Mt Warning - 5 years closed

 Mt Warning: 5 years of lies and government ineptitude

When Mt Warning was first closed temporarily due to fears walkers could catch covid at its blustery clean air summit my youngest daughter was starting high school. She's now in the middle of her HSC. My older daughter has nearly completed a university degree. This ridiculous "temporary" closure based on lies, ignorance and falsehoods marks it's 5 year anniversary today, with no end in sight and what appears to be a low likelihood of a common sense resolution. The temporary closure is extended to the end of 2025 as government officials and the Environment Minister Penny Sharpe move at a snail's pace to make a decision.

NSW NPWS tossed out years of its own anthropological research that conclusively demonstrated there were no Aboriginal concerns about public access to the summit. The views of the recognised guardian of the mountain, Millie Boyd, tossed under the bus by NPWS for a false cultural tale that was called "a modern day invention" by Aboriginal elders when it emerged from groups outside the area in the early 2000s. 

Somehow the views of this small group of 10-20 activists hungry for power gained traction among NPWS senior bureaucrats and take precedence over the millions of people who have marked the Mt Warning summit as a place to visit. So much for democracy!

I have long called for cultural protection of the summit trail. The engineered walls that support the track a masterpiece of construction. Minutes of meetings between NPWS and the Wollumbin Consultative Group show moves to protect the walls were rejected for fear it would provide a means to prevent them closing the track. This was done with the agreement of NPWS. Shame on them.

In recent years we have seen this happen across the country with confected cultural claims closing public access to National Parks across the country and impacting and halting development of national importance (the Blayney Gold mine a stand out example) making the Nation poorer as a result. Our heritage legislation is broken and requires a review that puts the culture of everyone on the same level. 

The fight for free and fair access to the summit will continue. We will continue to exercise our rights to climb Mt Warning regardless of rules made by the fat bottomed bureaucracy and incompetent politicians. Attempts to destroy our cultural practice of accessing and appreciating the awe and wonder of our remarkable landscape will fail. 

The fight will continue until the mountain reopens.