Soon after Park Victoria announced its disastrous proposed Management Plan for Mount Arapiles in November 2024, the ACAV got to work and produced a 43-page “Australian Federal and Victorian State Parliamentary Briefing Papers” on the rock climbing bans, then organised meetings to present it to several Federal politicians in Canberra.
Thus, on 29 November 2024, Simon Carter (ACAV), Tim MaCartney-Snape (ACANSW) and Neil Monteith (ACANSW), travelled to Parliament House in Canberra to present the Briefing Papers and meet with these politicians and their advisers.
In an unexpected twist, these climbers’ reps were, in return, presented with “The Arapiles Declaration”!
This is a very significant document outlining the Coalition’s position regarding land access. A document, it should be noted, which was already being prepared long-before the climbing reps had reached Canberra. It had been prepared largely in response to community feedback, and was instigated by local Dr Anne Webster MP, who has Mount Arapiles and some of the Grampians within her electorate.
Read the full text of the Arapiles Declaration below – and on Dr Anne Webster’s website here, along with her press release about it.
Whilst it may be some years yet until the political winds change and for the necessary policy changes to be implemented, the ACAV considers that The Arapiles Declaration represents that there is an important political backstop to this issue at the Federal level. It is a strong indicator that unjustified bans in the Grampians, and those proposed for Arapiles, will be entirely overturned — eventually. As they should be.
But, of course, the ACAV is not waiting, and this is not the only avenue we are pursuing at the moment.
Thank you to Dr Anne Webster MP and her colleagues for The Arapiles Declaration, and your support of climbers and the community in this issue!
And, thank you to all of you who have been supporting the ACAV and our work.
Interesting times.
Stay strong and climb safe,
the ACAV.
The Arapiles Declaration
We the undersigned declare that:
1. Australia’s natural wonders are for the marvel and enjoyment of all Australians,
2. Parks Victoria’s closure of rock-climbing options at Mount Arapiles (Djurrite) in the Grampians of western Victoria marks a line-in-the-sand moment for our nation, after closures of Mount Warning (Wollumbin) in New South Wales, Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the Northern Territory and restrictions on access to Lake Eyre (Kati Thanda) in South Australia, to name a few
3. Australians comprehensively rejected creating racial division in our community at the 2023 national referendum,
4. As policy makers we pledge:
a. To ensure all stakeholders are properly and genuinely consulted on the potential closure of public access to land or waters on cultural heritage grounds,
b. That closing public access to land or waters on cultural heritage grounds is only to be used in the most exceptional circumstances,
c. That conserving cultural heritage always starts from the first principle of retaining public access and managing interactions with the land or waters to prevent or minimise adverse impacts on cultural heritage,
d. That all claims used to justify restriction or closure of public access to land or waters on cultural heritage grounds is independently, transparently, forensically and respectfully examined for factual accuracy and veracity,
e. That the Australian public will be informed in the maximum detail of the cultural heritage grounds why restriction or closure of public access to land or waters is proposed or maintained,
f. To review all previous closures of public access to land or waters to ensure they comply with the foregoing commitments
g. That development on private land the subject of cultural heritage claims be able to proceed if conditions can be imposed using the foregoing processes to preserve verified cultural heritage,
h. That decisions on cultural matters are made in a timely fashion, with deadlines for Ministers and agencies to make determinations and assumptions that a failure to decide within a timeframe equates to a refusal,
i. That laws on cultural heritage will be uniform nationwide and not duplicated, thereby preventing inconsistencies, forum-shopping, lawfare and/or denial of natural justice.
