Licensed Tour Operators (LTOs) running climbing and abseiling activities in Gariwerd at Summerday Valley and at Lookout Point Wall have been offered new license conditions by Parks Victoria for the financial year starting July 1^st 2020:

• Each LTO must apply for a cultural heritage permit (previously held by Parks Victoria)
• LTOs become legally responsible for any ‘harm’ – fines of up to $1.65 million
• The definitions of harm present significant real-world risks for the LTOs
• If LTOs sign up to this by 19^th May, Parks Victoria will cover the cost of permit applications (otherwise $600 per LTO)
• The new Grampians Landscape Management Plan, due in December, may override these permit conditions during the permit period
• Only 7 of the 29 LTOs attended the dial-in briefing
• This is a test case, anticipated to be rolled out for all activities, across Victoria

This new scheme presents a new level of risk for Licensed Tour Operators and their insurers. No alternatives have been offered.

Links to documents issued by Parks Victoria to LTOs on 6^th May 2020:

LTO update 06052020

Draft Code of Conduct

Meeting questions

The ACAV is proud to publish this highly significant document, mapping out a way forward for rock climbing and bouldering management for the state of Victoria, Australia.

20200430 Victorian Climbing Management Guidelines V03-3.pdf

This initiative was commenced by the ACAV in July 2019. The version 3 document has been put together by a group of climbers from across the different climbing groups. We would like to acknowledge the excellent work done by Matthew Brooks as the content manager and driving force behind this publication. We would also like to thank the Victorian Climbing Club for their support and input towards the publication of this major piece of work.

Additional climbing community consultation is now invited, to allow these Guidelines to be further developed across future revisions.

These Guidelines provide a road map for the management of recreational rock climbing and bouldering in Victoria, Australia. It is our intent to build upon the value of positive cooperation with land managers and with the traditional custodians of the land, seeking collaborative outcomes for the future.

You are invited to provide feedback on our Facebook group: ACAV Access Discussion

ACAV was launched one year ago today. How are we going and where to from here?

• The Grampians Special Protection Area climbing ban is still in place, AKA: World’s Largest Climbing Ban
• Parks Victoria is forging ahead with a new Grampians Landscape Management Plan, due for completion by the end of 2020
• Parks Victoria continues to carry out extensive environmental and cultural surveys across the Grampians, focused primarily on rock climbing impacts 
• Consultation with the climbing community has been somewhat limited to date
• The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs is seeking an Interim Protection Declaration to strengthen protection measures for cultural heritage at Taylors Rock, Arapiles
• The Victorian Climbing Club has “taken steps to be ready to file legal proceedings at a moment’s notice” on behalf of the climbing community, supported by ACAV and VCC funds.

It has become clear that climbers have been drawn into a complex political situation. It is no exaggeration to say that access to all public land across Australia is under serious question and climbers in Victoria are at the forefront of this new paradigm.

At ACAV we have become increasingly concerned about the overreach displayed by Parks Victoria in seeking to “prove” that climbers are the problem rather than taking active steps to genuinely protect cultural heritage as a land manager should. The blanket bans, the expensive surveys and now the prospect of huge fines at Arapiles all point to a bureaucracy that is working against the people rather than for the people.

Some ACAV members may feel reluctance to consider legal action against the land manager Parks Victoria, seeking a more collaborative approach. Others fear that a legal challenge against Parks Victoria will be viewed unfavourably by the Registered Aboriginal Parties. It is the view of the ACAV committee that it is entirely appropriate to hold a Government agency (PV) to account under the law. Indeed, without such action, all user groups are likely to lose a significant degree of access in the present climate, particularly where there is no monetary benefit in allowing people to access the land.

Holding Parks Victoria to account is also highly beneficial in the cause to protect cultural heritage and the environment. PV chose a “quick and dirty” approach to get rid of climbers and claim: job done, heritage protected. Strong resistance from the climbing community can force PV to do this job properly, focusing on all user groups and working site-by-site on genuine protection initiatives. 

The ACAV is collaborating with the Victorian Climbing Club to pursue legal avenues against Parks Victoria to work towards respectfully managed climbing access in Gariwerd/The Grampians.

ACAV members’ funds raised in 2019 were utilised as follows:

1. During 2019, ACAV appointed lawyers, developed a legal case and paid legal fees to the law firm, along with associated costs for Junior and Senior Queen’s Counsel advice.

2. ACAV made a significant donation to a VCC legal fund in February 2020 on the understanding that the VCC would utilise this money to initiate appropriate legal action against Parks Victoria over the 2019 Grampians bans. 

