More climbing bans in Victoria

The Australian today reports on more senseless bans to rock climbing areas in Victoria. The bans are destroying a once healthy outdoor industry and will spread to other activities and other areas in Victoria (think skiing, 4wd, bushwalking and camping). The embrace of stone-age belief systems by government agencies is indeed sending us back to the stone age.

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Climb-ban bureaucrats in Victoria keen to extend their reach
JOHN FERGUSON

The late autumn Wimmera sun bouncing off Mount Arapiles acts as an illusion for Australia’s rock-climbing community.

Lost in the sharp light is the gloomy recognition among many that the Victorian government is in the advanced stages of killing off a once-thriving industry in a battle over access, cultural heritage and the environment.

As the world has been focused on the pandemic, Parks Victoria has been quietly accelerating its curbs on climbing in the heartland of the pursuit in Australia.

Australian Climbing Association Victoria president Mike Tomkins is blunt about climbing’s future under the Andrews government.

“Rock climbing in Victoria is on its last legs because we have been afraid to stand up for our ­activity in the face of cultural sensitivities,’’ Tomkins tells The Weekend Australian.

Acclaimed climbing photographer Simon Carter agrees, calling for an independent investigation into the destruction of the sport.

“There needs to be an inquiry into Parks Victoria’s management of the entire situation,’’ he says.

Well over a year after the government imposed climbing bans over hundreds of square kilometres due to cultural heritage concerns in the nearby Grampians, bureaucrats have accelerated the restrictions.

The Grampians was the initial target but now the attention has turned about 50km northwest to Mount Arapiles.

First came the shutting down of a training crag at Mount Arapiles and during the next two months cultural heritage teams will be poring over the mountain.

There will be four assessments conducted on registered Arapiles rock art sites but the areas are being kept secret.

For Tomkins and other climbers there is an inevitability about shutting down climbing to such an extent the industry will ­become unviable for towns like Natimuk, near Arapiles. “These bureaucrats are out of control. It is no exaggeration to say that all who love the parks of Australia should be gravely concerned at the precedent that this sets.’’

Adding to the angst is the fact that Parks Victoria also seems to be closing in on the climbing ­location called Bundaleer in the Grampians, which is considered in the top five climbing locations in the national park.

Bundaleer has for years been promoted by Parks Victoria as a prime climbing site, but now the organisation is telling the sector to steer clear of part of the area, which is culturally sensitive.

If climbing is banned at all or part of Bundaleer, which seems quite possible, it will be another blow to arguably Australia’s most important adventure industry.

Parks Victoria chief executive Matthew Jackson insists he is alive to the importance of climbing. “We’re keenly aware of the importance of rock climbing to many people, and we’re working to keep communities, tour operators and climbing groups updated with information about Mount Arapiles and the Grampians,” he said.

“As recently communicated to community, Parks Victoria and Barengi Gadjin Land Council will this month assess a number of rock art sites previously identified at Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park and which are already on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register.’’

BGLC did not comment.

Undermining Parks Victoria’s position have been a series of gaffes, falsely linking climbers to damage they didn’t commit and vastly overstating the impact of environmental damage at eight Grampians National Park sites.

Climbers accept there are practices that need to be improved and, in some locations, greater effort taken to protect the environment.

Ashlee Hendy, a climber for 20 years, says climbers are misunderstood by the government and some traditional owners.

Climbers, she says, live for the environment. “They respect it and care for it,’’ she says. “To see the wall that’s been built (around climbing) is really disappointing.’’