A new E-Petition has been listed in the NSW Legislative council (NSW Upper House) to reopen Mt Warning.
LINK HERE... https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=mIh4VlYuV3MWXOB3MBXJYQ
It's a NSW e-petition so technically available to NSW resident only.
An earlier petition available to resident of other states is available HERE. Note this will have no influence to NSW Parliament but nice to sign regardless.
https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/queenslanders-want-to-reopen-mt-warning-summit
The e-petition is limited to a small number of words.
Thanks to Ben Fordham and 2GB for their support of this important public policy issue.
Our original version read as follows...
To the President and Members of the Legislative Council
Introduce legislation to reopen Mt Warning’s famous summit track and establish a NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into public access rights in the Wollumbin National Park.
The NSW government has plans to hand control of all National Parks in NSW to Aboriginal groups. If the deeply flawed process followed by NPWS at Mt Warning is applied to other parks, there will be many more natural wonders in NSW that will be closed.
Mount Warning National Park (Wollumbin National Park) is one of the most beautiful places on the east coast of Australia. Since the construction of a 4.4 km trail to the summit in 1909 by volunteers over 3.5 million visitors have experienced the awe and wonder of the summit views. Prior to the closure in March 2020, over 100,000 people visited the summit each year. There has not been any adverse environmental impacts from visitation, and safety concerns largely result from NPWS neglect of track maintenance.
The Mt Warning summit walk is a unique family bushwalking experience, a place for school excursions and visits by scouts, guides, nature lovers and scientists. Experiencing the first sunrise in Australia at the summit is a world class attraction. In tourism surveys the summit walk has been classed as a “must do” experience and has been ranked ahead of the Sydney New Year fireworks.
For over 20 years NPWS has worked with a small group of Aboriginal people who live remote from the mountain, who now want to ban public access to the entire park. The reasons behind this “Secret Men’s Business” are hidden behind a veil of secrecy by NPWS, and there is a complete lack of transparency and accountability in their decision making and expenditure of public money. In 2023 they spent over $180,000 on useless security that could have been used to replace the chain and repair the track.
Other Aboriginal groups, including those with the closest connection to the mountain, have been excluded from consultation and shamefully ignored by NPWS. One of these, Ngarakwal Elder, the late Marlene Boyd, stated in 2007 that there was no issue with public access to the summit stating: “How can the public experience the spiritual significance of this land if they do not climb the summit and witness creation." Shaun Davies, representative of the Muranburra clan of the Yugambeh people, has said he couldn’t understand how such important decisions could have been made without essential historical information from the actual families involved.
Other stakeholders, local residents, the wider NSW and SE QLD community, bushwalkers, local businesses and tourism operators have not been consulted about the closure and this has had a profound detrimental impact on their lives.
The actions of NPWS have caused great harm to the local community, causing great mental anguish to many who regularly trekked to the summit. It has also seriously damaged the local tourism industry, and local economy with some local businesses forced to close. It has damaged Australia’s reputation as a tourism destination. It goes against the principals that underline the reasons National Parks were created.
Our public parks belong to all of us, not a select few based on their race and religious beliefs.
Comments
Post a Comment