Happy 95th Birthday Mount Warning!
Mt Warning National Park was formally opened by the NSW State Attorney General Francis Boyce at a summit celebration attended by 200 people, mainly children, on the 3rd of August 1929. At the summit Boyce declared the park “this gorgeous and beautiful spot” open to all Australians. The Mayor of Murwillumbah Alderman Black told the boys and girls and boys present to remember the park was theirs and each could be a trustee in their own little way. The park was a memorial of the beauty of nature. Member for Byron, Arthur Budd, also present at the summit said, “The opening of the park was a historical occasion, for the area would be a haven for all time and would be famous for years to come as a tourist resort”.
An event worth celebrating!
SOS, reopen Mt Warning, Uki and Murwillumbah community members, the NSW and QLD Libertarian Party branches along with Ngarakwal custodians and former NPWS staff felt this was an event worth celebrating. Along with honoring the Ngarakwal connection to the park and the life of custodian the late Millie Boyd. The mountain has been neglected now for four and a half years following a supposed “temporary” closure that started in March 2020. The damage to the economy is now around $60 million and the effect is being felt in business closures and lost jobs. The effect of the closure on mental and physical health is escalating. The lost opportunity for visitors to experience awe and wonder in the park through the magnificent summit experience will impact us for generations to come. About 600,000 visitors have now missed out on the summit experience. With the environment Minister Penny Sharpe seemingly unwilling to make an announcement to
reopen the park and set a timeline for recovery it was collectively realised a stronger message was needed to keep the issue is the public eye and perhaps help the Minister see past her officious bureaucracy and use her common sense. And thus, plans were made to give the mountain a birthday party on August 3, 2024, the 95th anniversary of the opening ceremony.
Friday - Mt Warning Hotel Business and community event
At the invitation of Uki Community leader Carol Franke, Libertarian Party MLC John Ruddick, SOS presidents - current Marc Hendrickx and former Craig Evans spoke to an assembly of about 60 interested and engaged community members including business owners at the Mt Warning Hotel on Mt Warning’s birthday eve. SOS members Donna, Tessa, Brodie, Rene, Chris and supporters assisted with the setup and a raffle and we had T-Shirts and hoodies for sale. The local Uki Historical society had a display of Mt Warning photos on show, and it was fitting that Esma who is secretary of the society and volunteer for over 20 years won the raffle. The ticket drawn by Madonna Simpson who had put in many kilometres handing out leaflets for the parliamentary petition that resulted in the Parliamentary debate in May. John Ruddick spent many hours speaking with community members listening to their opinions about the closure.
Sunrise climb
About 20 or so community members celebrated the anniversary with a sunrise viewing at the summit of Mt Warning. Several groups with the assistance of Adrian’s shuttle bus travelled to the Breakfast Creek carpark at to commence the summit walk at about 4am to make the sunrise at about 6:30am. The track remains in serviceable Grade 5 condition despite NPWS neglect of maintenance. Its bones put down by volunteers remain strong. The trail is still showing signs of regular use and its great to see people are exercising intelligent dissent in opposing the closure. Summiteers were greeted with a fly past from Sky Ads Gary Biggs who was able to take a few shots through the mist. A smaller party of John Ruddick and Marc Hendrickx left a little later starting at the Breakfast Creek carpark at about 5am. John had indicated he had put in some training for the walk, but perhaps didn’t quite realise that while only 4.4km long the walk also involves a climb of about 730m vertically. Slow and steady wins the race and we were at the rock scramble at about 7:30am. A few of the sunrise climbers were coming down and encouraged John to keep going. Showing metal, courage and perseverance on something he last did 30 years ago, John reached the summit just before 8am. I wish we had more politicians like John! We rested a bit, took in the views, signed the summit time capsule, took some photos and left in time for the 10am event, getting down to the carpark at about 10:30am just as the festivities were starting.
95th Anniversary Celebrations Breakfast Creek Carpark
The Breakfast Creek carpark was almost full with a shuttle service running down to the Mt Warning Rainforest Park to provide for those not wanting to park. The event attended by about 60 people, we would have had many more but for the Uki Camp drought running on the same day. Skynews reporter Lauren Forbes covered the event. The event was reported on by the Courier Mail and Daily News. The celebration started with Ngarakwal Elder Sturt Boyd outlining the indigenous issues at the mountain. Like his late mother Marlene, Sturt challenged claims being made by the secretive Wollumbin Consultative Group. Next was Harry Creamer ex NPWS anthropologist who eviscerated the current Aboriginal Place Management Plan for the park, calling for an immediate review. Marc spoke next noting the wonderful events that unfolded 95 years ago that lead the creation of the park. He challenged NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe to work to reopening the summit by Easter next year to coincide with completion of repairs along Mt Warning Road caused by flood damage in 2022. John Ruddick thanked the locals for their hospitality, noting that everyone he had spoken to regardless of political views supported the reopening. Peter Prineas OAM, former director of the National Parks Association of NSW attended the event and posted the following to his facebook page… On Saturday I attended a meeting in northeastern NSW at the start of the summit track in Mount Warning / Wollumbin National Park near Murwillumbah. The meeting was called to mark the 95th anniversary of the park and as a protest against the ban on climbing Mount Warning imposed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). The crowd heard from speakers including author, geologist, bushwalker and 'mountain liberationist' Marc Hendrickx who has made it his mission to reopen walking access to Mount Warning and other summits now closed
on questionable grounds by various national parks agencies. The Mount Warning ban started as a safety measure, was extended under the cover of concerns about Covid19 and continues some years later under the guise of indigenous heritage protection. Just before Saturday's meeting Marc Hendrickx was given notice of a $300 fine by the NPWS for climbing Mount Warning three months ago, an action he described as an attempt to 'intimidate' him. It will be interesting to see if the NPWS fines Marc for climbing the mountain again on Saturday morning before the protest meeting, and even more interesting to see if they fine NSW member of
Parliament, John Ruddick, who made the climb with him! The crowd noted with approval Marc's declaration that he would not pay the fine and would contest it in court. Another speaker was Harry Creamer who served for years as an anthropologist with the NPWS when he investigated and reported on the indigenous heritage of the Mount Warning area. Harry Creamer rejected the 'sacred' status claimed for Mount Warning and noted that the NPWS's management plan and its ban on access was never submitted to the public for comment before being adopted. In answer to questions from me, Harry Creamer said there are no known engravings or paintings on the mountain that could be damaged by visitors and that the walking track does not lead to the alleged sacred site claimed to exist on the mountain. Another speaker was indigenous man and Ngarakwal elder Sturt Davis-Boyd whose mother, the late Marlene Boyd, had the distinction of being the cultural guardian of 'Wulambiny Momoli' as Mount Warning is known to the Ngarakwal, and who more than once stated her opinion that there was no bar on anyone climbing to the
summit of the mountain - indeed she encouraged it. For reasons so far unexplained, the secretive Wollumbin Consultative Group established by the NPWS to advise on indigenous heritage issues at Mount Warning has no representation from the Ngarakwal people and is apparently run by Bundjalung men at Lismore. Sturt Davis-Boyd dismissed the claim that indigenous boys were initiated (a ceremony involving circumcision) on the slopes of Mount Warning, noting that it was unsuitable for this purpose due to the lack of water.