Note that the donation to the VCC legal fund followed advice that, as a new entity, the ACAV may not have legal standing (could not be plaintiff) in this case, whereas the VCC would have standing. It is expected that in due course the ACAV will have standing to run legal action independently.

It is the ardent desire of the ACAV committee that our members’ funds be used without delay and we encourage the VCC to take appropriate legal action on behalf of the climbing community at the earliest opportunity.

In addition to the proposed legal action over the 2019 bans, there are several additional legal and political avenues the ACAV is keen to explore, to further the cause of respectful climbing access in 2020. As such, the need for funding has never been greater. 

DONATE: You can donate to the ACAV access fund here https://acav.climb.org.au/donate/

JOIN: If you are not yet a member, please join for $15 here: https://acav.climb.org.au/join/

RENEW: If you are an existing member, please renew your membership and continue to support climbing access in Victoria. Please remember to tick the box to receive email updates. Contact acav@climb.org.au if you require assistance.

For further information please visit the ACAV Facebook Page or The ACAV Website.

ACAV has made a written submission to the Minister regarding the proposed interim protection declaration for Dyurrite 1, located in the vicinity of Declaration Crag / Taylors Rock at Mount Arapiles / Djurite. This submission was made in response to a proposal from the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet:

ACAV submission to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs

For further information and updates please visit the ACAV Facebook Page or The ACAV Website.

ACAV represents the interests of 1670 members in seeking respectful and cooperative access to rock climbing locations in Victoria, Australia.

– report by Mike Tomkins

On 23rd March the rock climbing round table participants received meeting notes and a presentation from Parks Victoria, following the fourth round table meeting held on 5th March.

These are the meeting notes prepared by Mark Dingle of Deloitte Australia and approved by Parks Victoria. We note that, unlike formal minutes of meetings, the round table participants have no input into these notes and there is no group approval process.

This is the Gariwerd Assessment Update presentation made by Maria Pizzi, Parks Victoria Director, Managing Country Together. This presentation describes four Projects that are in progress by Parks Victoria in their ongoing efforts to quantify the impact of rock climbing in the Grampians.

• Project 1 – Assessment of climbing areas in the Grampians NP (125 climbing sites)
• Project 2 – Aboriginal rock art site impact assessments in Grampians NP SPAs (72 rock art sites within 28 new Special Protection Areas created in 2019)
• Project 3 – Conservation works at 8 focus areas in the NVR SPA (6 climbing locations and 2 caged art sites)
• Project 4 – Environmental impacts assessment at rock climbing sites (8 climbing sites)

A fifth project was also outlined – a LIDAR survey of the Grampians is proposed at an estimated cost of $400,000. Parks Victoria wishes to “identify priority areas for future cultural surveys.” Light Detection and Ranging imagery is achieved through aerial photography and Parks Victoria has sought this funding to achieve survey resolution down to 2 cm.

This comprehensive report covers Round Table 4 – Part 2 including: Headlines – Information regarding Parks Victoria’s “Current Management Protection Regime” – Cultural Heritage Survey Progress – Environmental Survey Progress – Survey Scope and Cost

This is followed by a section on Legal Updates including a Legal Action Timeline reporting on significant events that have occurred since July 2019.

Parks Victoria issued this official Round Table 4 Communique on 11th March 2020. Further meeting notes are expected soon, including copies of the environmental and cultural presentations made at the meeting.

The Parks Victoria Rock Climbing Round Table 4 meeting on 5th March 2020 was once again attended by big guns: Parks Victoria Chairman, CEO, 3 Directors and a Deloitte facilitator. Plus a cohort of climbing/outdoor administrators – see Part 1 of this report for the list of attendees.

Headlines

• The February 2019 legal determination regarding climbing restrictions in the Grampians will remain in place, pending new conditions to be incorporated in the Grampians Landscape Management Plan (GLMP)
• “The current management protection regime is unchanged”
• The draft GLMP is due for issue to the Environment Minister in July
• There will be an 8 week period of public consultation over the draft GLMP
• The final GLMP is due to be issued in December 2020
• Special Protection Area (SPA) details will be updated in the 2020 GLMP
• Parks Victoria remains engaged in extensive Grampians surveys, focused on measuring rock climbing impacts

Current Management Protection Regime

8 focus sites – enforcement and fines apply for anyone found to be climbing at: The Gallery, Millennium Caves, Billywing Buttress, Billimina Area, Cave of Man Hands, Little Hands Cave, Manja Area, Gondwanaland. Signage is in place at the trail heads on the approaches to these 8 sites.

