Mt Warning: no decision in 2025 -Merry Christmas from Minister Sharpe

NPWS have provided the following media statement about the "temporary" closure of the Mt Warning summit track:

The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has extended the closure of the Wollumbin summit track to allow additional time for careful consideration of the site’s future.

For more than a decade, access to the Wollumbin summit track has presented complex challenges. The NSW Government is committed to enhancing consultation processes for the future management of the track.

NPWS acknowledges the uncertainty the process has caused the community and businesses. For Aboriginal people there is a deep cultural and spiritual significance of Wollumbin, which is a declared Aboriginal place. Ensuring that all stakeholders, particularly Aboriginal custodians, are meaningfully engaged is critical to any future decisions about the site.

For community, council and business the future of this site is also important.

NPWS will continue to maintain and develop visitation opportunities in the region to support local communities and their economies. This includes Nightcap, Mount Jerusalem and Border Ranges national parks and the new Gidjuum Gulganyi Walk.

Wollumbin National Park is open, with just the summit track and summit remaining closed. The current closure will now be in place until 31 December 2025.

It is an understatement to say the bushwalking and local business community are disappointed with the decision to extend the "temporary" closure of the Mt Warning summit track for another 12 months. It appears the incompetence of NPWS in managing the park for all Australians will continue into 2025 and it seems no resolution will occur now until 2026 or later.

The track will have been closed for 5 years in March 2025 and there has been more than enough time for the Minister to complete discussions and make a decision that benefits the entire NSW community and not just a handful of activists.

The economic damage caused by the unreasonable decision to close the track continues to impact the local community, and with this new extension to the closure, the time has come to consider formal legal proceedings to sue the government for compensation for financial losses experienced and harm done to the emotional wellbeing of those that consider climbing an important part of their cultural heritage.

NPWS have completely missed the opportunity to reopen the track in Easter 2025 to coincide with repairs being done to the Mt Warning Road. Minor repairs to the summit track and reinstallation of the summit chain could have been programmed during 2024 and the mountain could have been fully operational by easter 2025.

The extension is particularly unreasonable given minutes of meetings held between NPWS and the Wollumbim Consultative Group reveal that a proposal that would have seen the summit track opened on a fee and permit system was unanimously endorsed by the WCG and NPWS in 2016 and 2018. It seems a compromise solution is possible. Why wasn't this proposal followed at the time?

Mount Warning National Park should be defunded if the public cannot access the summit based on their ancestry and sex.

Mount Warning: Aboriginal claims about summit climb are contested

"How can the public experience the spiritual significance of this land if they do not climb the summit and witness creation." Ngaraakwal Elder Marlene Boyd RIP NSW NPWS have the following description about Aboriginal attitudes to people climbing to the summit of Mt Warning on their webpage about the walking track: Wollumbin, which means ‘cloud catcher’ to some Aboriginal People, is a traditional place of cultural law, initiation and spiritual education for the people of the Bundjalung Nation. Under Bundjalung law, only certain people can climb the summit. Out of respect for their law and culture, consider not climbing the summit. These claims, including the very name applied to the mountain, are contested and it seems there is another story that NSW NPWS have not properly acknowledged and have long kept from public attention. We came across this article from the Daily News February 24 2007 about Ngaraakwal Elder Marlene Boyd that makes for interesting reading. ...

17th death on the Rock

17th death on the Rock ABC report that a 76 year old Japanese man collapsed on the steep part of the climb and despite first aid, was not able to be revived. The elderly Japanese man likely died as a result of heart complications, probably brought on by existing (perhaps unknown) medical conditions and over exerting himself. He appears to have died revelling in the opportunity life provides. RIP Brother of the Rock. Our thoughts with his family and the first attenders who did their best to treat him. It's sad, but life goes on, and so should the climb. His death marks the 17th death ON the Rock since 26 May 1962 when 16 year old school boy Brian Strieff, on a school excursion with Carey Grammar, wondered off the main path in heavy fog on the way down and fell to his death. ABC's report indicate it is the 37th death, but these figures from Parks Australia have not been substantiated. It seems that many of the deaths Parks Australia claim to have occurred ON the Rock occurr...

Mt Warning closure - 4 years of lies and misinformation

Mt Warning closure - 4 years of lies and misinformation March 30 (Easter Saturday) marks the 4-year anniversary of the "temporary" closure of the Mt Warning summit track. Some thoughts and rambled musings below. I spoke with Ben Fordham about the anniversary on the Ben Fordham Breakfast show on 2GB. Ben's response a classic: "If you want to climb, just climb it!" Link to that interview HERE . 4 year anniversary of bureaucratic madness We know the exact date of the closure thanks to bushwalker: Tertia Starr Maynard, who posted a photo of a note left on her windscreen by NPWS rangers to the reopen Facebook page . It was dated and read “NPWS advises Wollumbin National Park is closing from today due to covid19. Gate is not locked but please close behind you as you exit. Thanks NPWS.” Photo by T Maynard - the last walkers out. In the 4 years since, after other parks were reopened, Mt Warning remained closed and the reason for the temporary closure morphed to in...

Right to Climb

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