Right to Climb

This week (Thursday 20 July) marks 150 years since the first documented account of the climbing of Australia's famous Ayers Rock. While climbing the Rock likely dates back into the waning stages of the Pleistocene when humans first arrived in the red centre some 25,000 years ago (long before the arrival of the current Anangu owners who include the Dingo in their creation myths), the first person to make a record of the climb was explorer and surveyor  William Christie Gosse (1842-1881) . He climbed with Afghan Cameleer Kamran on the 20th of July 1873, during an expedition to explore a route from central Australia to Perth.  Since Gosse's ascent nearly 7 million people - families, couples, soloists and royalty from the four corners of the globe have emulated his achievement and stood at the summit, experiencing the thrill of the climb and joy, awe and wonder of the remarkable views of the nearby Olgas, Mt Conner, Lake Amadeus and distant ranges.  To mark the occasion a sma...

 Here are 10 reasons to climb Mt Beerwah... Let your feet do the talking... The Mountian is supposed to reopen 11 August 2023 . 

Andrew Bolt reported on the recent more formal call to close Mt Tibrogargan by an activist Aboriginal group on his show last night and invited me on to comment . The text below expands on some of the discussion.  The proposed closure of Tibrogargan and nearby Mt Beerwah, like Ayers Rock and Mount Warning and so many other special places now closed to the public based on racial grounds, has more to do with politics than culture. If it was about culture then what respect was given to the old men at Uluru, who grew up around the rock and were either indifferent to the Ayers Rock climb or like Tiger Tjalkalyirri actually encouraged visitors to climb . At Mt Warning the culture of the Aboriginal Group with the closest affinity to the Mountain, the Ngarakbal people who support public access, has been ignored for over 20 years by woke NPWS bureaucrats more interested in the views of groups with more distant connections to the mountain who want to ban access and make life easier for NPWS –...

I asked Hon Mark Latham if he could ask some questions of the new Environment Minister Penny Sharpe about the costs of securtity at Mt Warning. The answer below. It turns out NPWS are forking over $7K per week for security at the carpark to prevent people from exercising their right to climb to the summit. The estimated costs of repair of the track and replacing the chain can be reasonable be estimated to be around $150000. Though Government procurement practises will probably push this up by a factor of 2 or 3 (there's efficency for you!). So since April NPWS have wasted the amount of money that could have been used to repair and reopen the summit track.  A few years ago cars in the carpark at the base of the walk were routinely vandalised with tyres slashed and windows smashed yet NPWS did absolutley nothing about improving security of park patrons. Now they are employing guards to prevent patrons from climbing. Its clear from their actions who NPWS regard as the "real"...

Glass House under threat of closure.  The Glasshouse mountains for some time have been  under threat of closure  to satisfy the irrational demands of local Aboriginal Groups and likely the wishes of Queensland government park authorities who are finding it difficult to manage these beautiful places from the comfort of desks in the Brisbane CBD. No one is forcing people to climb. If people don't want to climb and enjoy the adventure, exhilaration, and look over the remarkable landscape to see how special it is, for whatever reason then don't climb. At the same time it is morally wrong to force your opinions and beliefs on others.  QNPS are now giving credence to this morally reprehensible view and endorsing a Naidoc week event at Mt Tibrogargan for which they urge people not to climb. Officially the climb is open - so in respect of our beliefs of freedom of movement in public places I encourage all readers if they live close (Brisbane is about an hour drive away) to...

In 1993 NSW NPWS published a glossy 20 page guide to Mount Warning National Park. It's one of the best park guides I've come across and a great credit to the authors Berkeley Wiles and Lyn Skillings. The guide is no longer available. I found a copy in the NSW State Library (catalogue number 919.44304, ISBN 0731008243). The book contains a wonderful description of the summit walk under the heading "Staircase to the sky" that reads as follows: Staircase to the sky  Mount Warning is different things to different people — a challenge, a rainforest experience, a staircase to spectacular views, a feast of sights sounds and smells that awaken the senses... or just an escape.  Whatever the attraction, Mount Warning is visited by about 60 000 people each year. `Have you climbed Mount Warning?' has become a catchcry amongst locals and visitors alike. Those who have climbed it gain an instant affinity with each other, a common achievement to discuss together.  Age does not a...

Writer Robert Onfray has an excellent article on the looming closure of Mt Warning on his forestry blog. This outlines in considerable detail some of the history that got us where we are today with NSW NPWS seeking to close the door on one of the world's natural wonders.   Stealing a mountain - a warning for all of us. Hard as you try, when travelling in the Tweed Valley or passing along the Pacific Highway (now Motorway), you cannot miss Mount Warning. It is a striking feature of the far north coast of New South Wales – the peak is bosomed in the skies! Mount Warning offers the opportunity to see the morning sun first rise over the horizon on the Australian continent. The dominant mountain peak is visible from many points, which is unsurprising as it stands at 1,159 metres high and only 32 kilometres inland. Captain James Cook saw the mountain in 1770 as an important landmark after encountering dangerous shoals off the coast. He later wrote that mariners would always be able ...

With the death knell rattling louding at Mt Warning in NSW, across the border Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service have shut the gate "temporarily" (ed - where have we heard that before?) at Mt Beerwah in the Glasshouse Mountains. Mt Beerwah is one of the most spectacular and challenging walks on the east coast and frequented by 10,000s of visitors each year. By Bidgee - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9812428 Last week some idiot(s), highly improbable it was a bushwalker or a Christian, clumsily carved the words 'Jesus Saves Just Ask Him" into the rock face with an angle grinder low down on the mountain. Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service today announced the Mountain would be closed for "cultural Healing". It's frustrating that QPWS have not attempted to speak with the climbing and bushwalking community who are outraged at this act of wanton vandalism before closing the mountain to visitors. There would have...

 Press coverage in today's The Australian Newspaper. NPWS have banned individuals from corresponding with them over the closure of Mt Warning, they have taken to issuing meaningless form letters in response to serious questions leaving them unanswered. They have never attempted any form of broad community consultation or consultation with local businesses affected by the closure. They even denied traditional custodians a working bee so they could access memorials left in the park. They are truly incompetent.  The absence of constructive dialogue with NPWS leaves little options left other than a mass trespass akin to the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout.  Page 6 Page 12

Australian Cultural Heritage gathering dust in Parks Australia garage. A recent photo from a reader of a trio at the cairn in 1975 provided a trigger to check with Parks Australia on their plans for the Ayers Rock Summit Cairn - a wonderful piece of Australian Cultural Heritage. The cairn was installed in 1970 by NT Park Rangers, lead by Derek Rolf in 1970. It was visited by well over 6 million visitors until Parks Australia destroyed it and clumsily reassembled it and left it n a shed in 2019. The important Geodetic survey marker that was installed beneath the cairn was also destroyed by Parks Australia when the cairn was removed. This would normally result in a large fine but we are not aware if one was issued.  Australian cultural heritage, clumsily re-assembled (inside out) and collecting dust in a PA garage. (photo Nov, 2019) There were some bizarre plans to display the cairn and fragments of the chain at the base of the rock but these have not come to fruition.  I checke...