Popular rocking climbing spot closed to visitorsClimbers claimed they weren’t warned about change
A local council has come under fire after closing a popular rock climbing location to protect Aboriginal heritage, with visitors claiming they weren’t given a warning.
Local climbers said they were not consulted by Wingecarribee Shire Council before it banned climbing within Mt Alexandra crag, south of Sydney.
An image shared by the Australian Climbing Association NSW (ACA NSW) on Thursday shows a sign warning visitors to avoid climbing at the park’s roughly 130 routes.
‘Rock climbing, abseiling and bouldering prohibited beyond this point,’ the sign reads.
The council said on its website that areas of the reserve were still open for rock climbing, though others had been closed due to ‘irreversible damage’ to Aboriginal heritage.
While the council did not identify which sites it hoped to preserve, ACA NSW believes the ban relates to Aboriginal art discovered in a cave in 2009.
The organisation said climbers only became aware of the art in June and had reached out to local Aboriginal representatives to protect it from damage.
‘We feel climbers have behaved with integrity, responsibly and rapidly,’ it said in a statement.
Wingecarribee Shire Council installed a sign banning climbing within the reserve (pictured)
A local council banned climbing at Mt Alexandra crag to protect Aboriginal heritage
‘A community is a place where people come together and work collaboratively for the common good,’ it added.
‘Instead, WSC seems determined to scapegoat climbers for 16 years of Council inaction on this matter.’
The organisation is now calling on the community to register their opposition to the ban with the council and local representatives.
It has written to the council to request the closure be overturned and to arrange a meeting within two weeks to develop a mutual management plan.
‘We believe that the implications of the WSC response to protect heritage by enacting widespread and unwarranted closures undermine societal cohesion,’ it said.
‘If land managers suggest the only way to protect heritage is widespread closures, the future looks bleak.
‘A shared future, not a shut future, is something to which we aspire.’
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Aussies suddenly banned from Mt Alexandra to protect ‘Aboriginal heritage’