Note: This is a collaborative post, and not just the work of one Author
VCC Cliffcare has finally received an “official” email statement from Simon Talbot, COO of Parks Victoria. The full statement is at the bottom of this page. This statement largely mirrors several anonymous Parks Victoria emails send to organisations and recreational climbers in the last week. We will break it down paragraph by paragraph… ALL Emphasis (bold text) has been added.
A climbing community petition launched at midday on Sunday is well on track to break 10,000 digital signatures by the end of the day today (18 March 2019). Created by the Grampians Access Working Group to generate support, it has succeeded in broadcasting these Grampians access issues to a truly global audience. Any climber on Facebook would think there is simply nothing else newsworthy in the world as our feeds show share after share of the same link. This is a powerful message of support to overturn the draconian SPA region bans put in place through much of the Grampians. If you haven’t signed and shared please do so now.
Following up on the Labour Day Long Weekend, we have received an email from Parks Victoria answering several questions that many climbers have been asking. We hope this email puts to rest many of the wilder conspiracy theories thrown about in the last week. It is important reading.
We finally have physical confirmation of “no climbing” signs having been installed in the Grampians. A group of visiting North Queensland climbers went to The Tower crag in the Victoria Range today and were confronted with a large sign at the carpark.
As the Labour Day long weekend wraps up there has been reports of several climbers being approached by Parks Victoria rangers, and what appeared to be the more serious Enforcement Officers (wearing military style vests)
Yesterday afternoon Parks Victoria (PV) released maps (see at bottom) showing the full extent of new Special Protection Areas (SPAs) in the Grampians National Park/Gariwerd