The former Formula 1 mogul has been working on a tell-all documentary series that purports to pull back the curtain on the global sport he (arguably) created and controlled for over 40 years.

The eight-part series, called Lucky!, has been created and directed by Manish Pandey – writer of the award-winning 2010 documentary Senna – and features exclusive, personal interviews with the now-91-year-old Ecclestone as well as unique archive footage and spicy insider goss.

As the producers describe it, it tells the story of Ecclestone’s “lifelong quest to turn the sport he loves, Formula 1, from the lethal pastime of rich amateurs into a televised global super-sport, rivalled only by the Olympics and the Football World Cup. It is also the story of a fundamental conflict, increasingly seen in all aspects of life: the balance between a pursuit, in this case sport, and money.”

The title comes from one of Ecclestone’s famous quotes: “I never planned anything in Formula 1. If I saw an opportunity, I took it, and if it was successful it was because… I was lucky!”

WATCH our first look at Lucky! below.

Ecclestone, of course, is one of F1’s most controversial and important figures.

The English business magnate started off as an (unsuccessful) driver but then pivoted to managing other drivers, including the 1970 World Driver’s Champion Jochen Rindt. In 1972, he bought the Brabham team, which he ran for 15 years, during which the team won two Driver’s Championships with Nelson Piquet.

But it was Ecclestone’s exploits as a media executive that he’s best known for. As Brabham owner, he formed the Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA) in 1974, using the organisation’s power to negotiate television rights for the sport. Over the next 4 decades, Ecclestone would use that power to control F1 and transform it into the international media sensation it is today.

Lucky! is set to debut on DAZN in six countries later this year – Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland – but there’s no news on when and where you’ll be able to watch it in Australia just yet.

• The ‘Drive To Survive Effect’: Why Other Sports Are Now Ripping Off Formula 1
• How To Watch F1 In Australia: Race, Qualifying, Practice Session & More

The post Bernie Ecclestone Documentary Series Promises To Dish Plenty Of Formula 1 Dirt appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

If it hasn’t already set in that Oscar Piastri will be racing in Formula 1 next year, perhaps the young gun’s expensive new watch will finally put any doubts to rest.

If you’re at all familiar with F1, you’ll know that the 21-year-old Australian racing phenom is joining McLaren next year for his maiden season in the top tier of international motorsports, taking fellow Aussie Daniel Ricciardo’s seat at the legendary team.

We’re not here to talk about all that drama (we’ve covered that extensively here). Instead, we’re here to talk about Piastri’s watch. McLaren shared photos of the Melburnian signing the paperwork for his FIA Super Licence – the qualification you need to race in F1 – wearing a Richard Mille RM 67-02 Automatic Winding Extra Flat ‘Alexander Zverev’ worth over AU$500,000.

Richard Mille, of course, is one of McLaren’s major sponsors, and the ultra-exclusive watchmaker has produced more than a few collaborative models with the F1 team / supercar maker over the years. A nice perk of racing for McLaren is that Piastri gets to wear a ‘Millie’ too. Must be nice.

RELATED: Daniel Ricciardo Hits The Big Time With $1.2m Richard Mille Watch

As the name implies, the RM 67-02 Automatic Winding Extra Flat is a very slim and sporty piece, perfect for athletes – indeed, it’s the lightest automatic watch the brand produces, weighing in at only 32 grams. (For comparison, a stainless steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona weighs 148 grams.)

RELATED: Strange Richard Mille Coincidence Spotted In Formula 1’s Biggest Accidents

The RM 67-02 also serves as the basis for a number of athlete signature models, with each variant featuring a slightly different colour scheme across the exposed movement, crown and strap. As you can see, Piastri’s wearing German tennis player Alexander Zverev’s signature model, which features colours reminiscent of the German flag.

