Anger as Grampians ‘shut to climbers’

Parks Victoria has closed more than 500 square kilometres to climbing and is threatening to hand out $1611 fines, imperilling the sport and casting a shadow over a multimillion-dollar adventure tourism attraction.

With one stroke of the bureaucratic pen, Parks Victoria has closed more than 500 square kilometres to climbing and threatening to hand out $1611 fines, imperilling the sport and casting a shadow over a multimillion-dollar adventure tourism attraction.

At the heart of the bans are claims of cultural heritage and environmental damage, sparking a ferocious battle with a sport that carved its reputation on its green credentials.

The secret to finding peace and adrenaline in equal measure in Victoria’s Grampians National Park is going deep and high.

Deep into the bush, miles from the mainstream tourist trail in and around Halls Gap, and high on the rocks, where few tread.

GRAMPIANS SITES SHUT OVER CULTURAL CONCERNS

BAN ON CLIMBING ULURU: WHAT ‘CULTURAL REASONS’?

Rock climber Kerrin Gale scales the mighty 'Taipan Wall' in the Grampians. Picture: Simon Carter

For Australia’s climbing industry, that pursuit of tranquillity at the southern tip of the Great Dividing Range has ended in deep disappointment and potential court action after the Victorian government banished the sport from large parts of one of the world’s great climbing theatres.

Simon Carter, a Blue Mountains-based climbing photographer with a global reputation, is one of many of the industry’s stunned leaders trying to carve a path forward.

The stoush may well end in the courts, as climbing activists raise cash for a so-called “access fund’’ and the government ploughs ahead with a new management plan being worked on by Parks Victoria.

“If you are going to ban climbing you might as well ban bushwalking,’’ Carter said yesterday at the northern tip of the ranges. “Just look around at some of the popular (walking) tracks, all the litter, graffiti, faeces, vegetation and infrastructure. Basically, we have been the subject of a disgusting and shocking smear campaign by Parks Victoria.’’

Considered in the top group of climbing destinations in the world because of its vast variety of routes, it is a prime location for overseas visitors.

Standing near the Taipan Wall yesterday, British climber Alistair Kennedy said he and his partner had travelled from Bristol to climb throughout the Grampians and was surprised by the push to curb the sport’s reach into the park. “It’s unique,” he said.

Rock climbing enthusiasts Simon Carter and Kerrin Gale in the Grampians.

Parks Victoria is warning climbers of fines of up to $1611 for climbing in banned areas but has not yet fined anyone for breaches.

Parks Victoria has posted signs in the Grampians outlining the penalties if people free climb or climb with ropes and go bouldering without a permit or during an event.

Parks Victoria chief operating officer Simon Talbot said: “Parks Victoria is currently undertaking enforcement activities to prevent rock climbing at eight key locations marked on the maps on our website and signage is installed on access tracks to those eight key locations.

“In broader Special Protection Areas, authorised officers are educating park users by sharing the information materials on rock climbing and advising climbers if they are in an SPA where climbing is prohibited.

“They are also undertaking enforcement activity relating to other activities not permitted in any National Park including carrying weapons, cutting or damaging vegetation (for instance to make or enhance tracks), illegally camping and lighting fires outside of designated fireplaces, driving off defined tracks, leaving litter, bringing dogs into parks, damaging park infrastructure including signs and barriers and interfering with Aboriginal cultural heritage such as rock art or any damage to rock faces such as drilling holes.

“Parks Victoria has a legislative obligation to protect these special values.”

But the law-abiding majority are furious with the way climbers have been characterised. Authorities were forced to retract a claim that climbers had put a bolt, used to support climbers, through Aboriginal rock art. The reverse was the case, with the bolt having been placed decades ago by parks officials.

Parks Victoria is threatening to fine people for climbing in banned areas, pointing to a 2003 park management plan that created eight special protection areas banning some sports, including climbing.

But amid increased tourist activity and lobbying from local indigenous groups worried about damage to cultural sites, Parks Victoria has swooped on climbers, arguing, among other things, the use of drills and chalk on rock faces, lighting fires outside designated fireplaces and smashing vegetation.

Rock climbers tackle the 'Taipan Wall' in the Grampians. Picture: Aaron Francis

A prominent defender of the sport’s faith, Mike Tomkins, says the extreme examples of alleged vandalism are deliberate distortions of the truth, masking a wider agenda to shut down large parts of the park.

“It’s scandalous. It’s been hurtful and harmful. The bans are illegal,” he said.

Locals are confused. The Nationals’ state member for Lowan, Emma Kealy, says the interested parties want a resolution that respects, preserves and protects significant cultural sites but allows meaningful access for climbers.

While much of the attention has focused on the impact on high-end sports climbing, the Grampians are considered its nursery.

Particularly Summer Day Valley in the north.

Daniel Earl is a private operator who has taught thousands of children in the valley but has been told the area may have a limited lifespan for teaching.

“Finding another site isn’t straightforward … they have to manage it,’’ he said.

“The way they have shut down vast areas has been really inappropriate.’’

[e-mail]