Major development for Mount Warning hikers after climbing the popular tourist attraction was banned because of its significance to the local Indigenous community

A New South Wales MP is seeking to overturn a ban on climbing a popular mountain, saying claims it is a sacred site are the “hocus pocus” inventions of “left-wing extremists” to create racial division.

Mount Warning (known as Wollumbin by Indigenous people) near Murwillumbah in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, once welcomed more than 120,000 visitors annually, but has been off-limits since 2020, despite a row among Indigenous elders over its cultural significance.

NSW Upper House Libertarian Party MP John Ruddick has been launched a petition to reopen the mountain to the public and 10,000 signatures are needed to trigger a parliamentary debate on the issue.

Mr Ruddick claims there is a lack of evidence that the mountain has any religious significance to local indigenous people.

“I don’t think it’s the Aboriginal version of Jerusalem, Mecca or St Peter’s,” he told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

“If it was sacred, then of course we respect those sacred places and we don’t want to upset people if they sincerely believe in something spiritual.”

However, Mr Ruddick said he suspected the claims came from other sources.

“I am convinced that these claims are recent inventions of white left-wing extremists exploiting Aboriginal people and I do not believe there is any documentary evidence to support them,” Ruddick said.

‘There are left-wing academics who are exploiting some Aboriginal people by encouraging them to make hocus pocus claims that inevitably make white people grumpy and fuel the racial division that is the aim of the left.

“They don’t care about the negative impact this will have on Aboriginal people.

“This is just a tool that left-wing white academics use to make Australians feel bad about themselves.

“That’s why we have to push back now, because it started with Uluru and now there’s this and there’s going to be more and more and it’s not helping Aboriginal people, it’s making things worse.”

NSW MP John Ruddick claims there is a lack of evidence Mt Warning was an Indigenous sacred site

In March 2020, the Wollumbin Consultative Group petitioned the then Liberal state government to ban entry to Mount Warning to non-Aboriginal Australians, citing its cultural and spiritual significance specific to Bundjalung men.

Other local Aboriginal groups such as the Ngarakbal Githabul and Yoocum Yoocum challenged the Bundjalung’s cultural legitimacy over the site.

“Aboriginal people are not a monolith, there is always conflict between local Aboriginal people,” Mr Ruddick said.

“It means that the white academics have been in the ears of some and the others are saying this is BS and we’re going to publicly call it BS.

‘It happens every time and that shows how much credibility there is that it is a sacred place.

Three hikers are pictured atop Mount Warning, which has been closed since the pandemic

“Until this century, there is not a single document from the 19th and 20th centuries that states that this is a sacred mountain that you are not allowed to climb here.”

Marc Hendrickx, author of A Guide to Climbing Mt Warning, is co-sponsor of the petition to reopen Mt Warning and told Sydney radio station 2GB on Friday morning that the ban was “unbelievable”.

“We want to put pressure on (NSW Environment Minister) Penny Sharpe to inject some common sense into this and reopen this mountain now,” he told interviewer Ben Fordham.

‘This was a climb visited by families, scout groups, nature lovers. More than 100,000 people climb the mountain every year.

“It is a complete farce that they closed the mountain during this Covid period and it looks like it will never be opened again unless we raise our voices.

“This is an opportunity to say no to the divisions in our national parks.”

A spokesperson for Ms Sharpe said the minister has ‘met and will continue to meet with a range of stakeholders to resolve the issues with Wollumbin’.

Mr Hendrickx is one of the founders of the Re-Open Mt Warning group, which has 4,700 members on Facebook.

It was previously revealed that private security guards were hired to keep people off Mount Warning from April to October last year, at a cost of around $7,000 a week.

In total, almost $200,000 was spent securing the mountain and security is still called in on occasions such as New Year’s Eve and Australia Day.

In the early hours of Australia Day last month, protesters led by Mr Hendrickx and Ngarakbal elder Sturt Boyd climbed to Mt Warning peak to record a video, in what has become an annual tradition of resistance.

In 2022, the NSW Department of National Parks recommended that management of the Tweed Coast area be transferred entirely to the small Wollumbin Consultative Group, which supports a ban on visitors to the popular walking spot.

The Wollumbin Consultative Group says the national park has physical and spiritual importance for the community, especially for the Bundjalung nation.

“Wollumbin is of paramount importance to Aboriginal lands, particularly the Bundjalung Nation of northern NSW, as a sacred ceremonial and cultural complex associated with traditional laws and customs,” the group told the local publication The Echo.

‘Wollumbin is connected to a wider cultural and spiritual landscape that includes creation stories, dream stories and initiation rituals of ancient people.

‘Bundjalung beliefs illustrate the spiritual values ​​embodied and evoked in Wollumbin and its connections to a wider cultural landscape.

“These connections are important to the spiritual identity of the Bundjalung nation and many other nations and families associated with Wollumbin, mainly men and also women.”

Attempts to contact the Wollumbin Consultative Group to refer Mr Ruddick’s claims to them have been unsuccessful.