General News
18 November, 2025
Rock hard climbing scrambles for culturally sensitive solutions
Just over a year after Parks Victoria imposed climbing bans at Mount Arapiles (Dyurrite) on November 4, 2024, the controversy shows little sign of easing.
Stakeholders marking the anniversary are more disappointed and sceptical than hopeful, and there is still no clear timeline for a final resolution.
Within days of the announcement, the original draft management plan amendment containing the bans was effectively dead, (although not officially paused until September 2025) with the processes to create it called “exclusionary” and “open to legal challenge”, and some of the language used in it raising the ire of both the local communities (especially those of Natimuk) and climbers alike.
The latter group provided an especially expansive cohort, as the modest Wimmera granite outcrop has attracted international climbing visitors for decades, with the various rock faces considered to provide some of the best of the recreational activity of its type in the world.
Authorities appeared not to have anticipated the strength and width of the reaction, and the Victorian Government had to quickly pivot to allow a much longer community consultation than first announced – and also run the new process in a more dictionary-conforming manner.
A turbulent beginning
The past 12 months have also been tumultuous for Parks Victoria on the issue, especially having to negotiate a path that included major changes to management (attributed in part to the controversy), and releasing multiple public statements, including clarifying and walking back earlier announcements, which certainly reinforced the impression the original restrictions declaration was not well-conceived, despite having several years of formulation.
That a handful of rock art sites exist and deserve protection as part of the preservation of historic indigenous culture is apparently not in dispute by any parties.
Still, the issue extends beyond that, becoming complicated by the significance of other artefacts, division among climbers, local economic concerns, mainstream media oversimplifications and a minefield of bureaucratic processes.
Consultation failures and backlash
The original management plan amendment framework’s history goes back to 2020, according to the government’s website, with the vague descriptor from that year of ‘Additional Cultural Heritage is rediscovered at Dyurrite’ followed in a timeline by a roughly four-year process of setting up and enacting a decision framework, informed by the consultation of Barengi Gadjin Land Council and including surveys by experts such as ecologists and archaeologists.
But with the process excluding climbers, local government, tourism stakeholders and the local community – and the publicly-released version being criticised for being heavily redacted – and missing key sections, such as providing specific evidence of damage or harm caused by rock climbing – a strong negative response following the November 4 announcement was not surprising.
With the consultation period then extended to February 2025 and receiving 1094 survey responses and 581 formal submissions, a working group was first convened that month, with the BGLC joining in, just after new Parks Victoria chief executive, Lee Miezis, was appointed in late April.
Economic concerns
The strength of the local interest was evidenced by the Natimuk postcode providing the largest group of submissions (63), some locals, especially alarmed by another government department – the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions – in December delivering a sobering analysis of the draft plan of the range of negative economic impacts to the small town and its businesses.
The DJSIR report projected a potential reduction of regional spending by $700,000 annually through a 16 per cent reduction in climber trips as a minimum effect, rising up to $1.6 million with a 36 per cent reduction in the worst-case scenario.
Fast forward to today, and frustrations have been building, despite the working group meeting regularly – now consisting of the BGLC, Climbing Victoria, Arapiles District Community Group, Horsham Rural City Council, licenced tour operators, Parks Victoria and Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Climbers divided
In the wake of closures at other rock-climbing sites (such as the Grampians between 2019 and 2021) a few climbers have lost patience and expressed deep cynicism of the process – and the ABC was recently criticised for potentially inflaming the situation, publishing in an article a handful of defiant social media comments and effectively portraying them as broadly unsympathetic to “cultural site requests”.
Representative body, Climbing Victoria quickly slammed the article for multiple ‘misrepresentations’ of the climbing community, and failing to add the relevant context of efforts to resolve the situation amicably.
CV also claimed that the ABC had a pattern of portraying climbers in a negative light.
The sensitivity of CV to negative portrayals was consistent with a formal position statement they published in August, which in part reflected the work of their law firm, Gilbert and Tobin – it claimed the original process lacked procedural fairness and importantly, pointed to “inconsistencies with legal and public sector standards” such as the Parks Victoria Act 2018 (Vic), the National Parks Act 1975 (Vic) and even provisions in the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.
But the statement had also singled out the language of the original decision framework as vilification and “constitutes a form of racialised stereotyping and stigmatisation”.
The depiction of “climbing as an act of colonisation” and portrayal of “climbers as inherently disrespectful or harmful” was claimed to breach “principles of fairness, respect, and impartiality”.
CV’s statement claimed in conclusion, “The Draft Plan Amendment has alienated communities that could have been key partners in reconciliation and heritage protection”.
But it may not have been unreasonable to talk about the growing divide among climbers, complicating the situation.
Another climbers' representative group, Australian Climbing Association Victoria, has reflected the increasing scepticism of the diplomatic approach, citing the resultant outcomes of other ban discussions as failures and preferring direct lobbying and grassroots action instead.
ACAV president, Mike Tomkins, admitted the two organisations broadly reflect climbers falling into one of two categories that don’t always see eye to eye, despite hoping for a similar result.
