Yes, I found this to very surprising and odd too. I had gone to the Qantas website, entered my frequent flyer account information, and selected the award flight option. I entered my departure as Sydney, and arrival as Cairns, and to my surprise, in addition to direct flight, there was a connection via Cairns. See Below:

09:45 Sydney 12:40 Ayers Rock (Uluru) QF728 737-800
14:50 Ayers Rock (Uluru) 17:55 Cairns QF1924 717
OPERATED BY QANTASLINK - NATIONAL JET SYSTEMS

Even more surprising, I checked flights from Sydney to Ayers Rock, and a connection via Perth was an option. See below:

16 April 06:10 Sydney 16 April 09:05
Perth QF565 737-800 0 16 April 10:20
Perth 16 April 14:10 Ayers Rock (Uluru) QF1922 717 0
OPERATED BY QANTASLINK - NATIONAL JET SYSTEMS

I don't have Qantas mileage, I only signed up for their frequent flyer program to see what awards might be available and hope that I could use AAdvantage miles for such awards. (I am not planning a trip in the near future, I am just trying to plan ahead and learn what options are available for using AAdvantage miles.) For these flights, via Ayres to Cairns, there was a little higher mileage requirement for such a connection vs. flying to Cairns directly.