Funnily enough, two other athletes who have their own signature RM 67-02 include F1 drivers Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso. Maybe Piastri will get his own signature model in the future, too…

• Richard Mille & Ferrari Create The Thinnest Watch In The World
• Lando Norris’ Richard Mille Gets Stolen At UEFA Euro Final

The post Oscar Piastri Gets His Licence While Wearing A $500,000 Richard Mille Watch appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Footage of the absolute scenes from Darling Harbour (and Fed square) over the weekend have many people asking, why don’t more Australians play football?

The awesome scenes of support for the Socceroos (regardless of how many of us simply jumped on the bandwagon at the last moment) at Sydney and Melbourne’s respective public World Cup watching venues on Sunday morning begs the question: why on earth don’t more Australians play football?

WATCH: wild scenes in Sydney as the Socceroos take on Argentina

The AFL’s recent (and supposedly snide) jab at soccer may be the easy answer (we have way too many competing codes) but could reality be more complex? A recent post by Optus suggests football actually receives less funding than many other codes in Australia, by some metrics, with goalkeeper great Mark Schwartzer calling it “unfair” and “wrong.”

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A post shared by Optus Sport (@optussport)

As Optus yesterday pointed out on Instagram, when it comes to Australian sports funding, football (which gets $7,903,750) gets less than basketball ($8,018,784), swimming ($9 odd million), sailing ($9 odd million) hockey ($9 odd million), athletics ($10.7 million) and cycling ($14.4 million).

Commenters were pretty pissed off, with one writing: “This is seriously a joke. Makes me sick!!!!!!!! Sailing! Come on man. AUSTRALIA WAKE UP.” Another said: “Sailing and Hockey getting more funding than the biggest sport on the planet, absolute madness.”

Could this be the reason more Aussies don’t play football? Perhaps. But it may also be a case of the chicken and the egg. Either way: if we want to ever win a World Cup, we’ll need more dollaroos.

• German Players’ Wives Blamed For Nation’s Shock World Cup Exit
• Australians Scream For Martin Tyler To Be Sacked & Replaced With Peter Drury

The post With Crowds Like This, Why The Hell Don’t More Aussies Play Football? appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

There’s no getting around the fact that as a nation, we love to binge-watch TV shows – especially big-budget foreign fare. Enter SBS On Demand…

SBS is a publically-funded Australian TV network with an on-demand service online where you can access a wide range of movies and TV shows for absolutely nothing.

The content found on the SBS platform is specially curated by its editors, and you’re highly likely to find TV shows you’ve never heard of before, but ones that are of real quality. SBS wants people to keep coming back to it after all, so it’s not going to put out any old drivel.

With this in mind, it’s pretty easy to say that any TV show you find on SBS On Demand will be worth your time, but to help you get up and running, we’ve picked out some of the very best SBS On Demand shows to add to your watch list.

• 16 Best Movies On Netflix Australia
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The post 11 Best TV Shows On SBS On-Demand To Devour In 2022 appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The following article was produced in partnership with SBS On Demand.

Despite the air conditioning, the battle for global domination (and bragging rights) at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar is getting hotter than the bottom of an old laptop with too many tabs open.

We’ve had the pleasure of watching legends like Ronaldo, Ochoa, Navas, Modric, Suarez, Silva, Neuer and Busquets do their perennial best (more likely than not) for the last time at a World Cup and the thrill of seeing the new guard (think: Richarlison, Vinicius, Mbappe, Gavi, Bellingham, Antony and Tchouameni) take their rightful new places in history.

But although nostalgia can sometimes be a good thing (how good is it that the World Cup is finally back on SBS On Demand), being set in your ways sometimes means missing out on a world of opportunities. 

Speaking of which: if you are only using SBS On Demand for soccer, you’re missing out on a killer show – War of the Worlds. Without giving away too much, War of the Worlds is an epic sci-fi series – and one of the most exciting shows of recent years. Its much-awaited third season launched on SBS On Demand on the 23rd of November, and it’s arguably the best post-apocalyptic thriller since The Walking Dead. 

