A war of words is continuing over the planned closure of several hiking and climbing routes in the ancient Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park, Victoria, Australia.
Visited by more than 70,000 people each year and home to the iconic Arapiles Mountain, the park was due to close about 48% of its climbing and hiking routes this month.
Parks Victoria, the government body responsible for the area announced the sweeping bans after a lengthy Aboriginal study found the area to be of cultural significance, rich with ancient artifacts, rock paintings, and wildlife.
Anyone found to be climbing or hiking on banned routes could be fined up to $229,233 (US) / £176,427 (UK) under the proposals.
“Archaeological surveys have confirmed the Dyurrite (Arapiles) Cultural Landscape is a place rich with cultural heritage including tens of thousands of artifacts, scarred trees, rock art with evidence dating back at least 3000 years,” Parks Victoria explained in a statement.
In response, irate Australian climbers slammed the planned closures as destructive and ‘a wipeout’.
“The literal beating heart of Australian climbing has been ripped out,” bemoaned a statement from the ‘Save Grampians’ campaign group.
“Parks Victoria and the Victorian Government continue their destruction of the Australian climbing community by enlarging climbing bans at Arapiles." The group claimed lawmakers were "ignoring the majority users in any form of consultation".
Locals in the nearby town of Natimuk have also rallied against the bans, arguing that a reduction in climbing tourists would devastate their local economy.
During an initial public consultation phase, members of the public were asked how they’d like the bans to be managed, rather than whether they’d like them at all.
Now, pressured by public outrage and a formal government review of their activity, Parks Victoria has extended the proposals' public consultation period to February 2025, allowing climbers and locals alike to make their feelings better known in the official process.
However, this too has caused a stir. In response to the extension, Aboriginal leaders have hit back at Parks Victoria and the campaign to stop the bans.
The Herald Sun reports that Dylan Clarke, Chair of the Barengi Gadjin Land Council Aboriginal Corporation described campaigners as a “radical rock climbing minority,” in a letter to lawmakers.
Clarke went on to accuse campaigners of launching a “misinformation campaign aimed at undermining our cultural heritage laws".
Clarke and others like him want to protect and preserve the various Aboriginal cultural sites that were discovered in the aforementioned study and are dotted around the park, some as old as 3,000 years.
The extended public consultation continues to go ahead as planned.
“You can't deny consultation for public land,” Mike Tomkins, President of the Australian Climbing Association Victoria told the Herald Sun.
“Parks Victoria has to manage the parks, and it has to manage the parks for everyone, and so, consultation with different user groups is essential to achieve that.”
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