Sydney (AFP)
Google has removed images from its Google Street View virtual navigation service that allowed visitors to virtually visit Uluru, an Australian site sacred to Aborigines and closed to tourists for a year, the company said on Friday.
The Australian administration of natural parks, Parks Australia, had requested that these images be removed in accordance with the wishes of the Anangu people, the aborigines who are the traditional owners of the site.
Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a huge red-colored monolith that can be found in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in central Australia.
The site is on the Unesco World Heritage List.
It was permanently closed to tourists on October 26, 2019 at the request of the Anangu, who consider it sacred.
“We understand that Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is deeply sacred to the Anangu people,” a Google spokesperson said.
"As soon as Parks Australia expressed concerns about this user contribution, we removed the images."
Google said these were images taken by users of its online mapping service Google Maps before Uluru closed to tourists.
Previously, thousands of tourists climbed Uluru every year despite the will of its traditional owners.
Uluru is of great spiritual and cultural importance to the Australian Aborigines, who have been linked to this site for tens of thousands of years.
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