CALM – Walpole Area Management Plan
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a wombat.
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Neil
of interest is the recent release *for comment* of CALM’s “Walpole Wilderness Area and Adjacent Parks and Reserves – Draft Management Plan”.
This plan covers several climbing areas including mt frankland, mt roe, mt lindsay, thompson’s cove, monkey rock and elephant rocks.
The plan is currently a draft and i urge interested parties to have a quick look specifically at how climbing has been dealt with. There are many interesting points… especially the comments about Mt Lindsay. If you don’t like something – let them know in a constructive manner.
Its definitely worth a sticky beak as the more significant management plans covering margaret river (bobs, willies, wallcliffe etc etc) are due out soon.
To find the plan goto…
http://www.naturebase.com.au/haveyoursay/
… and follow your nose to the draft plan bit.
Toc
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.
kim
is bush walking also banned in linzys parklands?
Toc
The draft says CALM will develop a walking track so that as long as people stay on it, there will be no problem.
Cheers,
Toc.
Ross
I put up these climbs so am taking some interest in this plan.
There seems to be some confusion in the interpretation of the Walpole draft document. It seems highly questionable whether it is actually proposed to ban climbing at the Mt Lindsay climbing area. The document states that “A threatened ecological community occurs on the upper slopes and summit of Mt Lindesay and rock climbing or abseiling will not be permitted at this site.” The map number 9 shows a couple of circles of 1km radius centered on the Mt Lindsay summit, with label “threatened ecological communities”. So one would deduce that this is where the planned ban would apply, which is no problem. The actual climbing area is nowhere near the upper slopes and summit summit, it is at the very extreme end of the east ridge and about 4km from the summit. But elsewhere in the same document it says “Therefore, climbing is not considered an appropriate activity within the Mt Lindesay area.” This is a very dodgy statement – what does that mean? What are the boundaries of “the Mt Lindsay area”? The whole Nat Park which is 30km across and mostly flat lands ? – surely not. So CAWA should check that there is no unjustifiable ban at the existing climbing site on the basis that: (a) the area is far from site of concern (b) the numbers are insignificant (c) this is a good safe site, well away from any other visitors, so no danger to public.
Toc
Thanks Ross,
That’s the sort of information we needed. We will be contacting CALM and putting this to them. Conrad has the draft plan at the moment and is looking at it from a botanical point of view.
Cheers,
Toc.
a wombat
… don’t forget to ask for a toilet and a carpark like the response to the cape range plan.
ross has an interesting point though. it may be worth letting this one slide though… as mt frankland and mt roe offer much more significant climbing and access to them seems relatively secure.
they also used to have endangered populations of rare cliff dwelling plants, but climbers must have successfully pulled them out so that the population is no longer there to be protected.
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