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Update from Climbing Victoria Advisory Council on its quarterly meeting with Parks Victoria
At the meeting Parks Victoria (PV) provided Climbing Victoria Advisory Council (CVAC) with the following
update on assessments at Gariwerd:
Parks Victoria remains committed to doing additional assessments of approximately 50 priority climbing areas in
Gariwerd identified via CVAC. Initial timelines were for them to be completed by May 2023. However, the wide
scale flooding late last year has created resource challenges and our staff who coordinate assessments have been
fully occupied assessing flooded areas to determine if they can be re-opened. We intend to do the assessments in
2023 but it will take us the full year to complete. We will look for opportunities to group the assessments so that
some may be done in mid-year and outcomes known sooner. We will continue to keep the climbing community
updated through CVAC.
While CVAC understands the causes of the delay, it has provided feedback that this will cause disappointment
in the climbing community. CVAC has encouraged PV to look at any way to speed up the process and has offered
to help in any way it can, for example with grouping of assessments.
CVAC also continues to engage with PV on a variety of current and emerging issues, including:
- Ongoing developments at Dyurrite, including that the assessment fieldwork has been completed and the determination stage of the process has been started. To note, late last year Barengi Gadjin Land Council signed a settlement agreement with the Victorian Government. As part of this agreement, Dyurrite (Mount Arapiles-Tooan State Park) as well as many other Parks in the Wimmera will be jointly managed between BGLC and Parks Victoria in the near future.
- Priorities for crag access trial maintenance, including maintenance of Rosea climber’s access and access to Watchtower.
- Advocating that any user testing of the Gariwerd Permit system should include a wide variety of user groups.
- Options for adaptive climbing at Gariwerd for people living with disabilities.
- CVAC raised concerns arising from a complaint from a member of the climbing public regarding their interaction with PV. CVAC hopes that all future interactions between PV and the climbing community will be conducted in a way that will build a respectful and constructive relationship.
- Lastly, following recent online articles concerning Parks Victoria, CVAC would like to state that it strongly disagrees with the public naming of any individual Parks Victoria staff members.
The organisations that have been contributing to developing the framework for Climbing Victoria are:
- Western Victoria Climbing Club
- Gariwerd Wimmera Reconciliation Network
- Victorian Climbing Club
- RMIT Outdoors Club
- Crag Volunteers
- ClimbingQTs
- Outdoors Victoria
- Sport Climbing Victoria
