Reply To: CALM – Walpole Area Management Plan

Hi Neil and anyone else interested,

I went in a couple of weeks ago and picked up the draft management plan referred to as well as the one for the Wellington Weir area. I will have them with me at the gym crash at the Hangout on Tuesday night, (16th October) and would be happy for anyone who wishes to sit down and read through it/them. You want to be a bit of a speed reader though. I will have to take them away with me as we are having a committee meeting the following Thursday and the issues will be discussed. Briefly it seems recreational rockclimbing is ok at all of the listed places except Mt Lindsay which is deemed to have threatened flora species and where climbing is therefore not allowed. Not so much that climbing will cause any problems, but that walking to and from the start and end of routes may well infect quarantined areas with dieback. Mt Roe is in a designated wilderness area and will therefore be walk in only. No commercial operators or organised groups will be allowed to use Mt Roe for climbing or abseiling but that doesn’t mean climbing is not allowed there. It just means you will be having a wilderness experience. It seems CAWA as a not for profit group which does organise trips into the areas is not covered by the need to be licensed by the NORLS scheme as recreational climbers are not deemed to be dependent participants. In other words it isn’t expected that CAWA trip participants will be complete beginners.

The only thing I have so far seen on the Wellington Weir quarry is that group numbers be limited to less than five and that is purely because it is such a public place. It would mean a CAWA trip to the Weir quarry would have to be booked.

Feel free to post comments on any of this.

Cheers,

Toc.