Mount Conner (Atila)

Mount Conner stands at 859 metres above sea level in the Petermann locality of the Northern Territory, in Pitjantjatjara country. Its horseshoe-shaped silhouette and stark flat summit are the product of hundreds of millions of years of geological history. The mesa is a classic inselberg, an isolated remnant left standing after the surrounding softer rock eroded away. Geologists note that its summit, along with the summits of Uluru and the domes of Kata Tjuta, represents an erosional remnant of a much older land surface, suggesting all three formations share a common ancient origin buried deep beneath the desert.

The mountain holds profound significance for the Anangu people, particularly those speaking Pitjantjatjara. Known as Atila, the formation is associated in Tjukurpa (Dreaming law) with the Ninya, ancestral ice people who brought cold and frost to the land. The songlines connecting Atila to Uluru and Kata Tjuta are part of an intricate web of knowledge about the landscape, water sources, and seasonal patterns. The Kungkarangkalpa (Seven Sisters) Dreaming, one of the most widely sung song cycles across central and western Australia, passes through this country. Sacred details are held privately by knowledge holders and are not shared publicly.

Mount Conner was named by European explorer William Gosse in 1873 after Mountifort Longfield Conner, a South Australian parliamentarian. A sobering footnote in its European history is the death of a schoolteacher in 1936, who perished from exhaustion after mistaking the mesa for Uluru and walking toward it. Today the confusion is gently celebrated in the Fooluru moniker, a reminder of how dramatically the desert landscape can deceive.

The site lies entirely on Curtin Springs Station, a million-acre working cattle property owned by the Severin family since 1956. Public access to the base of the mountain is not available; however, a free roadside lookout on the Lasseter Highway provides excellent views across the salt lake to the mesa. SEIT Outback Australia holds rights to run guided 4WD tours from Curtin Springs onto the station, offering sunset and dinner experiences that bring visitors much closer to Atila than the highway vantage point allows.

The salt lake opposite the lookout is part of the Lake Amadeus palaeodrainage system, a network of saline lakes across this part of the desert. Depending on seasonal rainfall, the lake can hold a thin sheet of water that catches the light dramatically at sunrise or sunset, adding to the visual spectacle of the mesa rising from the flat desert floor. Wildlife in the broader station country includes red kangaroos, wedge-tailed eagles, emus, central bearded dragons, and thorny devils.