Special Protection Areas comprising 100 further climbing locations – climbing “restrictions” apply in accordance with Parks Victoria website advice. The wording on this web page is ambiguous. Fines do not apply for climbing in SPAs.

Refer to this page at Save Grampians Climbing for a list of crags affected by the above restrictions.

Signage

The photo above shows one of the 8 signs that Parks Victoria installed 12 months ago. The white SPA sign at the top cites National Parks Regulation 65 across Special Protection Areas. The grey sign at the bottom refers to prohibition at the 8 focus sites. These 8 signs are the only physical indicators of any work done over the last 12 months to protect cultural heritage. This sign is at the locked gate at the head of the Yanganaginj Njawi Track “camp of the emu foot track” several kilometres from the Gondwanaland focus site.

The photo above shows the grey focus site sign, showing that climbing is “prohibited” at the 8 focus sites.

Cultural Heritage Survey Progress, RT4

1. Project 1 – Cultural Heritage Surveys. These surveys have been completed at 125 Grampians climbing sites – list of 125 climbing sites surveyed
2. This represents 40% of the climbing sites in the Grampians, comprising 4,300 routes
3. Further data on specific findings will be issued to the climbing community shortly
4. Observed impacts – not all attributed to climbing: litter, chalk, bolts, rock breakage exfoliation, vegetation clearance, illegal tracks
5. Tangible cultural heritage was found at 27 of the 125 sites surveyed
6. Assessments have not yet been carried out for intangible cultural heritage at these sites. Representatives from each of 3 Registered Aboriginal Parties have attended each cultural survey to date and will attend each review of intangible heritage.
7. 100 further climbing sites will be surveyed in the coming months
8. Parks Victoria also carried out Project 2 – Impact Assessments at Rock Art Places to investigate climbing impacts at 29 new SPAs that were created in 2019. Evidence of chalking, bolting or rock breakage was present at 5 of the 29 sites. The 5 sites of concern are all in the northern Grampians. Photographs will be published as part of the presentations that were given at round table 4. Chalk marks were found within 1.8m of hand stencil art.
9. Parks Victoria is seeking a $400,000 federal grant to carry out a LIDAR aerial photography survey of the Grampians, showing details of ground conditions to a resolution of 2 cm.

Environmental Survey Progress, RT4

Parks Victoria has completed environmental survey work at 8 climbing locations:

Mt Zero, Andersens, The Watchtower, Venus Baths, Lookout Wall / Sundial, Bundaleer, Gilhams (shelter not the main cliffs), Mountain Lion

• Parks Victoria acknowledged that the “7 hectares environmental damage” previously alleged at 8 climbing sites was incorrect. The correct assessment was given as 0.7 hectares vegetation damage at 8 sites. A media correction has been issued.
• Parks Victoria then extrapolated from this, an estimate across 200 sites to allege that there is likely to be 18 hectares of vegetation damage across 200 climbing sites and an estimated 108 km of unofficial tracks created to access these 200 climbing sites.
• Categories of environmental impact: vegetation removal or damage, evidence of fires, rubbish, toilet waste, track formation, weeds.

Parks Victoria stated that environmental damage found at rock climbing sites was not necessarily attributable to rock climbers.

Further environmental survey work was done in the Eastern Wall / Peking Face area, following a request made by the VCC at a previous round table meeting. There were concerns that a shiny Wild Country No. 3 Stopper was recently found in an area that was the subject of a long standing voluntary closure to protect brush tailed rock wallabies. There was some confusion over boundaries and location names in this area.

Survey Scope and Costs

The cost and scale of the Grampians surveys is enormous, considering the low-impact nature of rock climbing in comparison with other user groups, particularly day visitors on the main tourist trails. It appears that Parks Victoria is attempting to reinforce it’s 2019 position that climbers damage rock art in the Grampians as alleged in this academic paper Rock Art and Rock Climbing: An Escalating Conflict. However, despite the studies and all the surveys, Parks Victoria has been unable to produce evidence to support this notion.

Further reading:

• Archaeologists Report Revealed – by Save Grampians Climbing
• Call Rebeka to the stand, Your Honour – by Simon Carter

There is no evidence of damage to rock art by climbers yet there is ample evidence of damage by tourists to paintings and ancient hand stencils along some of the popular tourist trails. The question of climber damage or harm to Aboriginal places is mired in terminology and inferred exclusion zones. Climbing impacts have certainly occurred in the vicinity of cultural heritage sites. Acceptable exclusion zones have not been established. The whole Park is deemed to be an area of cultural sensitivity. A Cultural Heritage Management Plan covering the entire Park would be necessary to properly protect cultural heritage under the terms of the Aboriginal Heritage Act. This would be an expensive exercise.

