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I was scribbling some history notes for one of Melbourne’s local bouldering areas recently. That got me started thinking about the history and progression of bouldering in Australia and it’s lack of documentation.
For Victorian bouldering history, other than a few more detailed snippets about Arapiles, and a little about the development of Stapylton bouldering my knowledge is limited. For other States I know even less!
There appears to be a lack of documented history for a facet of climbing which I personally get alot of pleasure.
Stone Crusade by John Sherman is a great example of a book about the history of bouldering (USA) with photographs, stories and anecdotes filling it’s many pages.
Many will think that bouldering is a new game, and won’t be aware of the long and proud history of bouldering in this country.
So if people would like to add historic information for bouldering Australia wide (not just WA) I would be very interested to know about it.
Pictures, stories, contacts and anecdotes all welcome.
Thanks Martin
WA bouldering should be fairly easy to track in comparison. 🙂 Apart from routes that have been setup but undocumented in the last squillion years, things have only really developed since this branch of the forum started. The first major development and genuine milestone would have to be Ben’s Boulder Rock guide, I reckon. That gave everyone a template to work from, and Ben was the first guy to have the balls to actually develop and area and set V routes, for which I’ll always be greatful to the guy. 🙂
Lets not forget Chris Jones and mates with their brillant efforts about the place. Love the little white arrows pointing out the routes!
Wicked
Chris Jones and Co were probably the first group to seriuosly do any bouldering in its own right back in the mid 90’s. Other then that i believed… particularly in WA that it was considered more as a lesser branch of the sport.. or for a warm up or mucking around while awaiting your next lead.
Several other added to the scene.. such as Derek Toulan and Nic Lucic..(putting a few routes up on small boulders in quarries)… but there wasnt really much about.. bouldering wise.. and Ben (although i dont think he actually did the first grading of boulder rock) was the first to actually put a guide together for distribution.
Probably more to it then that, that others could describe better…but that was my take on the situation
Sounds about right to me… 🙂
There was also a character called Bjorn Aikman whose few routes gave gone down in Perth history as solo climbs, but could be called extreme boulder problems. To mind come “Don’t Pay the Ferryman” (22X)and “Liar’s Dice” (23X). I doubt either were repeated. Both are some 7m high, have cruxes at the top and horrible landings.
Bjorn is still around but more sensible these days.
However Chris Jones is the one I would also pick as the local John Gill. Bouldering was slow to start in WA, perhaps as granite bouldering is pretty grizzly business. Bouldering was never sneered on in WA, it was just not often done as a puruit in its own right until the first gyms opened up in ’95.
Over the past 2-3 years I would say there has been a huge increase not only in popularity but bouldering spots / problems.
Infact I would hazard a guess that the development of bouldering has been the most during this period not only around Perth but all of WA. I would guess that the popularity that has been seen in the eastern states has spread into the mainstream community in WA all be it a few years behind. But this seems to be the case with most evolutions of sports…
New developments / problems (and excuse any inaccuracies)
– Problems around the quarries (Minidala) comes to mind
– Boulder rock continually development with harder lines being sent and repeated. Varrious contributers to problems at all grades but mention must be made of Ben’s guide which was the states first “Bouldering guide”
– Kalamundra (although well know and developed by Jones mid 90’s) I would say that there has been an influx in the problems that around this area. I know the team of Ben / Steve / Andy has in the past been busy in this area.
– Developments in the forest and foothills around Mt Randal within the last year to 18 months
– Problems at Merchant Rock have seen an increase in attention
– Whale rock, but again there has been earlier development than the past 2-3 years
– Down south Albany region has seen some attention
– Dreaded boulders – Jay and Kim have been hard at work with the help of a few others
– And the new areas of Millars and Mt Cooke. With probably the greatest concentration of problems around Perth
As one can see Bouldering is alive and well around Perth. I would say much more than trad and sport climbing. Why?
Because bouldering is the new in thing
The rock around perth does not lead to 3 star classic trad and sport routes and
There are thousands of “bindies” scattered through the Perth hills that scream to be climbed and become instant classic boulder problems, if only in the mind of the first to climb them. But then, who else really cares if you climb some obscure “bindy” out the back of Mt Cooke?
– Boulder / Climb on…
There’s a pretty good chronicle of WA bouldering sites on CDL’s website – http://delacy.smugmug.com/Climbing – Check it out and get psyched!