Intrigued? Don’t just use SBS On Demand for the World Cup: why not give War of the Worlds a chance? Not only is it the perfect way to kill time between matches, but – once you get into it – War of the Worlds is as gripping as watching the clock tick down as your favourite team tries to hold onto a hard-fought lead.

Before you throw your favourite football jersey at us and whistle us off the park: hear us out. Even if you’re not into sci-fi, you don’t need to be to enjoy War of the Worlds. If you’re a soccer fan, enjoying the knife-edge tension of watching your team see out a ten-minute spell while the opposition peppers the box with crosses, you already understand the attraction of War of the Worlds. 

War of the Worlds is the Anglo-French reimagining of H.G. Wells’ classic science fiction novel. Its big themes are family and loss, how people react to a crisis, what it means to be human and how power and circumstance can warp human morality.

If you haven’t already seen seasons one and two, War of the Worlds follows pockets of survivors teaming up after an apocalyptic extra-terrestrial strike. In the explosive and heart-raising new chapter of War of the Worlds that is season three, the struggle between the survivors and the aliens hits a new pivot point (yep: about as crucial as Cavaminga and Tchouameni taking over from Pogba and Kante) when a terrifying phenomenon grips people across the world (no spoilers here, don’t worry). 

The survivors are forced to team up to prevent another planetary catastrophe and fight for the survival of humanity. In this third season, Gabriel Byrne (Hereditary, The Usual Suspects, Zero Zero Zero) and Léa Drucker (The Bureau) will be joined by new actors: Molly Windsor (Three Girls), Ernest Kingsley Junior (The Sandman) and Oliver Hembrough (The White Princess).

If you enjoy the pain and pleasure of watching Messi carry an entire team on his back (we joke, we joke: it’s actually on his left foot), we can almost guarantee you’ll find yourself getting invested in the plot of War of the Worlds. And War of the Worlds isn’t the only show on SBS On Demand. SBS On Demand is a treasure trove of streaming content that gives the likes of Netflix, Binge and HBO a run for their money. Even better – it’s free. 

So, if you’re sick of mindlessly consuming the same old shows on platforms that were once the be-all and end-all of entertainment (let’s be honest, Netflix had a few very hot years), SBS On Demand is the perfect refresher. In fact, we’d go beyond that: SBS On Demand is the ideal chance for you to find your new favourite show (I’m not even kidding).

SBS On Demand consistently provides reinvigorating content that hits different – content that goes beyond the sheer dopamine rush of making you want to keep watching; content that actually makes you think. 

Think of SBS On Demand as a palette cleanser between HBO binges, if you will. SBS On Demand gives you the world’s best movies, dramas, comedies and documentaries. So, this summer, don’t just sit on it. Do a little digging. We’re sure you’ll find something you love. And soccer fans, do yourself a favour and start with War of the Worlds. Regardless of what happens on the football pitch, the battle for global domination has only really just begun…

Check out SBS On Demand and the latest season of War of the Worlds here.

The post If You’re Only Using SBS On Demand For The World Cup, You’re Missing Out On a Killer Show appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

A Belgian F2 driver has landed himself in hot water after posting a video of himself speeding on public roads to TikTok, with the boy racer losing his license and copping a big fine for his efforts.

20-year-old Amaury Cordeel, who is set to compete in the 2023 FIA Formula 2 Championship with Virtuosi Racing alongside Australian teammate Jack Doohan, shared then deleted the video straightaway – but not before the Belgian authorities noticed.

The video showed the young driver hitting a top speed of 179km/h in his dad’s car on a road where the speed limit was just 50km/h. Reportedly, the video was actually recorded in December 2020, but he was only found guilty earlier this month. Cordeel denied that it was actually him behind the wheel, but he lost his case.

The punishment? A €3,600 fine and losing his driver’s licence for six months. But the worst could be yet to come, with F2 CEO Bruno Michel telling Motorsport.com “it’s something we definitely need to discuss with the FIA, to see how to handle it.”

