I am small, but I am strong. I'll get it on with you.
Some stories I heard while I was out and about. (note: stories may not be accurate, especially those pertaining to Aboriginal customs, because I heard them from white people).
Okay, so there's this really big red rock out in the middle of Australia, Uluru, also known as Ayer's Rock.
You can climb up it if you want to. There's even a rope to hang on to. But it's really steep. Also, the Aboriginal people don't want you to climb it for a couple of reasons. The first is that the rock is a sacred place and only specific people are supposed to climb it at certain times. Also, if you die while you're climbing on it, your soul gets trapped in the rock and they have to get it out for you. So that sucks. I guess it would be kind of cool to climb, but so not worth it.
I wish I could have gotten a picture of the sacred women's place, which is on one side of Uluru, but you aren't allowed to take pictures of it. There's this hole on the side of the rock that is supposed to be a wallaby pouch, and this is where souls come out if they have been trapped in the rock. But the hole is very suggestive and it's obvious why it's a women's place.
Kata Tjuta is a sacred men's place:
Aboriginal people lived in fairly small family tribes. There isn't a lot of food available, so they couldn't afford to live in larger groups. In order to avoid incest, they would have to get women from other tribes. So they came here to get them.
This is called Loch Ard Gorge, because a boat called "Loch Ard," from Scotland, shipwrecked here.
So when the boat crashed, one guy Tom Pearce managed to swim ashore, but then he decided to swim back out to try to save people. He managed to save one girl, Eva Carmichael. He brought her back to the beach and they spent the night in the cave. She broke her leg or something, so he went for help in the morning. When everyone heard this story, they thought it was really romantic, so they told Tom to propose to Eva. She said no. Tom was relieved because she was really ugly*.
*speculation
In Coober Pedy, the opal capitol of the world, there is an old star wars vehicle:
I actually have absolutely no idea what this is or why it was there. It's just sitting in a random parking lot. Make up your own story.