freediver
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'Heartbreaking': Tourist industry furious as Mount Warning remains closed due to Indigenous heritage concerns, 'costing industry $50 million'
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/heartbreaking-tourist-industry-furious-as-mount-warning-remains-closed-due-to-indigenous-heritage-concerns-costing-industry-50-million/news-story/7ca38b885260546c4dde85e816c36220
Calls are growing for a famous walking track that once welcomed 100,000 visitors per year to be reopened, after the site was closed during the pandemic and never reopened due to the area's cultural significance to Aboriginal Australians.
Business owners who say they have lost $50 million due to the ongoing closure of a popular hiking trail have blasted authorities for continuing to block access to the track over Indigenous heritage concerns.
The World-Heritage-listed Wollumbin National Park, also known as Mount Warning, normally attracts 100,000 climbers per year, but has become a no-man’s land after it was shut off from the public.
Access to the summit track was initially closed to public in March 2020 due to COVID guidelines and has since been extended by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
The extension is due to safety concerns and the mountain’s cultural significance to Aboriginal people, particularly the Bundjalung nation.
In 2022, the management of the landmark site was handed to the Wollumbin Consultive Group (WCG), which was established by the NPWS.
The group is made up of various Aboriginal groups and families with connections to Wollumbin and proposes banning all public access to the track.
Ngarakbal Elder Sturt Boyd, a custodian of the land, has challenged the claims of the WCG, labelling them false and saying he wants the track open to all Australians.
“It’s a disgrace, I’ll say it straight. That’s racism… that is racism and here’s why they put that piece up, Bundjalung put it up there,” Elder Boyd said.
Mr Boyd is the son of Ngarakwaal elder Marlene Boyd, daughter of the last Gulgan or keeper of Mount Warning, who long advocated for public access to experience its spiritual significance before she died in 2007.
Despite long ties to the mountain, elder Sturt Boyd says he’s still waiting to become a member of the WCG.
“We want to see who’s in the WCG meeting, we want all members to come and see us and it’s never happened. It’s been nearly 14 or 15 months we are waiting to get answers. I want to get onto that WCG” Elder Boyd said.
The WCG has been the primary avenue for consultation for more than two decades.
Additionally, NPWS established the Wollumbin Stakeholder Advisory Committee (WSAC) in 2022 to include other key stakeholders, such as local government and the tourism industry.
Geologist and ‘A guide to climbing Mount Warning’ Author Marc Hendrickx has scrutinised the summit climb ban and the NPWS over its lack of transparency.
“These claims were knocked down at the time by local Aboriginal elders who had called them a modern-day invention. But somehow this modern- day invention became entrenched in national parks policy and promoted for the last 20 years,” Hendrickx said.
“It's a great shame that National Parks haven’t accepted the Ngarakbal people from any discussions about management in the park for the last 20 years. And that's a grave mistake by National Parks, it really is the core of this issue”.
Local businesses, particularly those reliant on tourism, have felt the full force of the Summit track closure.
Brett Watson, owner of Mount Warning Hotel Uki, witnessed neighbouring businesses suffer as tourism numbers dwindle.
“To watch that sort of stuff happen is really heartbreaking. A lot of people have put their heart and soul into their businesses. And then at the stroke of a political pen, we close them out and it sees these businesses close. It’s not fair,” Mr Watson said.
“The estimate is there was 100,000 people here and that equates to $50 million being lost to our local economy. So, in anyone’s terms, that’s a lot of money for small businesses in this area”.
NSW Libertarian John Ruddick led a petition to reopen the track which garnered over 10,000 signatures to trigger a debate in the Upper House of state parliament on May 9.
“We were disappointed with the day because there was no deadline and there was just talk of more consultation. I think there's been too much consultation,” Mr Ruddick said.
“There are elements in this Labor government and obviously in the previous Liberal government, that they are just so frightened of, being publicly called out for being you know, not sensitive towards these types of claims.”
A spokesperson from Department Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water says, “access to the Wollumbin track has been a complex issue for more than a decade. The NSW Government has a strong focus on how consultation can be improved, and how the summit track will be managed into the future”.
New South Wales Environment Minister Penny Sharpe has not outlined a timeframe on the future of Mount Warning.
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