We have put together a pdf guide to the area that lists around 20 lines. However it does not contain Brett’s lines above.

If you would like a copy then leave an email address and I will send it through.

Hey Matt. I have the Trio guide for you to look over but your email bounced. do you have a new address? can you email me it? emilatwmi.net.au

poetic discriptions… but.

we’ve been specifically asked NOT to climb Mt Chudalup by the Noongars in that area and throughout the SW. It’s sacred ground to them, women’s burial places etc.

Please, think about the impact your actions have on the WHOLE climbing community before you climb there. We’re already struggling enough to get CALM to take us seriously and realise climbers are not cowboys/grrls without this kind of stuff.

i wonder what the dirty drunken druids have to say about all this….

The response to the establishing of these routes is quite interesting and raises many more issues than just those of climbers accessing one particular site.

As one involved, I would like state my case and views on the issue of Mt Chudalup. At the outset, the establishment of these routes was done with greatest consideration to the environment, a large amount of thought and with no intention of offending indigenous parties.

Mt Chudalup, while in a largely intact natural area, has a sealed road close by, a large new carpark and associated infrastructure and a conspicous fire observation tower located on the northern portion of the mount. Furthermore, a well made trail encourages people to climb to the top and has done so for many years. Then, what is it about climbers that is so different? Really, it is just a slightly more exciting variation of approaching the top. I understand the fixed protection may be the issue, I also realise that the recently constructed carpark, existing firetower and sealed road are just ununusual natural features to be appreciated and in no way alter the spirit of the site!!

I have seen many postive and negative sides to aboriginal land ownership and sacred sites throughout the country. While indigenous people have a longer and arguably deeper spiritual connection with the land, it is wrong to assume that anybody actually ever ‘owns’ the land or that aboriginal people were a benign hunter gatherer race that had little impact on the Australian continent.

Land management is and will always be a complex and contentious issue, in the South West further exacerbated by fragmented ecosytems, a ravenous natural resources industry, high population growth and unique natural systems characterised by high endemism and fragile ecological interactions. No government or private agency will ever be perfect or sate all demands however, as many will know, the reality of bureaucratic bungling, high powered hypothesizing and political posturing will rarely equate with or be beneficial to what happens on the ground.

Values and opinions change, peoples hurts eventually heel, however if I have offended or damaged the natural spirit of the place, then for that I express remorse.

To put things in context however, I believe that a handful of steel bolts and the soft pad of the occasional slab climber fade into obscurity when contrasted with the heady days of the eighties and nineties when CALM then masqueraded broadacre clearfelling, woodchipping and monoculture establishment as ‘forest management’ and ‘science’!

Stand on the summit of Mt Chudalup and look roughly east over the lower Gardner catchment. The keen eye will note a jagged, un-natural forest skyline and areas of conspicous even canopy where straight rowed 10-30 year old ‘plantations’ now grow where recently some of our most magnificent old growth karri forest once stood. Walk 100m off Cheasapeake Rd in this area and you will find a forest block known as Gardner 8. Here, in 1998, trees on a par with the gigantic E. regnans of Tasmania’s rapidly declining old growth, were felled and left to rot in a spiteful case of government sanctioned environmental vandalism. Trees so big, that the fallen giants still lay partly embedded in the mud where machinery could not move them after clearfelling. Stumps over 17m around and hollow bases so large a small tribe could comfortably shelter. Maybe the phrases ‘cultural and natural values’ are recent additions to the terminology of Western Australian government offices!!

stuff-ups in the past are no excuse for stuff-ups now.

a better question is do the routes add anything of significance to WA climbing to be “worth” the hassle and potential negative impact on the sport as a whole.

i would suggest not.

and; despite the request from CALM to remove the route descriptions i think it should be left up.

Interesting comment by Matt and it looks like history could be repeating itself. Does anyone rememebr the Wallcliffe access campaign 10 years ago? I do as I coordinated it. The local bush tour operator had a falling out with some climbers and decided that climbers do not fit into the scheme of things. She convinced the MR council to pass a motion to ban climbing. When we attended a site meeting, all sorts of reasons were given for banning: among them vegetation desctruction, graffitti, and the good old “aboriginal sacred site”. We investigated and there hey presto, there was no sacred site, in fact no management plan whatsoever, other than banning climbing, 99% of the trampling were done by tourists, including the tour company and no one seriously links grafitti and climbers (why is it all ground level then?) So we got a hearing and the local council law was thrown out by the Parliamentary Committee which oversees such things and the bush tour operator lost. Climbing continues.

If Matt is right and this is not listed on the internet as a “restricted access” aboriginal site (easy to check), then this reason is bunk. Same as it was for Llama Rock when some of the old trad climbers tried that one on, after they discovered some new bolts there (I never bolted there but investigated this when I did the 2002 Perth guidebook, for obvious reasons.)

So please, everybody, do not take sacret site claims at face value, politics is a dirty thing.

The guiding document should be the applicable managamement plan (also on Web), and if there is an access problem, it is CAWA duty to seek that it is investigated. Why do not Matt or Brett join CAWA and then they can officially investigate the issue on its behalf? This is what CAWA is for – promoting climbing, and thus by extension helping people to promote climbing, see constitution. In my experience the best people to look after cliff access are the ones who use it.

Also, this web site would be well served by having a clear and visible list of any known access restrictions. Although ignorance is no excuse, it is often a reality.

And why I am at it, please use bolts without hangers in sensitive areas. When I bolted Avon Valley the ranger there was a bit worried about big bolts. When I showed him the size of the head on a hex bolt he just laughed.

It is hard to criticise bolts when they are one square centimeter; and there are roads, toilets and paths nearby. At any site visit it quickly makes the critics feel a bit silly.

Amen.

Goodonya, Tocker! Yeah, we have to keep a lookout for these management plans as other special interests always try to sneak their stuff in (= barring OTHER people’s access), so we need input. Also, we need to keep in mind that most people think “climbing” is about bushbashing to the top….

Long live lover-offs, I would support these anywhere, any time. There’s enough ringbarked trees and erosion gullies. Money tight? => don’t bolt!

And on a different note, in case of XS spare time check out omanclimbing.com.

R

Hi George,

and everybody else,

The AGM is set for the 15th of February at Rosie O’Grady’s in their upstairs area. Memberships can be taken on the night as can be nominations for the committee. Even if you can’t be on committee, I would suggest that the whole climbing community start finding out how to get input into these processes, because they are not going to go away. To those who want to say we (the management committee) should already know, I absolutely agree but DEC have no information booklet that says “This is what we are going to do you but here’s is how to stop us” and we all including everyone reading this have jobs or/and studies while DEC staff are paid full-time to make up all these regulations. Its what they do, while we just want to go climbing.

The alternative to learning how to deal with it is losing our rights.

Cheers,

Toc.