It’s not the first time Cordeel’s been caught speeding, either. The Belgian has previously been accused of hitting 185km/h on a public highway in an Audi – that video was also shared online but at that time he also denied he was the one behind the wheel, PlanetF1 reports.

RELATED: Lewis Hamilton Goes Tokyo Drifting In Every P-Plater’s Dream Car

If only he was that fast on track. While Cordeel was Spanish F4 champion back in 2018, his F3 and F2 performances haven’t been quite so stellar. His single season of F3 in 2021 saw him fail to score a single point, and he ended last year’s F2 season 17th in the championship – with teammate Doohan finishing the season in 6th and with three wins to his name.

Save the lead foot for F2, mate.

• Aussie Formula 2 Star Jack Doohan Reveals Michael Schumacher Gave Him His Start In Racing Cars
• Daniel Ricciardo Signs ‘Head-Scratching’ Red Bull Reserve Driver Deal

The post Formula 2 Driver Loses His Licence After Filming Himself Speeding On TikTok appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The world’s most in-demand watch brand has thrown a cat amongst the pigeons by announcing its very own Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programme. But will this make it any easier for us mere mortals to get our hands on a Rolex?

The programme, which Rolex is initially launching with Swiss boutique chain Bucherer in six different countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK), will allow customers to buy second-hand models that are certified as authentic by Rolex and which come with a new two-year international Rolex guarantee – which is some pretty huge news.

“The new programme makes it possible to purchase pre-owned watches that the brand itself has certified and guaranteed. Its aim is to bring added value to the existing supply of pre-owned Rolex watches,” the famous Swiss watchmaker shared in a press release last week.

While no doubt part of the reason Rolex has done this indeed to protect their brand and customers (from both the scourge of fakes as well as the unpleasant profiteering that’s rife on the grey market), there’s no doubt that this move is partly motivated by Rolex’s desire to get in on a share of that aforementioned grey market profit.

We don’t see that as a bad thing, necessarily. Better Rolex or Rolex authorised dealers (ADs) than random resellers, speculators or ‘flippers’. It’s also a win for consumers, who’ll be able to buy second-hand Rolexes with complete faith that they’re the real McCoy, as they’re backed up by Rolex itself, rather than rolling the dice on grey market listings.

How does it work?

Rolex’s CPO programme isn’t just a complete open slather. Only watches that are at least three years old at the time of resale will be sold/accepted through the programme (a canny move clearly designed to head off flippers and not compromise new Rolex sales).

As alluded to above, watches sold through the programme will receive a special Rolex Certified Pre-Owned plaque, seal and guarantee card – all important and official certificates of authenticity.

RELATED: The Best Rolex Watches To Buy In 2022

It’s not clear whether (initially, at least) the watches will be sent to Rolex to be certified, or if Bucherer/dealers will be in charge of the certification process. If Rolex expands the program, the latter is a more likely scenario.

We can also guess that Rolex will likely treat these second-hand pieces to a fairly comprehensive service – which could be rather controversial for real vintage pieces. Rolex will no doubt just want the pieces running as well as possible while using official Rolex components, but there’s a chance that when overhauling some of these pieces, they might affect their ‘purity’ (at least from a collector’s perspective).

How will it affect Rolex prices?

But the question on everyone’s lips is this: how will it affect aftermarket prices, as well as new Rolex supply?

DMARGE spoke exclusively with Paul Altieri, CEO of Bob’s Watches (one of the world’s biggest second-hand Rolex dealers), who welcomes Rolex’s CPO programme – even if he remains somewhat sceptical about Rolex’s motivations for doing so, as well as how it will affect either aftermarket prices or new Rolex supply.

“My guess is that this has been in the works for years… [But] I think many of us are asking why Rolex has decided to directly enter the second-hand market,” he questions.

“[Rolex] are a manufacturer that designs and produces new product. Will second-hand watches at the local AD someday become competition for the new products they sell?”

