Mount Warning Closed to (Most) Australians

Mount Warning (Wollumbin) is an 1,159-metre-tall mountain formed from a volcanic plug in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales. Up until recently, it’s been consistently rated one of the best walking trails in Australia. Note, I said until recently. This score has been influenced by some harsh one-star reviews of late: “It’s closed! There is no valid reason for it! The government are destroying everything!”, “Ridiculous that it’s closed!”, “We went there to hike Mount Warning, and was told it is closed. We should all enjoy this beautiful country, as Australians”, “Closed, NSW government is turning us into Wall-E movie humans.” Here’s a picture if you’re not familiar with Wall-E.

Can you guess why hikers are forbidden from climbing Mount Warning? Well it was initially closed during the pandemic. You know, people might accidentally spread an airborne pathogen while hiking in a remote forest. According to AllTrails, “Indefinite Closure: As of July 2022 this track is closed due to safety concerns and continued consultation with the Aboriginal community about future management.” Ah yes, safety concerns. You know, you might get struck by lightning. But I think the latter half of that sentence is getting us closer to the real reason: “continued consultation with the Aboriginal community”.

According to NSW National Parks and Wildlife, Wollumbin (Mount Warning) has been “affected by closures”. Affected: influenced or touched by an external factor. It’s as if the Government have no control over these closures. It’s just some external event. “Wollumbin summit track and the Aboriginal Place remains closed. Penalties apply for non-compliance.” Ah yes, penalties. Ich bin ein mountain climber.

“The summit of Wollumbin is a sacred place to the Bundjalung People, and was declared an Aboriginal Place in 2014. Wollumbin, which means ‘cloud catcher’ to some Aboriginal People, is a traditional place of cultural law, initiation and spiritual education for the people of the Bundjalung Nation. Under Bundjalung law, only certain people can climb the summit.” And let me guess, most of you listening don’t fit the prescribed ethnicity or ancestry. Only certain Australians can climb this mountain, and you’re not one of them.

This has got so ridiculous, that private security guards have been hired to keep you away from a mountain. Apparently, it’s costing the taxpayer around $7,000 a week. Somehow hikers evaded the sparsely-spaced security guards and scaled the summit anyway to view an Australia Day sunrise. Perhaps the security guards need to be provided with night-vision goggles, bloodhounds, and Tiger attack helicopters (all taxpayer-funded, of course) to prevent these criminals from committing the most heinous of crimes, that is, Australians climbing Australian mountains.

NSW upper house MP John Ruddick said, “This is a sad and terrible joke. Mount Warning is part of a national park like any other. It is a taxpayer-funded asset of our state that should be enjoyed, appreciated, and respected by all Australians.”

In 2007, the late Marlene Boyd and elder and custodian of Mount Warning stated, “I do not oppose the public climbing of Mt Warning… How can the public experience the spiritual significance of this land if they do not climb the summit and witness creation?”

The point is, not everyone agrees with the climbing ban, whether that be Indigenous or non-Indigenous people. So why are the state dictating this? I know this is a banal argument, but what if the opposite were true? What if there was a rule that said only non-Indigenous people could go up Sydney Tower? I think we could all agree that would be awful. It would make Indigenous people feel repressed. Then why is it okay to say that only Indigenous people can climb up this mountain? Isn’t that equally repressive?

The only thing this ban has resulted in, is animosty and resentment. It hasn’t resulted in people coming together. It’s resulted in the opposite – more division. Perhaps that’s what the government want.

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn