UKC

Following rediscoveries of Traditional Owner cultural heritage in the popular climbing site of Dyurrite/Mount Arapiles in Australia by Parks Victoria, the government agency plan to temporarily prohibit public access to 11% of the climbing areas in Dyurrite/Arapiles. In a letter to the Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Victorian Climbing Club (VCC) claim that Parks Victoria are falsely describing some sites as rediscoveries when they are known to both relevant cultural heritage bodies and climbers.

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Such a shame that all the good climbing areas in Australia are banned now. I remember having an amazing few months in Araps years ago and equally great climbing in the Grampians. I guess I will have to remove it from my list of places to go back to now.

This is such a bad piece of news for Natimuk. I believe that the town has about 450 population, over half of whom are living there because of the fabulous climbing just up the road at Mount Arapiles. It is also said to be the only rural centre in the whole of Victoria which has seen an increase in population in recent decades, whereas the vast majority of such towns have seen drastic loss of population. 

On a purely personal basis, I have been lucky enough to spend many days climbing at The Mount, and many of these outings are in my list of most memorable climbing days. I am very sad to think that I may never climb there again, but even more I mourn the loss of such experiences which may affect other (younger) climbers.

I would love to see how many people actually care about the supposed damage climbers have been doing to arapiles and are going to have their lives improved by this ban, compared with how many people are going to lose out becuase of this ban.    I bet the numbers are probably less than a 100 compared with 10s of thousands.  How many aboriginals actually visit the site over a year because of it's cultural heritage, i spent a month there 10 years ago and didnt see any, I guess banning climbing is just going to mean nobody goes to these beautiful places anymore.   If it was shown that aboriginal visits rose sharply into significant numbers due to baning climbers than i guess i could support the ban, but I highly doubt this will happen, has it happened at Taipan wall?

It is interesting that the cultural important sites are being “rediscovered “; if they are so important why have they been forgotten. Sounds more like an excuse to ban public access.  Feel sorry for those inhabitants of Natimuk who will now suffer. You can bet there would be outrage from VP if an aboriginal community were to suffer in the same way due to the European descendant community. 

This news is absolutely devastating to Nati and the wider climbing community. We have seen huge impacts from the Grampians bans and expect that these new bans will economically and socially sink our unique little community. Parks Victoria have portrayed us us cultural heritage vandals and have consistently refused to engage with any stakeholder groups. The way they have decided to manage the process is staggeringly incompetent and incredibly one sided.  We have repeatedly asked what harm have we done in the last 60 years of climbing and have had no reply let alone engagement. 

Traditional owners have insisted on the latest bans because quarry sites and stone scatter have been found near or on the crag by a park ranger. We have co existed with this cultural heritage and have done it no harm but suddenly we are a risk and are denied our connection with this amazing landscape. I'm yet to be told how me climbing near small areas of quarried rock is going to cause harm. Ironically our climbing community here is really sympathetic/pro Traditional Owner rights and would welcome working collaboratively with the local mob to protect their heritage out at the mount. We acknowledge that Australia's First Nations have been treated appallingly and there is a long way to go to start the process of truth telling and reconciliation.  Parks Victoria have obstructed this process and continue to portray us as a threat that requires us being locked out of our public spaces. Reconciliation looks to be impossible in this current political climate and despite our best efforts so far the glacier of total climbing bans advances every day. If anyone reading this overseas is concerned and would like to be able to climb here in the future please consider writing to our State Premier Daniel Andrews, Minister in charge of Parks Lily D’Ambrosio or our local Traditional Owners Barengi Gadjin Land Council. Any help would be appreciated. We are a small rural town that has started a grieving process as we are progressively denied access to the place we love and have cared for. On the other hand we will keep trying to be heard and hope that some common sense rears its head soon.

Having spent a lot of time in Natimuk and at the Mount, I find your post heart-rending. I for one am willing to write as you suggest. Could you provide addresses or email addresses?

The details for the Premier's Officer are here;

https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/contact-us

At one point in my life I worked at Aboriginal Affairs Victoria.  I was there for 'Sorry Day' in 2007, which was pretty moving.  That's by the by.

The only logical explanation I can come up with for this is that climbers are collateral damage in a political power struggle/rebalancing between the indigenous population and the migrants.   

The idea that because a site was a quarry and that 'stone scatter' should be preserved untouched seems a bit ludicrous frankly.  In my city I recently wandered past a building site to see an entire medieval street plan excavated, much as I would have loved for it to have been preserved it was documented and then concreted over.  It's 'progress'  I guess.

I also recently biked to Stonehenge which could be considered 'sacred' for me.  Couldn't get with about 100 metres of it without paying for a tour.  I guess that's 'progress' too.

Just some random thoughts.  I'm really sorry for everyone who has been affected by this, not least the indigenous people who probably would much rather that no one else had ever discovered Australia.