The Uluru rock curse

A belief that taking a rock from Uluṟu brings bad luck, which has led many visitors to post pieces back.

The Aṉangu traditional owners, writing through Parks Australia, say their creation ancestors formed and shaped Kata Tjuṯa and Uluṟu, marked the land as they travelled, and set laws for Aṉangu to follow. They ask visitors to respect that knowledge with open minds and hearts.

The bad-luck story is told about visitors who take rocks home. Wikipedia says reports sometimes claim that people who take rocks from Uluṟu will suffer misfortune, and that many have tried to mail the rocks back to various agencies to lift the curse. The Age reported in 2003 that a Mr Watson could not say where this urban myth began, or whether sending the pieces back did any good.

Jasmine Foxlee went through the letters. She told The Independent in 2008 that about a quarter of them mentioned bad luck, and that many others were from people who wanted the rocks back where they belonged. Writing in Dumbo Feather in 2015, Foxlee said park staff and Aṉangu welcome the returns but find them hard to manage. Some rocks came from Kata Tjuṯa, a place of particular significance to Aṉangu men, and some may have been taken from sacred sites, so returning a rock to the wrong spot would show disrespect. Those sites are Aṉangu knowledge and are not described here.