G'day from Australia's Red Center! Last week when we left off from Melbourne (here's a link to the archives), I promised we'd head to a very special, remote place. Now I make good as we pay a visit to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park!

LOCATION
Uluru/Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta are two huge sandstone formations in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (over 311,000 acres). Fifteen miles apart, they are located almost smack in the center of Australia (here's a map), in the Northern Territory. (Australia is made up of six states -- New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia -- and two territories: Australia Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.) Australia is only slightly smaller than the continental United States, but has way fewer people: only 20 million, compared to our 300 million. That's one attribute that makes Australia so amazing. Keep in mind, there are so few people not only because it's so far from the rest of the world, but also because most of Australia's interior is uninhabitable.

THE NAME
Why do I keep writing Uluru/Ayers Rock? Uluru is the rock's original name. It has no real meaning; it's just a family name. It comes from the local aboriginal people (who refer to themselves as Anangu), who are natives Australians � similar to American Indians. Archaeological work suggests that Aboriginal people have lived in this area for at least 22,000 years. Just like Native Americans, aboriginal communities from each region have different names. The aboriginals of the central Australian desert are traditionally called the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people (say that three times fast!). When surveyor William Gosse first visited the rock in 1873, he named it after Sir Henry Ayers, the chief secretary of nearby South Australia (he had a mad crush on Ayers' daughter). In the early 1900s the Australian government declared ownership of the land. In 1985 they returned ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara, on the condition that they would lease it back to the National Parks and Wildlife service for 99 years, and that it would be managed jointly. In 1993 the name "Uluru" began to make a comeback. Uluru was officially reinstated, and the area had the dual name of Ayers Rock/Uluru. In 2002 Australia officially reversed the order, so now Uluru is listed first. For more click HERE.