Right to Climb

 At NSW Parliament Budget estimates this week Hon John Ruddick MLC used part of his time to question senior bureaucrats from NPWS about the closure of Mt Warning and future of the the summit track. Hon John Ruddick MLC, Libertarian Party NSW Of note was an admission by Naomi Stephens (NPWS Executive Director of Park Operations Coastal)   that the current "temporary" closure would end on the 31/12/2024. Unfortunately, we did not hear what was going to happen after this date - another extension to the rolling "temporary" closures that have been in place since March 2020, a reopening, or a permanent closure.  I have sent a follow up question to Ms Stephens and will post the reply, if it comes.  A lot of the questions by John were "taken on notice" highlighting the lack of knowledge by both the Deputy Secretary, National Parks and Wildlife Service: Atticus Fleming and Ms Stephens. We are waiting to hear the answers.  In April 2024 I sent Atticus Fleming a copy

 I appeared on the Vikki Campion Show on TNT radio 16 August. Link to the show below (from 15:45): https://tnt.news/podcast/marc-hendrickx-and-james-ashby-on-the-vikki-campion-show-16-august-2024-2/ If you want a copy of my book: A guide to climbing Mt Warning head to Connor Court ... 

Mt Warning was officially opened as a National Park on 3rd August 1929 by Hon Francis Boyce the NSW Attorney General. He rode to the summit with his wife to attend the festivities. The mountain was dedicated to all Australians forever. To commemorate that event we held a celebration of the 95th anniversary of the opening of the park on August 3, 2024. Amongst the speakers was Harry Creamer ex NPWS anthropologist. Harry spent the early part of his career interviewing Aboriginal elders about their cultural knowledge in NSW in the 1970s and 1980s. These elders still had ties to deep Aboriginal culture. They never indicated Mt Warning was a place the public couldn't access. He has a vast knowledge of Aboriginal Heritage. His reports have been omitted from heritage studies used to lock the public out of Mt Warning and he has been thus far ignored by the media. His voice deserves to be heard.  Thankyou Harry for your honesty and for sharing your knowledge. I hope NPWS pay attention.  Har

Had a wonderful time celebrating the 95th Anniversary of the Mt Warning National Park last week thanks to all involved and all who attended. Event report available at save our summits. Mt Warning 95th Anniversary celebration John and Marc at the summit Links below to radio interviews with Ben Fordham on 2GB on Monday August 5, and on the 4BC morning show with Gary Hardgrave 6 August 2024. BEN FORDHAM 5 August 2024 GARY HARDGRAVE 6 August 2024

August looking like a big month for Right to Climb. Please see if you can come to one of the events listed below. We need your voice, we need your passion. We are lost without it. Firday August 2. Mt Warning Hotel Uki, from 5:30pm. Have a drink and dinner with  Hon John Ruddick MLC NSW Libertarian Party. And prepare yourself to celebrate the 95th anniversary of the Mt Warning National Park on the 3rd. Likely sunrise climb.  SaturdayAugust 3. Breakfast Creek Carpark at the foot of Mt Warning, Mt Warning Road, Uki. From 10am. Celebrate the 95th anniversary of the declaration of the Mt Warning National Park. Say Happy 95th Birthday to this outstanding natural wonder. Gifted to all Australians. Let's reopen the park! Sunday 4th August Keep the Gate open on Awe and Wonder. Moving forward Sunshine Coast An afternoon with Marc Hendrickx and Carolyn Rogers: Keep open the gate of Awe and Wonder Sun 4 Aug 2024 1:30 PM - 4:15 PM Norh Shore Community Center, 4564 https://www.tickettailor.com

Minister Sharpe has completed her official duties in regard to the e-petition with the standard head in the sand response (see copy below), joining the same congo line of bureaucratic indifference established by the previous Minister Matt Kean . If this gets your goat up join us at the Mt Warning carpark on 3rd of August at 10:00am when we celebrate the 95th anniversary of the park and recreate the 1929 opening ceremony. Link to event .

I've been asked a few times about issuing a Freedom of Information request on the cultural reasons behind the closure of Mt Warning.  Redacted! I completed such a request back in February 2021. This resulted in the release of a large amount of information including the fact that NPWS had a closure date in place while they were playing the game of rolling "temporary" closures throughout 2020-2022. It also revealed NPWS had made a substantial error in providing risk information about the park to the public and then Minister Matt Kean (See this post ).  Documents were requested that related to discussions between NPWS and the Wollumbin Consultative Group. The WCG are the secretive group NPWS engaged to provide advice on Aboriginal issues in the park. It is now well established (see my book ) that the group does not represent the interests of the Group with the closest cultural connection to the mountain, the Ngarakwal people, who encourage visitors to climb the summit. All t

Some recent media reports about the on going saga of the unjust, disgraceful and racist closure of the Mt Warning Summit track.... 'Heartbreaking': Tourist industry furious as Mount Warning remains closed due to Indigenous heritage concerns, 'costing industry $50 million' Lauren Forbes Skynews Calls are growing for a famous walking track that once welcomed 100,000 visitors per year to be reopened, after the site was closed during the pandemic and never reopened due to the area's cultural significance to Aboriginal Australians.    Ngarakbal Elder Sturt Boyd, a custodian of the land, has challenged the claims of the WCG, labelling them false and saying he wants the track open to all Australians. “ It’s a disgrace, I’ll say it straight. That’s racism… that is racism and here’s why they put that piece up, Bundjalung put it up there, ” Elder Boyd said. Mr Boyd is the son of Ngarakwaal elder Marlene Boyd, daughter of the last Gulgan or keeper of Mount Warning, who long ad

 My piece on Quadrant online. Thanks to Adrian Hoffman, Alan Keen and Sturt Davies Boyd. for their clear message about the stupid wall at Mt Warning. Quadrant article...  Another Wall in Need of Felling Following a protest climb to the summit of Mt Warning on Australia Day 2024 by members of Save our Summits Australia, Reopen Mt Warning Facebook group and local Ngarakwal custodian Sturt Davies Boyd,  the libertarian John Ruddick MLC suggested a parliamentary petition with a view of generating enough signatures to trigger a debate on the access issue in the NSW Legislative Council. Labor’s upper house leader and environment minister, Penny Sharpe, agreed to a debate if 10,000 signatures of NSW residents supporting reopening were to be achieved by May 2, 2024.  Over the course of the next three months through a combination of promoting the petition on social media, countless kilometres devoted to dropping off about 30,000 flyers, community meetings, media interviews and a summit climb wi