Sky Ads
A highlight of the day was the fly over the gold coast beaches, Uki and Murwillumbah by Sky Ads, owner and Libertarian Candidate in the coming Federal Election for the seat of McPherson. Thanks to Gary for the effort. It was great to see that Reopen Mt Warnign banner flying over our heads as we recovered from climbing at the Mt Warnign Hotel.
Fine
On the day prior to leaving for the 95th anniversary event Marc Hendrickx received a courier delivered envelope with a fine for $300 from NPWS for “entry to a closed or part closed park” for a climb he did on 13 April 2024. Marc spoke with the ranger in the carpark on the day and was “directed” to leave the park after telling the ranger why he was there “to protest the ongoing closure and NPWS mismanagement of the park”. He took this as a warning and considered the matter to be dealt with. Instead NPWS attempted a gross act of intimidation by issuing a fine on the eve of the 95th birthday celebration for the Park. Instead of taking the opportunity to meet with concerned locals and bushwalking advocates and discuss issues face to face they chose to ignore the event. This despite wide public advertising. Instead of being prepared to join the celebration and have a conversation they chose a message of fear. Shame on them! Marc is challenging the fine in court.
THANKYOU
Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended events on Friday and Sunday. Without your ongoing support and encouragement, we would not be able to fight this battle to save public access to these awe inspiring summits in our wonderful national parks. Special thanks to Carol Franke for helping organise the Friday meeting, to Brett Watson of the Mt Warning Hotel for hosting us and providing moral support – the friendliest pub in Australia, and Esma Thompson for organising the historical display. Thanks to Adrian Hoffman and Alan Keen for their taxi service and other assistance on the day. Thanks to SOS members Craig, Donna, Chris, Tessa, Brodie and Rene and supporters for helping on the day. Thanks for sharing photos. Thanks to Simon Brown (Gecko Productions) for his interest – we are looking forward to your documentary. It was great to see so many people wearing our SOS shirts (see the web age if you want one). Thanks to John Ruddick MLC for attending, climbing and supporting our cause. Lastly, a huge thankyou to our dear friend and Ngarakwal custodian Sturt Davis-Boyd for all your support and efforts in helping us reopen the mountain. Apologies to anyone not mentioned. THANKYOU!!!
Sturt Davis-Boyd with his late mums Memorial Plaque
Australia Day 2024
Text from the above article -
Someone very famous once said: "Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregated a false sense of inferiority. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." Martin Luther King Jr
Sacred (definition for google): something that is holy, devoted to a religious ceremony OR simply worthy of awe and respect. Whenever I enter this park it makes me very conscious and aware that I’m stepping into a very special place, an ancient place of awe and wonder that is due our utmost respect, It reminds me that we should all tread lightly on this beautiful planet that is mother Earth.
Australian families have walked this summit trail for 4 or 5 generations, it has become a rite of passage or coming of age for some, a family tradition. This iconic mountain dominates the landscape as you head south from the Gold Coast, to anyone with any sense of adventure it calls you to it’s view from its summit, as it must have to our pioneers because they built a magnificent windy low gradient trail to its summit over 100 years ago. A magnificent 4.4km rain forest trail to an 1160m summit with 4 platforms looking to the 4 compass cardinals, suitable for anyone of reasonable fitness, young or old. Quote from NSWNP Mt Warning guide book 1993: “Age does not appear to be a barrier for those who attempt the climb. Children as young as five have reached the summit unaided. Likewise people in their 80s are also successful. A reasonable degree of fitness and a determined attitude would seem to be the necessary criteria”
This trail was closed at the beginning of covid under the guise that NP couldn’t keep covid off the chain near the summit. 2 years on it was closed permanently to respect a tribes claim that it is sacred to their men and they believe others visiting the summit is an act of desecration.
At Re-Open Mt Warning and Save Our Summits Inc we have been campaigning for public access to this trail for the past 3 years. We believe that respect for all cultures should be considered equally. NSWNP have stated that Mt Warning had over 100,000 visitors a year prior to its closure, you can imagine the effects on local businesses. If you would like to help, please join us on face book or subscribe with email at our website [www.SaveOurSummits.org](http://www.saveoursummits.org/) Thanks. See you on the trails. Andy Flanagan