 700 jobs would be lost.

“Let me be clear. Without planes, we don’t have a business,” Mr Hunt said.

Who makes the decision to close the park?

The decision of whether the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park remains open or stays closed will rest with Parks Australia.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park was closed for three months during the coronavirus pandemic and reopened on June 19.

Mr Gunner said his preference was for all interstate flights into the Northern Territory to arrive in Alice Springs or Darwin.

The Chief Minister said transporting people over 440kms from Yulara Airport to Alice Springs for mandatory quarantine was an additional pressure on staff.

“I want all those planes to come into the Northern Territory to land at once of those places like an Alice Springs or a Darwin, that would be what I want, rather than Yulara, it creates a logistical difficulty for us in taking those people from the Yulara airport to Alice Springs. If we have to do it, we will,” Mr Gunner said.

“For us, we don’t have and don’t want a quarantine facility at the rock.”

Yulara Airport is privately run by Voyages and regulated by the Federal Government.

-ABC

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