Paul Altieri

That is indeed a major concern that many Rolex fans have already expressed. Will we end up with a situation where dealers end up pushing customers who are stuck on the waitlists for new models towards second-hand Rolexes, which if sold at current market rates could cost significantly more than equivalent new models – just without the standard factory 5-year warranty and no waiting list? That’s not a win for consumers.

It’s also worth pointing out that only days before announcing this CPO programme, Rolex also unveiled plans to invest around AU$1.5 billion in building a new production site in western Switzerland, but that factory won’t be operational until 2029.

RELATED: Roger Federer Wears Rolex’s Most Exclusive New Watch To Wimbledon

In that sense, then, perhaps the CPO programme could be seen as a stop-gap to address the ongoing new Rolex shortage… Or, at the very least, a way to give consumers more of a choice. In any case, this whole CPO thing is an uncharacteristically progressive move from Rolex – a brand that doesn’t even have an e-commerce offering.

“The watch market, like most industries, has undergone a rapid change with the massive growth and influence of the Internet,” Paul explains, adding that “over 90% of our business, for example, is conducted over the Internet.” Perhaps this is Rolex trying to move with the times; their way of doing something different?

Paul also points out that “Bucherer is an ideal partner for rolling out this pre-owned business since they now own Tourneau, who has many years of experience dealing in pre-owned Rolex watches,” explaining that Tourneau has had a ‘Certified Pre-Owned Rolex’ programme offering in place for many years.

(Rolex has said that other official Rolex retailers who want to be part of their CPO programme will be able to do so from spring 2023.)

Crucially, Paul doesn’t see the CPO programme having any immediate short-term effect on second-hand prices.

“There are many local ADs that already buy and trade pre-owned timepieces and many use bobswatches.com and other industry leaders to price/value the watches customers bring in to trade,” he points out. “Many [dealers] have offered certified pre-owned Rolex watches for over 5 years, like Tourneau. We rolled out our certified pre-owned program almost 5 years ago [too].”

That is to say: boutiques have been offering certified pre-owned Rolexes for years, but they haven’t helped bring down prices on the grey market.

Our verdict

While it’s easy to be sceptical about Rolex’s CPO programme, we ultimately see it as a good thing. One of the worst aspects of watch culture is how exclusive and difficult purchasing a new watch at retail is, as well as how outrageous some of the price-gouging is on popular models on the grey market.

The grey market is also a Wild West rife with bad actors, inconsistent standards and unpleasant shopping experiences.

RELATED: The One Place You Should Never Buy A Luxury Watch

Rolex’s CPO programme might not make it any cheaper to get your hands on a Rolex, but it might make it easier. More importantly, provides customers with a much more trustworthy way to buy second-hand pieces in a market filled with shonky sellers.

WATCH our guide to the top 5 most expensive Rolex watches of all time below.

As discussed, we doubt it’ll do much to take the heat out of the grey market, and there’ll still be a role to play for trustworthy established dealers like Bob’s Watches, for example.

We see it as being particularly valuable for customers looking for properly vintage Rolexes, where the risk of fakes and swindles is even higher. Being able to buy a rare vintage piece that’s backed up and checked by Rolex themselves – that’s pretty confidence-inspiring.

Watch this space, we say.

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The post Rolex Beats Resellers At Their Own Game With New Pre-Owned Programme appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

Footy and soccer fans alike have come together to blast the AFL’s decision to release the fixtures for round 1 of the 2023 season – at the same time as Australia’s round of 16 game against Argentina at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Despite usually enjoying 5 times the total average spectatorship than soccer in this country, the AFL decided to release their first 2023 fixtures just as the country was gearing up to watch the Socceroos in a move that’s left sports nuts scratching their heads.

“Literally 6am on the dot. On a Sunday. Weird enough in normal circumstances but a piss take given the kickoff this morning,” ESPN’s Matt Walsh wrote at the time, with other sports journalists joining the chorus of criticism against the AFL.

“It’s really interesting to watch the response from the other codes,” veteran sports journo Caroline Wilson said on the ABC’s Offsiders.

