Right to Climb

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...

The goons of Uluru When you smash the small things, big things follow. Section 17-2 of the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park lease agreement "covenants that the flora, fauna, cultural heritage and natural environment of the park shall be preserved, managed and maintained according to the best comparable management practices established for National Parks anywhere in the world or where no comparable practices exist, to the highest standards practicable."  I have always contended that the Ayers Rock Summit Climb and its associated infrastructure are items of important cultural heritage, protected by the lease and the 1987 World Heritage Agreement. Parks Australia has breached the lease and its obligations under the World Heritage agreement by banning the climb and destroying the summit monument, chain and memorial plaques.  Through some Orwellian doublespeak Parks Australia contends that its actions are legal. For want of a seven-figure sum of money, their warped interpret...