Ben Fordham has hit out at the cost of stopping tourists from climbing a ‘stunningly beautiful’ mountain after it was closed out of respect for the indigenous community.
Mount Warning, 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.
From April to October last year, private security guards were hired to keep people off Mount Warning, at a cost of about $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.
Fordham called the costs “crazy” and questioned why thousands of dollars were spent on security guards to prevent tourists from climbing the mountain.
“Work has been going on for about a decade to recognize the Aboriginal place that exists within this space,” NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe told me. 2GB on Monday.
There is growing outrage over the ban on climbing to the top of ‘stunningly beautiful’ Mount Warning out of respect for the indigenous community – and the huge costs associated with enforcing the ban. Three hikers are depicted at the top of the mountain
‘We must remember that this is a World Heritage area that is loved by many and very well protected by Aboriginal people. It requires a management plan that goes with it.’
Ms Sharp is part of the NSW Labor government, which has only been in power for 10 months, and said the previous coalition government “handled it very poorly”.
She said there are “two issues that are a problem.”
“We have conflicting views on whether people should go up or not, but we also have some safety concerns,” she said.
“And we keep going in circles about what needs to be done to decide whether it will actually reopen so that it can be managed in the future.”
In the early hours of Australia Day last month, protesters campaigning against the walking ban climbed to the pinnacle to record a video, in what has become an annual tradition of resistance.
The trail to Mt Warning, now known as Wollumbin, was closed four years ago due to the Covid pandemic, but has since remained closed due to its cultural significance to Indigenous Australians.
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 group, made up of Indigenous families and community organizations, caused an uproar when they claimed that admitting women – including women of Indigenous descent – would ruin its cultural significance.
The Re-Open Mt Warning group, which has 4,700 members on Facebook, filmed their January 26 protest, which was attended by Ngarakbal elder Sturt Boyd, and posted the video on social media.
One of the group’s founders, Marc Hendrix, author of A Guide to Climbing Mt Warning, said in a speech to those gathered at the summit that the mountain should be “for all Australians”.
“We are here to capture the first sunrise on Australia Day 2024,” Mr Hendrix said.
Fordham branded the charges as ‘crazy’ and questioned why thousands of dollars were spent on security guards to stop tourists from climbing the mountain
The Wollumbin National Park trail to Mt Warning-Wollumbin has been closed since March 2020 due to Covid-19, public safety risks from recent flooding and further consultation with the Aboriginal community
The mountain is famous because it is the highest peak at the easternmost point of Australia and is therefore the first part of Australia to receive sunlight every day.
“Despite all this recent division that we have experienced,” Mr Hendrix said referring to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, “we are here together with an elder of the Ngarakbal people.”
Mr Boyd’s mother Marlene is named the custodian of Mt Warning and his sister Elizabeth has campaigned against the Wollumbin Consultative Group’s claims.
“We are here with his permission to enjoy this beautiful day together and that is what Australia Day should be about: working together to make this country a great place.” said Mr Hendrik.
“So let’s end the separation: when you look at this beautiful sunrise and the subtropical rainforest below us, the view out to the coastline, this is Australia in a nutshell.”
The Wollumbin Consultative Group says the national park has physical and spiritual importance for the community, especially for the Bundjalung nation.
A proposed new management plan for the site has sparked outrage and division among the local indigenous community.
Opposing local indigenous elders, including the Boyds, claim that the group appears to be destroying ancestral women’s stories by claiming everything in the park as exclusively male and Bundjalung.
They also claim that the Yoocum Yoocum and the Ngarakbal Githabul people were the original people, and not the Bundjalung.
Elizabeth Boyd said in 2022 that her late mother Marlene Boyd, who died in 2007, is recognized as the ‘Keeper of the Seven Sisters Creation Site’, one of two women’s lores.
There is also a memorial dedicated to her late mother on the Lyrebird Track at the foot of the park.
Elder Elizabeth Davis Boyd, the authorized representative of the Ngarakbal Githabul women, says the Wollumbin Consultative Group’s proposal has caused great damage to her ancestral culture, tradition and lore.
Marc Hendrix (left), author of A Guide to Climbing Mt Warning, and Ngarakbal elder Sturt Boyd (right) are pictured during the Australia Day 2024 protest atop Mt Warning
As for security costs, Ms Sharpe said the guards were ‘there because there were security issues… there are no guards there at the moment’.
She acknowledged that “people have been calling … wanting access to the mountain and demanding that they be given access to the mountain.”
Fordham told her there should be a general rule in NSW that says we don’t want anyone to stop anyone from accessing a beautiful mountain.
“Look, there’s a huge amount of space in that area that is accessible and has reopened,” Ms Sharpe responded.
‘We have Aboriginal sites across the state and we are legally required to have a management plan to protect the values (of these sites).
“This just took a long time and I don’t think it was explained properly.”
The minister said she will be talking to “a much wider group of people”, including local businesses and tourism operators, about the issue.
Fordham told Mrs Sharpe that “we could once respect the history of the place while still enjoying it.”
She responded that there were “concerns about the number of people up there” and that “the issue around some of the security at the top, especially after those major floods, is a real problem.
“We have to get to the bottom of that, we can’t have people being unsafe on the way up, but I don’t want to use that as an excuse not to actually tackle all the problems.”
Ms Sharpe ended by saying her ‘commitment is that I will talk to anyone who has an opinion about it and I will try to resolve this’.