“10, 20 years ago when Australia failed in World Cups, [the] AFL and NRL broke out the champagne… I thought the response this morning to release the round one fixture of the AFL 2023 season was just lame of the AFL… I would have just given them a bit of clean air today.”

Caroline Wilson

Daniel Garb agreed with her on the program, adding that “the AFL has made itself look petty and insecure with its move here… Read the situation terribly.”

Much of the criticism has been levelled at AFL’s CEO Gillon McLachlan, who had previously announced back in April that he would be stepping down from the role at the end of the 2022 AFL season. The prevailing feeling is that this snafu is an inglorious way to leave the top job.

RELATED: ‘Slay Queen Of Qatar’ Already The Most Iconic Meme Of World Cup 2022

“The sooner Gill leaves, the better. No Victorian team travels round 1, releasing round 1 while the Socceroos are playing their biggest game ever, same old Richmond v Carlton opener. The AFL needs some freshness. It’s time for Gill to leave now,” one fan pointedly commented on Twitter.

It does smack a bit of desperation. Not only does it make no sense to announce the fixtures at such an odd time, so far out from the start of the season, but to try and steal soccer’s thunder – at the highest point for the sport in Australia – is truly petulant.

In a weird way though, it should give Football Australia, the A-League and soccer fans alike almost a sense of satisfaction: that soccer is gaining enough traction in Australia to have the big dogs like the AFL nervous…

• German Players’ Wives Blamed For Nation’s Shock World Cup Exit
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The post AFL’s Un-Australian Act Proof They Don’t Want Soccer To Succeed appeared first on DMARGE Australia.

The phrase ‘Ayers Rock’ is now trending on Twitter. This has sparked debate, with various people saying it shows Australia is still a racist country.

Herald Sun cartoonist Mark Knight recently drew a cartoon depicting Uluru above Parliament. The cartoon showed Uluru hanging above Parliment House while politicians ran away and Nationals Party Leader David Littleproud said: “We’re under attack.”

Knight said he created the graphic to support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Parks Australia, however, sent a letter threatening legal action unless the Herald removed the cartoon. They said the Herald didn’t have a permit to depict Uluru.

“To comply with the EPBC Act, media guidelines, ICIP (Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property) laws and show respect for Anangu land and culture, we ask that you remove any artwork breaching these conditions and showing Uluru,” Parks Australia reportedly said.

Parks Australia changed their mind on Saturday, however, issuing an apology to Mr Knight, and telling The Daily Mail: “Staff sent Mr Knight an email about the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa media guidelines which was not appropriate – it isn’t a request that should have been made and we apologised for the error.”

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A post shared by Mark Knight (@knightcartoons)

The story sparked backlash, however, with quite a few Twitter users taking the opportunity to provoke. Twitter user Alexandra Marshall wrote: “What, now we’re not allowed to draw a rock that belongs to all Australians?”

Alexandra added: “Guess what, @Parks_Australia – Ayers Rock doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to 25 million Australians. We can walk on it, visit, photograph it and draw it as often as we like.”

As of October 2019, it has been banned to climb Uluru. As Australia Traveller puts it: “The traditional owners – the Anangu – consider Uluru an intensely spiritual place, an area where their Tjukurpa (creation stories), which govern their ceremonies, art and rules for living, converge.”

“Would you climb over a church or wander through someone’s backyard without permission?”

Australian Traveller

“The local Anangu people have long been calling for visitors to stop climbing the sacred rock,” Australian Traveller reported in August, “and up until the ban, hundreds of thousands of tourists scaled Uluru every year, against the express wishes of the traditional owners, the Anangu people.”

RELATED: ‘The Uluru Effect’: Another Popular Australian Attraction Faces Potential Tourist Ban

Not everyone sees it this way, however, with one Twitter user writing of the cartoon kerfuffle: “This is now an era of nonsense. We can expect more censorship when you know what comes in, endorsed by the PC beholden Albo government.”

