Mount Warning is widely regarded as the most ecologically beautiful National Park in NSW. Most of the nearby towns (like Murwillumbah, Kynnumboon, Condong) are Aboriginal names, but Mt Warning was christened by Lieutenant James Cook in 1770. Cook chose the name Mt Warning as a caution to future ships that a dangerous reef was nearby. Mt Warning’s distinctive features did make it stand out, but Cook wasn’t to know it is the highest point on the coastline of eastern Australia. On New Year’s Eve 1999, many climbed Mt Warning to see the first sunrise over Australia at the dawn of a millennium.

Access to Mt Warning today is under political threat. It is a repeat of the playbook that forced the closure of climbing Uluru. Both closures have no grounding in history. It must be resisted now or else several other attempts to close National Parks on spurious grounds will gain momentum.

In early February this year we launched a petition to the NSW Legislative Council to reopen the summit of Mt Warning to the public.

The petition reads:

‘To the President and Members of the Legislative Council, the petitioners of New South Wales state that Mt Warning, which has been walked by visitors young and old for generations, has been closed to all but select indigenous males by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), in violation of liberal democratic principles. The petitioners request that the House call upon the Minister for the Environment to reopen Mt Warning’s summit track so it can be enjoyed by all, regardless of race or gender.’

Mount Warning National Park (Wollumbin National Park) is stunning. Since the construction of a 4.4 km trail to the summit in 1909 by volunteers over 3.5 million visitors have experienced the awe and wonder of its summit views. The track includes engineered drystone walls and steps worthy of heritage listing, but these structures built by Europeans have been disregarded and neglected by NPWS. Prior to the closure in March 2020, over 100,000 people visited the summit each year. There has not been any adverse environmental impacts from visitation, and minor safety concerns have been exaggerated. The track, while requiring some maintenance, is as safe as other similarly rated bushwalking trails in Australia.

The Mt Warning summit walk is a unique family bushwalking experience, a place for school excursions and visits by scouts, guides, nature lovers, and scientists. Experiencing the first sunrise in Australia at the summit is a world-class attraction. In tourism surveys the summit walk has been classed as a ‘must do’ experience and has been ranked ahead of the Sydney New Year fireworks.

For 20 years NPWS has worked with a small group of people claiming Indigenous heritage and who live remote from the mountain. They want to ban public access to the entire park. The reasons behind this ‘Secret Men’s Business’ are hidden behind a veil of secrecy by NPWS, and there is a complete lack of transparency and accountability in their decision-making and expenditure of public money. Consultations and correspondence between NPWS and Aboriginal Groups are exempt from the state’s FOI legislation so no one gets to see what lies behind the madness.

When these claims first emerged in 1999 on the eve of the millennium walk local Aboriginal Elders called them a ‘modern-day invention’ and suggested those promulgating the ‘no climb’ message should stick to their own turf. Despite this, somehow the ‘no climb’ policy gained a foothold in NPWS’ growing Woke bureaucracy and in 2006 a sign was placed at the foot of the mountain requesting visitors don’t climb. The numbers climbing (>100,000 per annum) indicate this message was largely ignored.

In March 2020 under the cover of Covid the park was ‘temporarily’ closed and subject to rolling six monthly extensions on the closure. When other parks were reopened as Covid paranoia waned, Mt Warning remained closed. In October 2022 an Aboriginal Place Management Plan for the park was approved by a Liberal Minister for the Environment, who lacked the backbone to challenge erroneous reports by gullible public servants. This bizarre plan banned public access to the park and summit to all but a few elderly Aboriginal males. It excluded all women from the summit and called for Aboriginal control of surrounding ridges and distant view points, and claimed ownership of the image of Mt Warning.

Other Aboriginal groups, including those with the closest connection to the mountain, have long been excluded from consultation and shamefully ignored by NPWS. One of these, Ngarakwal Elder, the late Marlene Boyd, stated in 2007 there was no issue with public access to the summit stating: ‘How can the public experience the spiritual significance of this land if they do not climb the summit and witness creation?’ Shaun Davies, representative of the Muranburra clan of the Yugambeh people, has said he couldn’t understand how such important decisions could have been made without essential historical information from the actual families involved.

Other stakeholders, local residents, the wider NSW and SE QLD community, bushwalkers, local businesses and tourism operators have not been consulted about the closure and this has had a profound detrimental impact on their lives.

The Hon Penny Sharpe MLC, the Labor Environment Minister has recently shown more interest in the matter than her Coalition predecessors, meeting with a broad range of interested parties in February (including reopen advocates), but there is still no sign the summit will reopen and no timeline for progress has been announced exacerbating community anger and frustration.

The actions of NPWS have caused great harm to the local community, causing acute mental anguish to many who regularly trekked to the summit. It has also seriously damaged the local tourism industry and the wider economy with some local businesses forced to close. Losses of up to $50 million have been estimated for the ban that marked its four-year anniversary on March 30, 2024. The ban has damaged Australia’s reputation as a tourism destination. It goes against the principles that underline the reasons National Parks were created.

Our public parks belong to all of us, not a select few based on their race and religious beliefs.

As of Friday 5 April, the petition still required another 2,000 signatures to meet the 10,000 target to trigger an opportunity to debate the ban in the NSW Parliament.

We need your support, to ensure this is the last time an Australian government closes a public park to the public on racist grounds. You can sign via the following link or scan the QR code.

The Hon John Ruddick MLC and Marc Hendrickx the author of A Guide to Climbing Mount Warning

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