Talinguru Nyakunytjaku - has Australia been hoodwinked?

Further along the stretch of road that marks the old sunrise viewing area I met a group of Welsh backpackers who hadn’t even bothered to go to Talinguru Nyakunytjaku in the first place. They had come to this now unmarked site after hearing “campground whispers” that the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku viewpoint was only worthwhile as a sunrise option in the height of summer.

One morning a small tour group from Anangu Tours also stopped at the old sunrise viewing area. Their driver was company manager Andrew Simpson who told me without hesitation that the park was over-regulated and that Parks Australia didn’t know how to “handle tourism”.

But the final word on Talinguru Nyakunytjaku must belong to the tour guide I met in Alice Springs a few days later. He said that when he told his passengers that the new viewing area had cost $21 million and was put in the “wrong spot” for sunrise, their jaws dropped.

“Then we tell them that Parks Australia is stumping up another $21 million so that they can get the sun shifted around to light up the side of Uluru where the new viewing area is.

“That always gets a good laugh.”

View of Uluru one hour after sunrise from the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku Viewing Area
(At most about 20 per cent of the Rock has sunlight on it and the rest is in deep shadow)

View of Uluru at 4pm from the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku Viewing Area
(In October 2009 a Parks Australia spokesperson said that the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku Viewing Area would provide "stunning vistas at all times of the day")

View of part of the north-east face of Uluru from the old sunrise viewing area
(This image was taken at 7.33am on June 14, 2010, just four minutes after sunrise - this image shows intense colour on the Rock and pink tones in the sky,
both of which are missing from pictures of Uluru taken at the same time from the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku Viewing Area)