“The goals are exactly the same and there's been significant progress in the last 12 months,” he said.
“The methods and the beliefs are very different, but the goals are exactly the same.
“There’s room for both.”
Like CV, he rejected the portrayal of climbers not caring for cultural heritage at Arapiles – or any other location.
“I'd like Parks Victoria to lift their game and protect the last remaining rock art and put celebratory signage up and documentation all over its website, saying, ‘come and see these magnificent relics of ancient culture’,” he said.
He added he had little faith in diplomacy as he saw it as “failing for seven years".
“Arapiles is just the latest situation in this saga,” Mr Tomkins said.
“The Grampians bans are three or four times larger than the proposed Arapiles ban, and they still stand.”
He said a key detail not widely known by much of the public was a heritage item type triggering most of the site locations’ bans: rock quarrying.
“There is evidence of chipped rock everywhere, and that applies all over the world, wherever the rock is hard and could be used for as a tool,” Mr Tomkins said.
“The problem that's occurred here is that has been deemed to be something that has to be protected, and so climbers have to stay away from it.”
International approaches
The subject of rock quarries and climbing has been investigated previously.
A 1992 Arapiles Archaeological Survey report to the Goolum Gollum Aboriginal Cooperative covering 38 locations expressly stated: “Quarried rock surfaces and edges are a difficult feature of Aboriginal sites to disturb, destroy or deface”.
Although the report identified the use of metal clips and bolts as potentially doing just that, it quickly added that, already, the climbing community “generally frowned upon” their use even back then.
Indeed, the ethic of ‘clean climbing’ was already about 20 years old globally with the development of the hexcentric and spring-loaded camming device.
The idea of ‘leave no trace’ had already made its way into the subculture, with a vast majority of climbers seeing that as a key part of the challenge of ascents, and in the ensuing 30 years, the tech has only improved with lighter and stronger materials along with specialised tools delivering little to no impact to the rock surfaces.
The extent of the Victorian bans does appear to be at the extreme end of cultural protection – similar historic quarry sites exist at other global climbing locations, such as in France, the USA, Canada, Thailand, the UK and Greece, and a common model of co-operative active management has been established in many.
For example, Fontainebleau in France, Joshua Tree National Park in California (USA), and Squamish, British Columbia (Canada) employ minimal and targeted closures – sometimes for wildlife protection – alongside collaborative stewardship with all key stakeholders and a strong emphasis on public education.
The Squamish situation contrasts especially sharply, having established an ongoing formal relationship between the Squamish Access Society representative climbing body and the Squamish Nation to organically discuss issues as they arise.
Furthermore, in many cases, climbers are seen and portrayed as a management asset, not as intruders per sé – for as regularly-attending ‘eyes and ears’, they partner in the preservation of sites.
But there are other international sites, such as Hueco Tanks State Park in Texas, which have large areas off-limits with over 200 historic rock art sites and strict rules governing the remaining locations, including restricting the number of entrants and guide-only tours.
Mr Tomkins admitted, “It’s a very, very sensitive topic,” but lamented the different direction Victorian authorities appeared to be taking in achieving a solution.
“I'm originally from the UK, and I've been in this part of the world for 25 years and climbed extensively at Arapiles and the Grampians, and all over Australia and all of Europe, and all over the world,” he said.
“Nowhere else in the world is this happening.”
In response to contact from The Wimmera Mail-Times, BGLC referred back to the most recent joint statement (September 11) from the working group.
At the August 19 meeting, members confirmed their shared intent to create more diverse and inclusive opportunities for people to enjoy and access the cultural landscape at Dyurrite, and support economic and social benefits for the community and broader region.
They also affirmed the goal “to protect and celebrate the area’s cultural, social and environmental values.”
Common ground sought
With the draft management plan paused, the time would be used to enable CV to work with BGLC to support further survey work of unassessed areas.
With CV advocating for better signage to inform on “appropriate climber etiquette”, the broader consensus was for signage to also provide “input on the cultural, environmental and recreational values and history”.
Finally, there was a stated objective for “Parks Victoria to better acknowledge and celebrate the volunteer efforts for environmental care and rescue services at Dyurrite”.
Nearby residents and businesses in Natimuk will be watching the outcome closely.
One of them will be a well-known local, Keith Lockwood, who has been climbing and roaming around the location since being a kid.
“We'd ride our bikes out there and pretend to be bush rangers, all that,” he said.
“I’ve been climbing there since 60 years. I've been a professional climbing guide at Arapiles and in the Grampians – and you could say curator of Arapiles Climbing Museum in Natimuk, which is under the umbrella of Arapiles Historical Society.”
Authoring a climbing guide in the 1970s and in 2007 releasing a hardcover illustrated celebration of the indigenous cultural and climbing history of Arapiles, ‘A Million Mountains’, his affinity for the rocky outcrop is clear.
“It's well loved around the world, within the climbing community and in the local community,” Keith said.
“Everyone loves the place and wants to keep it in its natural, pristine state.”