Bad Luck Cited in Australia Rock Samples

Bad Luck Cited in Australia Rock Samples

source: Associated Press Strange News

Thousands of rock fragments and soil samples taken from the giant Australian monolith Uluru have been returned by tourists who complained the souvenirs brought them bad luck, local media reported Saturday.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is considered sacred by its Aboriginal owners and its preservation is protected by law.

But for years, tourists from around the world have been taking fragments from the rock, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported.

Uluru Kata-Tjuta national park manager Brooke Watson said the rock fragments had been returned from places as far away as Germany, France and Spain, as well as within Australia, over the past 15 years.

“It’s just a weird phenomenon,” the newspaper quoted Watson as saying. “Everyone seems to say that they have had bad luck.”

One of the largest fragments returned was a 7.5 kilogram (16 pound) chunk mailed from Germany last year.

Park staff pack the fragments in boxes, “and every now and then we try and return them (to Uluru) so that people’s bad luck is dissolved,” Watson was quoted as saying.

It is illegal to remove anything from the Uluru Kata-Tjuta park, which hosts about 500,000 visitors each year.

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