Herald-Sun cartoonist Mark Knight, censured for his depiction of Ayers Rock in a newspaper cartoon of last Wed. This is now an era of nonsense. We can expect more censorship when you know what comes in, endorsed by the PC beholden Albo government.

— Andrew Trezise (@Weskittun) December 4, 2022

Another said: “Proof the federal government’s national parks agency has rocks in its head.” Yet another said: “Everyone should start drawing ‘Ayers Rock’ and post it online.”

“100% agree with you. I’m going to start calling it Ayers Rock again like it always has been,” said another.

Others posted photos of Uluru, and made even nastier comments.

This was met with backlash from others who said calling Uluru ‘Ayers Rock’ is racist and disrespectful.

"Australia isn't a racist country…"

Ayers Rock Trending: "Hold my white sheet and beer…"

— Turdine Cupcake (@erfbeeass) December 4, 2022

Twitter user DiPolarPilot wrote: “Oh good grief… ‘Ayers Rock’ is trending, the racists are out and about again I suppose.” Mal C, meanwhile, wrote: “It was renamed to Ayers Rock, not the other way around. It’s simply been corrected back to its actual name.”

im kind of astounded at the amount of ppl using “Ayers Rock” around here. Very disappointing.

— Charlize Theroff (@CharlizeTheroff) December 5, 2022

Another said “only drop dead drongos call it Ayers Rock. Australians call it Uluru.”

so youre saying

aboriginal ppl

have been calling it “ayers rock” for over 50k yrs

right?

— Dexcat63 2.0 (@MarkCumberbatc6) December 4, 2022

hopefully our 5 year olds will draw a blank when someone asks them what “Ayers Rock” is.

— Charlize Theroff (@CharlizeTheroff) December 4, 2022

Yet another said: “The place was known as Uluru for a hell of a lot longer than ‘Ayers Rock.'”

As Parks Australia explains, “the rock was called Uluru a long time before Europeans arrived in Australia.” Parks Australia also points out that the word is a proper noun from the Pitjantjatjara language and doesn’t have an English translation.

“In 1873, the explorer William Gosse became the first non-Aboriginal person to see Uluru. He named it Ayers Rock after Sir Henry Ayers, the Chief Secretary of South Australia at the time,” (Parks Australia).

“Ayers Rock was the most widely used name until 1993, when the rock was officially renamed Ayers Rock / Uluru – the first feature in the Northern Territory to be given dual names.”

“In 2002 these names were reversed at the request of the Regional Tourism Association in Alice Springs and the rock took on the official name of Uluru / Ayers Rock, which it still has today.”

An interesting discussion on Reddit provides an insight into how some people feel about the issue. When a tourist asked in 2020 whether it is still called Ayers Rock, responses ranged from: “In many social circles, people won’t care… In others, people will.”

“When I was a kid in the 90s and early 2000s, I don’t remember people caring that much about it.”

The same Reddit user added: “Personally I wouldn’t be offended if someone called it Ayers Rock (yes I am white) but Uluru is generally considered to be the correct and most respectful term these days. It’s what the Aboriginals call it and they are the traditional owners of the land. The rock is sacred to them.”

Another added: “I’d go a step further and say that if someone calls Uluru ‘Ayers Rock’, I’m going to keep an eye on what you say to see if you’re low-key racist.”

“Intentionally avoiding Aboriginal place-names can be a bit of a dog whistle. Saying it doesn’t mean you’re racist. But it’s certainly something associated with racism. To clarify.”

Yet another added: “It’s just more respectful to call it Uluru. As a foreigner you could probably get away with calling it Ayers Rock, but I haven’t heard it called that in forever, and I imagine any Australian who calls it that might get a strange look or two.”

• ‘Uluru Of The Pacific’: Remote Island Blows Australians’ Minds
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The post Uluru Twitter Trend ‘Proof Australia Is Still A Racist Country’ appeared first on DMARGE Australia.