Flights to Uluru have been suspended after the Mutitjulu Aboriginal community, worried about the risk to locals from visitors flying in from interstate Covid-19 hotspots, blockaded the gates to the park.
The 39 tourists who arrived at the Yulara resort on Saturday on a Jetstar flight will now be flown back to Brisbane.
The blockade, by the Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation (MCAC) forced Parks Australia to close the gates before they met with the Yulara resort managers, Voyages, the Mutitjulu community and traditional owners in an effort to resolve the standoff.
The blockade followed the arrival of a Jetstar flight from Brisbane on Saturday with 42 passengers on board.
Brisbane was declared a coronavirus hotspot on Friday evening. On arrival, under the Northern Territory’s strict Covid regulations, three passengers were taken to Alice Springs for mandatory quarantine, but the other 39 passengers were taken to the Yulara resort.
Members of the Mutitjulu community said they would maintain the blockade at the gates of Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park until the 39 visitors were tested for Covid-19 and given the all-clear.
“People are just sitting here, waiting to hear whether the people currently at the Yulara resort will get tested,” the MCAC chief executive, Thalia Bohl-van den Boogaard, said. “We are just waiting for confirmation that testing can be done, then the park can reopen.”
But the Voyages resort chief executive, Grant Hunt, later said the guests who were currently at Yulara would be flown home on Thursday.
“As we have now agreed to arrange for those guests to depart by Thursday, there is not enough time to undertake Covid testing and get results,” Hunt said.
“The park will at this stage stay closed so none of those guests will have entered the park during their stay.
“Voyages understands the community’s concerns and will continue to work collaboratively with the NT government, Parks Australia and the Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation to ensure all necessary precautions are being undertaken to protect the local community.”
Jetstar confirmed Thursday’s flight from Brisbane to collect the tourists would be the last to Uluru for some time. A spokesman said the small number of affected customers who had booked to travel would be contacted and offered options.
Flights between Brisbane and Uluru are part of the federal government’s minimum “viable network” to keep communities connected and deliver medical supplies and mail, he said.
The NT opened its borders to interstate travellers on 17 July provided they do not come from a Covid hotspot. People who arrive at Uluru by road who meet this criteria are welcome, Bohl-van den Boogard said.
Under the NT’s border regulations, anyone who has been to a declared Covid-19 hotspot – which includes Victoria, Sydney and Brisbane – must do 14 days mandatory supervised quarantine on arrival.
“There will be no more planes landing in Yulara from Covid hotspots,” MCAC CEO, Thalia Bohl-van den Boogaard said.
The Aboriginal community of Mutitjulu is inside the park and has expressed concern in the past about the vulnerability of community members – considered some of the people most at risk of the worst outcomes from contracting the virus – who frequently visit the Yulara resort to shop and for their medical needs.
Last week, MCAC called for the closure of Yulara airport and the suspension of flights which it said pose an unacceptable health risk to the community.
“Those people who want to fly here should just not come because we don’t want that pika (sickness) here,” MCAC chair Gloria Moneymoon said in a statement.
MCAC director Craig Woods said flights to Yulara defeated the purpose of keeping people from hotspots contained.
“People’s lives are more important than money,” Woods said.
The chair of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta national park board of management, Sidney James, said Voyages and the Northern Territory government needed to “slow down and work together with Anangu and Parks Australia”.
“This is Anangu land and lives,” James said.
A Parks Australia spokesperson said Uluru-Kata Tjuta will remain closed “until traditional owners are comfortable with the travel measures put in place by the Northern Territory government and Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia”.