Every human activity has impact. The relatively minor impacts of recreational climbing are currently under a powerful microscope in the Parks Victoria boardroom. A verdict on the future of recreational climbing in the Grampians will be handed down later this year as part of the Grampians Landscape Management Plan. Climbers continue to have very little input to this process.

What’s happening with the Grampians legal action?

Note that any climbing legal dispute is against Parks Victoria. ACAV wishes to emphasise that great respect is intended towards cultural heritage sensitivities in the Grampians.

The set aside determination used by Parks Victoria to exclude climbers is invalid and a more fine-grained cliff-by-cliff, boulder-by-boulder approach is required to allow respectful recreational climbing to coexist alongside locations holding special cultural and environmental significance.

The invalid use of Regulation 65 of the National Park Regulations has caused Parks Victoria to place single signs to cover large areas and set up a blanket bans for one user group (climbers) while allowing other user groups (tourists, walkers, everyone except climbers) to continue to access cultural sites and cause harm. The use of Regulation 65 allows Parks Victoria to give the appearance of protecting cultural heritage, without any worthwhile management work taking place to properly protect the cultural sites. Day tourists remain free to visit these sites without restraint. Valuable cultural artifacts are all at ground level and are at great risk of harm that may be caused deliberately or accidentally.

A successful legal challenge against Regulation 65 would force Parks Victoria to invoke a more appropriate Regulation that would bring about a focused approach to protecting individual cultural sites while accepting respectful recreational activities in the vicinity. Parks Victoria has been applying major resources to outlaw rock climbing for the last 12 months. A more effective use of resources would be to spend money on more comprehensive educational strategies and practical physical measures to protect cultural heritage against all threats (without locking up the park).

ACAV Legal Timeline – regarding ACAV proposed legal action against Parks Victoria over restrictions on rock climbing across 550 sq km of the Grampians National Park.

July 2019 – ACAV engaged a law firm to advise on legal opportunities in regard to challenging the overreaching Grampians bans.

August 2019 – ACAV met with lawyers along with Junior and Senior Counsel to develop a legal case to challenge the set aside determination made by Parks Victoria in attempting to exclude climbers from large areas of the Grampians National Park.

September 2019 – This letter was sent from our lawyers to Parks Victoria, challenging the Grampians set aside determination and the invalid use of Regulation 65. A substantive response was not received. The legal team then prepared to file legal action against Parks Victoria on the basis that “the set aside determination is invalid”.

October 2019 – ACAV received legal advice that ACAV would not be able to show legal standing in court as the Association had not been established for a long enough time period. A typical duration of operation required to establish legal standing was indicated as approximately two years. Hence ACAV could not be the plaintiff in the proposed legal case. One or more individual climbers with a history of climbing in the region could conceivably act as plaintiff with ACAV backing but the plaintiffs would bear financial risk.

November 2019 – ACAV entered discussions with the Victorian Climbing Club (VCC) over the potential for the VCC to act as plaintiff as the club was established in 1952.

December 2019 – ACAV paid for professional legal work to gain QC advice that the VCC would be likely to achieve legal standing and hence the VCC could act as the plaintiff in a joint action with ACAV.

January 2020 – The VCC Committee voted to take legal action. The ACAV committee voted to donate the majority of ACAV funds raised to date, towards a VCC/ACAV legal challenge against Parks Victoria. This money was paid into the lawyer’s trust account along with similar funding from the VCC.

February 2020 – The law firm, along with Junior and Senior Counsel prepared the necessary legal documentation under the direction of the VCC, including affidavits to file proceedings against Parks Victoria.

March 2020 – the VCC Committee voted to suspend the legal challenge, anticipating good faith being shown by Parks Victoria towards the climbing community in the form of positive engagement over the management of rock climbing in the Grampians and at Arapiles. The ACAV funds previously donated will now be returned to ACAV to allow the implementation of alternative strategies.

Since the VCC has opted to suspend legal action, ACAV has no opportunity to bring about legal action at present. The legal action proposed above would benefit from the support of the VCC in two ways. Firstly as a plaintiff with legal standing and secondly to show broader support for a legal challenge within the climbing community.

