Sacred Indigenous sites and landmarks are everyone’s to share

Great opinion piece in the Courier Mail today by Mike O'Connor...

An organisation called Right to Climb operates under the banner “Our Mountains Belong To All Of Us.” It’s right but it’s not just our mountains. Our islands also belong to all of us.

Sacred Indigenous sites and landmarks are everyone’s to share

Surely it is of greater benefit to enlighten visitors about sacred Indigenous landmarks rather than pressure governments to lock them up, writes Mike O’Connor. That does not seem to be a welcome to country.

It is named, auspiciously, Mount Warning and is set to become the latest landmark to be declared off-limits to non-Indigenous people.

The extinct volcano, sitting across the NSW border in the Tweed Valley, attracts tens of thousands of people every year who climb its peak to enjoy the sunrise and a view that stretches to the Pacific Ocean.

Freedom of Information documents obtained from the NSW Parks and Wildlife Service show it has drawn up hitherto secret plans to close the walking track to the mountain, named by Captain Cook in 1770, from November next year.

In Queensland, Indigenous elders have made it clear that they would like to see Mount Tibrogargan and Mount Beerwah in the Glasshouse Mountains and nearby Mount Coolum declared off-limits.

There are also calls for St Mary Peak in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges and Mount Yengo in the NSW Hunter Valley to be closed to climbers while large sections of the Grampians National Park in Victoria are also being closed.

On North Stradbroke Island, campers are being banned by the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC) while the state government is planning to give control of Moreton Island, the world’s second largest sand island, to the same corporation.

The article ends...

An organisation called Right to Climb operates under the banner “Our Mountains Belong To All Of Us.” It’s right but it’s not just our mountains. Our islands also belong to all of us.

We wholeheartedly endorse this statement!

Read the whole article at the Courier Mail - link above.

Courier Mail 9 March 2021

Comments

Mount Warning: Aboriginal claims about summit climb are contested

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Mt Warning - Summit signing, time capsule

A Mt Warning Visit, summit signing Drove up the long road from Sydney, leaving early to grab a beer at the Mt Warning Hotel at Uki in the afternoon. There's a nice view of the summit from the smoker's deck. The tip of the mountain was catching clouds and then letting them go. I met Roger, a one-legged ex- navy seal and former security guard to Gloria Estafan. He was an interesting bloke, sucking a large Cuban cigar and slamming spiced rum on ice. He had one eye, apparently, he had lost the other blue pearl in a firefight with Somali terrorists in the Persian Gulf. We had a brief discussion of current affairs and the insanity of public parks being closed for no good reason, and vandalism of the tourism industry by a woke broken Bureaucracy - just light conversation. I mentioned I had a mission that might suit him and he agreed to join in. We headed to the Mt Warning Rainforest Caravan Park. Mt Warning from the Mt Warning Hotel Roads around the area are still not repaired from la

Chain and post removed at Mount Warning Summit Walk

The current situation is a disgrace and an insult to Park users and all Australians. The Minister must instigate an independent audit and review of NSW NPWS management of the Park and develop a brighter vision of the Park's future. The walk to the summit of Mt Warning in northern NSW is an iconic experience of the natural world. Views from the summit on a clear day provide an unrivaled vista over the Tweed River Valley, lush rainforests, eroded volcanic landscape and beaches on the coast. They fill visitors with a sense of awe and wonder. From a geological perspective, it is arguably the best-preserved erosion caldera in the world. The 4.4km (8.8km return) track was completed in 1909 but the hike was firmly established as a popular tourist attraction in 1929 with the declaration of the area around the mountain as a National Park. The opening ceremony was attended at the summit by 200 people, some rode horses up the trail. The standard of the early track construction is extreme

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