Australia’s most sacred landmark is the talk of internet today with tech giant Google launching virtual tours of Uluru and its national park, complete with rock paintings the public is not allowed to photograph.
The virtual reality tour of Australia’s UNESCO World Heritage site will be available to billions of people despite warnings Aboriginal culture could be “degraded” if images of sacred sites were shared, and as Northern Territory locals say touring the site from behind a computer screen could not “replicate the awe you feel” on the ground.
Google Australia managing director Jason Pellegrino said the company worked with Parks Australia and the traditional owners of the land, the Anangu people, for two years on the project.
The virtual tours include close-up views of Uluru, as well as its waterhole, trail, and ancient paintings in the Kulpi Mutitjulu cave, which tourists are discouraged from photographing. Google also created 360-degree Story Spheres – interactive videos featuring traditional Aboriginal stories and songs.
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Mr Pellegrino said he hoped the collaboration would lead Australia’s Aboriginal people to “share more sacred sites” with Google in future.
“The content, the cultural heritage, the stories and the song will be exposed to anyone, any time from anywhere,” he said.
Google filmed the area with backpack-mounted cameras despite a series of strict rules around capturing video and photographs of Uluru and the Kata Tjuta National Park that limit recordings of the northeast face of the rock, several unidentified sacred areas, and rock art.
Parks Australia guidelines state that “Anangu believe that their culture is degraded if images of sacred sites are captured or displayed”.
Google has previously recorded heritage sites in 83 countries, including Machu Picchu in Peru, Stonehenge in England, the Pink Mosque in Iran, and parts of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.
But Alice Springs Mayor Damien Ryan said he hoped potential tourists would do more than just visit Uluru and the Kata Tjuta National Park on a smartphone or computer as you could not “get enough satisfaction from seeing it online”.
“I don’t think this will satisfy the real adventure-seeker. Whatever you think of seeing the video or the photos, it can’t describe the awe you feel,” Mr Ryan said.
“It can’t describe the way it dominates you when you’re there.”
UQ School of Business vice-chancellor research fellow Sara Dolnicar said a virtual tour of Uluru could replace a real-world visit in some cases - if you “could not afford to travel”, for example - but could not compete with “the true live tourism experience”.
The Northern Territory relies on tourism more than any other part of Australia, as noted in Tourism NT’s 2020 Vision report, but recently recorded the second lowest growth in visits from overseas tourists, according to Tourism Research Australia.
Google’s Uluru Street View experience and Story Spheres is available online from today.
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Originally published as What Google couldn’t capture at Uluru