While some track work is occurring with rangers at local level, we have not seen “good faith” consultation from Parks Victoria at executive level. One of the critical missing components is attendance by climbing representatives at site surveys to allow climbing-focused solutions to be put forward in a collaborative environment. This is standard practice at similar climbing locations around the world.

ACAV will continue to lobby for constructive consultation with Parks Victoria, including via mainstream media and at a political level. We are also working on alternative strategies with a long term aim to bring about properly managed climbing access across the State.

– report by Mike Tomkins

This report outlines the approach taken by ACAV at the fourth Parks Victoria Rock Climbing Round Table meeting held on 5th March 2020. Parks Victoria RT4 Agenda

Meeting attendees:
Mark Dingle	Deloitte Australia (meeting chair)
Jeff Floyd	Parks Victoria Chairman (meeting host)
Matthew Jackson	Parks Victoria CEO
Maria Pizzi	Parks Victoria Director, Managing Country Together
Mark Norman	Parks Victoria Chief Scientist
Will Cox	Parks Victoria Senior Manager, Strategic Project, Rock Climbing
Carol Nichols	Parks Victoria Director, Government Relations
Adam Merrick	Western Victorian Climbing Club
Paula Toal	Victorian Climbing Club
Tim Schofield	Climbing QTs
Coralie Reich	RMIT Outdoors Club
Matthew Tait	Round Table Bouldering Representative
Mike Tomkins	ACAV
Edwin Irvine	Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network
Daniel Earl	Round Table Licensed Tour Operator Representative
David Strickland	Sport & Recreation Victoria
Andrew Knight	Outdoors Victoria
Phillip Goebel	Sport Climbing Victoria
Romain Thevenot	Sport Climbing Australia

An ACAV handout was circulated to the meeting attendees for discussion and to clarify our desired outcomes from the meeting. This was printed on orange paper to draw attention to the high level message and clarify the role of ACAV in this process.

Note that the Voluntary Stewardship Program is intended to be run by Cliffcare and work is already under way to get this up and running. Volunteers required, please contact Steven Wilson, or email the VCC.

The meeting Chair, Mark Dingle of Deloitte will issue an official Communique (brief summary) within 24 hours, followed by official Meeting Notes within 7 to 10 days.

Throughout the 3-hour meeting the elephant in the room was the inadequate consultation with climbing groups over the extensive Grampians climbing bans introduced 12 months ago. More than 100 Parks Victoria cliff surveys have now been completed with no attendance allowed by climbing representatives.

ACAV and VCC have persistently requested survey attendance to allow the environmental and archaeological site findings to be understood in a climbing context and impacts mitigated in accordance with world’s best practice.

Stand by for Part 2 of this report, to include further details on the progress of environmental and archaeological surveys, including a list of the sites selected. Parks Victoria has committed to issuing the presentations that were given at this meeting.

4^th March 2020 Mike Tomkins

There have been some recent changes on the ACAV Committee. This is a brief update on the comings and goings. We will be providing some positive information on climbing access initiatives over the coming weeks and regular updates are planned to ensure that ACAV members are kept fully informed. The fourth Round Table meeting with Parks Victoria occurs on 5^th March and we are anticipating significant updates on the Grampians access situation.

Back in December, eight members of the ACAV Committee requested a Special General Meeting of ACAV seeking a leadership spill. The vote was not successful, and I remained as President, but with minority support on the Committee through January and February.

Following the recent resignation of our Secretary, Leeanne Lindorff, it was necessary for us to seek a replacement for this vital role. The Committee was fortunately able to appoint Kuba Szczepanik as ACAV Secretary.

At a recent Committee meeting, several motions were passed to appoint replacement Committee members after some resignations following the Special General Meeting.

Three new ACAV Committee Members have been appointed as follows:

1. Vanessa Tocatjian
2. Simon Carter
3. Constantine Dritsas

Shortly after these appointments, three members of the ACAV Committee resigned: Goshen Watts, Mark Wood and Lauren Coman.

The ACAV Committee now comprises the following ten members:

• Aaron Lowndes
• Andrei Svetski
• Con Dritsas
• Dick Lodge
• Kuba Szczepanik (Secretary)
• Matt Brooks
• Matt Tait
• Mike Tomkins (President)
• Simon Carter
• Vanessa Tocatjian

The former Committee members have worked tirelessly for the cause of Victorian Climbing access and I would like to thank them sincerely for the many hours of voluntary work that they have committed on behalf of the climbing community. The above Committee is now focused on a raft of initiatives, working in close cooperation with the Victorian Climbing Club. Stand by for further updates in the coming days.