Kata Tjuta (The Olgas)


Home   Red Centre Outback colors Uluru (Ayers Rock) Uluru sunrise Flies... Aboriginal Paintings Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) Bush fire Kings Canyon Camel riding Alice Springs Lessons Ellery Creek billabong Ochre Pitts Glen Helen Gorge From the helicopter The fire Ormiston Gorge Standley Chasm Alice Springs The Telegraph Station From far in the morning This picture should tell you at least 2 things:
  1. Do not attempt to photograph the rocks in the morning. It'll turn out like this.
  2. The Aboriginal word 'Kata Tjuta' means 'many heads' - a very suitable name.

Surrounded by secrets There are many stories, explanations and legends to tell in the outback. But none of them are about Kata Tjuta. It isn't the business of white people to know and so nobody tells us. Only that much: it is a sacred, male site. Aboriginal women are not even allowed to look at or know about the rocks meaning. So after the Aboriginal customs are getting more and more respected, it may come to the point white women are not allowed anymore to see them. Let's hope it won't get that far.

Anyway there are some facts about the geology: The rocks are sand stone, but not the kind I saw before. When the ancient mountains were washed away, it happened the way one can observe in any little creek: bigger rocks and stones remain in the upper part, soft sands are washed far down, perhaps into the ocean. The general belief is Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the same large piece of sand stone. Kata Tjuta being the upper part, contains rocks and stones of different sizes, a conglomerat of everything. It does not look very solid and indeed there are many holes in the big rocks where the lumps at the ground have been.
The Kata Tjuta conglomerat of stones
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