Tourists could soon be banned from an internationally popular mountain hike in New South Wales in a controversial move that has been compared to the closure of Uluru in 2019.
The state government has announced the future of Wollumbin National Park will be guided by cultural beliefs through the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with local Aboriginal custodians.
Wollumbin, also known as Mount Warning, is located in the Tweed Shire in far north New South Wales and attracts an estimated 127,000 visitors annually.
It has also been the site of countless accidents as inexperienced climbers attempt to take on the challenging summit.
The mountain track has been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
New South Wales Minister for the Environment James Griffin said "the Wollumbin Consultative Group's (WCG) long-standing view is that public access to the summit is not in line with the cultural values of the area."
WCG says it is of the "highest significance as a sacred ceremonial and cultural complex that is linked to traditional law and custom".
"Wollumbin is interconnected to a broader cultural and spiritual landscape that includes creation, dreaming stories and men's initiation sites of deep antiquity," it said.
The MoU is in development but there are calls for the walk to re-open while its long-term future is decided.
Tweed Shire Council Mayor Chris Cherry has written to the minister to request a transition phase — the same process taken with the closure of Uluru.
"I do believe our community will accept whatever changes if there was a transition period," she said.
Avoiding responsibility
Cr Cherry accused the minister of handballing the contentious issue to the Indigenous community.
"It's an announcement where the minister hasn't wanted to take responsibility for whatever happens in the future, and I don't think that's good form."
Any permanent closure of the summit would be controversial and Cr Cherry said it was not fair that the Indigenous community should be the focal point of community anger.
"If a decision has been made then I think the minister should stand by that and not put it on the Aboriginal community to bear the brunt of that," she said.
At the same time, however, Cr Cherry said the site had not been treated with respect.
"Anyone who has been climbing Wollumbin in recent years would recognise that it hasn't been honoured and respected in the way that it should be as a sacred site," she said.
"I feel very strongly that if it is [to be closed] then people need to be given that transition time and options about how it should be managed into the future."
