Right to Climb

 FOI CORRESPONDENCE CONFIRMS GLASS HOUSE SUMMIT CLOSURES  Documents released through a FOI request confirm QLD National Park bureaucracy have plans to limit future access to Glass House Mountains summits.  Concerns about future closures to Glass House Mountains summits are well warranted based on QNPS statements of support of local Aboriginal Groups who want to stop the public climbing to the summits of Mt Beerwah, Mt Tibrogargan, Mt Coolum and other GHM summits.  A recent letter we received from the new Environment Minister, and local state member Andrew Powell suggests there is no plan to ban the public from the GHM summits (14 January 2025): However, among the correspondence released is a chain of emails from 4 July 2022 that discusses a Glass House Mountains Precinct Visitor Management Implementation Plan (see File E pages 92-95) . For some reason, the plan was not included in the documents released and we have asked the FOI officer why this is the case and for a...

QLD NATIONAL PARKS FOI RELEASE: PUBLIC ACCESS AT BEERWAH AND TIBROGARGAN SUMMITS Email 4 July 2022 - refer File E page 95 Key Facts • Despite recent assurances the Department still appears to be working towards closure of Glass House Mountain Summits including Mt Beerwah, Mt Tibrogargan, Mt Coochin and Mt Coolum, (I’ll provide evidence from the documents that support this in a subsequent post). • Risk to public from Landslides at Beerwah and Tibrogargan remains in tolerable range according to geotechnical advice. • It took over 12 months to process this FOI request – 12 time extension requests were made by the Department. • No documents were released with correspondence from aboriginal groups, contrary to the request. • 610 pages released (with much duplication). • Cost was $1366.70. • Over 3000 emails from “Office of the Deputy Director-General, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and Partnerships’ excluded from the request, exempted under s41 of the QLD Right to I...

 WCG MEETING MINUTES 2011-2024 We have been given access to minutes of meetings of the Wollumbin Consultative Group between 2011 and 2024. On the basis of the minutes it is clear the time for an independent public inquiry into management of Mt Warning National Park and the entire NSW Parks estate is long overdue.  Documents are made available as a matter of deep public interest in current management practices in our National Parks. What is happening at Mt Warning will be occurring in other Parks across NSW as NPWS continue to push for and develop handback and lease agreements of our public parks. In our view these plans are divisive: they prevent public involvement in managing public land, they will add considerable cost to managing our parks, and they will result in further irrational bans and limits on public access.  NPWS: "Custodians are looking at ways to progress handback at the June meeting. We envisage it will take 10-15 years for handback across the whole state."...

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...

Glass House FOI - Gotta love the bureaucracy QLD Bureacracy follow the same path as their NSW counterparts in release of documents requested through FOI about potential closure of long established routes in our National Parks. Last July 023 I placed an application under the QLD Right to Information Act 2009 relating to the closure of the Glasshouse Mountains. My initial inquiry requested "Documents, reports and correspondence relating the closure of Mt Beerwah, Mount Tibrogargan and Mount Mt Coonowrin." After some discussion with the FOI officer the terms of reference for my inquiry were altered to the following: "All documents containing consideration by the Government to permanently close any of the Glasshouse Mountains to preserve the cultural heritage of First Nations peoples." After some weeks a response came back (31 August 2023) that there were no documents that met these terms: Letter from QLD Dep Science and Environment - we have nothing for you! I was quit...

NPWS commissioned an engineering consultancy to provide costings for various options to restore access to the summit of Mt Warning. I obtained a copy through a GIPA (Freedom of Information) request. A link to the full report is provided below.  GHD Wollumbin risk and engineering assessment report 2021 I'll add a number of comments on the report, but it essentially concurs with my assessment that a new chain could be installed at a very small cost. In fact it could be easily redeemed through a gold coin donation from walkers in the first six months of operation. Key findings of the report are outlined in the table below: Comments The number of incidents on the track (44 in 10 years or around 5 a year) is similar to other Grade 5 walks in the state. The risk context at 1 in 50000 for an incident requiring rescue is very low - 2 per year. The Great North Walk near Sydney gets dozens of rescues each year (I have been personally involved in some of them as an RFS member). Some parts of...

FOI BOMBSHELL Part 2: Did the minister sign NPWS briefing note authorising shut down of Mt Warning? On 24 December 2021, I sent a GIPA (FOI) request to NPWS for the following information: Correspondence (emails, reports and other forms) dealing with long term closure of the Mt Warning Summit Walk including a survey report prepared for NSW NPWS covering visitor opinions about walking up Mt Warning. Any other correspondence covering a ban on the Mt Warning Summit Walk across the period indicated (01/01/2017 to 22/12/2020). NPWS GIPA minions released a batch of documents on February 16, 2021. We covered these in our post " FOI BOMBSHELL: PERMANENT BAN ON MT WARNING 25 NOVEMBER 2022 "  A number of documents were completely redacted and I requested an external review of these by the  NSW Information Commissioner. On 11 June 2021, the Information Commissioner recommended a new decision be made regarding documents 3A, 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E and 7 by way of internal review. The Informati...

New South Wales National Park and Wildlife Service have been falsely claiming the risk of rock falls and landslides to summit track users is "Extreme". As an engineering geologist specialising in landslide risk assessment I found these claims to be ridiculous when I climbed the mountain in January. I have since discovered that NPWS organised a detailed geotechnical assessment of rock fall and landslide risk to summit track users by a leading geotechnical consultant in April 2018. However there is no mention of this report in NPWS information. It seems they are ignoring the findings of their own experts in their description of geotechnical risk on the mountain and they continue to promulgate misinformation and lie to the Minister and Public. I requested a copy of the consultant's report through the government' GIPA system and have now received a copy of the report.  Here's an example of how NPWS continue to report on rock fall and landslide risk on the Mountain, fr...

I have had a batch of documents released via FOI/GIPA (see links below). Despite heavy-handed redactions, there are some incredible revelations! It is hard to believe what has been going on behind NPWS' locked doors. Mt Warning/Wollumbin National Park is one of our Nation's true natural jewels and it is being treated as a political football by bureaucrats and Aboriginal groups.   The documents show NPWS has misled the minister and public over safety risks in the park and the diversity of Aboriginal views about the summit walk. NPWS have indicated the closure would be reviewed in May, but if NPWS have their way the Park will NEVER open to the public again. Image source Key Revelations: "Final Wollumbin Closure Event" is planned for 25 November 2022 A "deconstruction plan" points to removal of summit lookouts to be completed by 30 June 2022 NPWS have NO intention of re-opening the park to the public. The closure affects the entire park - the public will be ba...