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VCC/CliffCare Route Development Moratorium-GNP 31-Oct-2018 At 6:20:03 PM goshen

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I'm going to attempt a bit of an online rant; please be kind to me.

Very sad reading :-(

So... climbing in the 'Special Protection' areas has been banned for years... Just that it hasn't been enforced? The PDF press release title is about a moratorium on new routes... I'm not totally clear about the reference areas, [where it comes to climbing already established routes] ... is it currently a grey area, or does that mean whole of Muline, Clean Cut, Gallery? Red Rocks etc etc etc are completely banned?

I just find it sad that whole areas can be banned for a perceived conflict (as-in, we don't know exactly what cliffs are implicated)... just that there's a cave / overhang somewhere which is extremely important. It's unknown whether it's good to climb or not (it's probably not); just that every chuck of rock within 10km is now off limits...

The flip side though; there's areas of Central and NW Australia, where whole regions are off limits to climbing completely; and rightly so in most cases... Cultural values are much 'stronger' up there; perhaps that's the Elephant in the Room; we live here too; the Grampians are important to us too, and we think we can respectfully climb at more remote locations and leave minimal impact.

I'm by no means perfect; but I have made attempts in my climbing to be both respectful of culture and the environment, but it's hard to write something about cultural heritage and avoid coming across as a privileged and white. Not sure how I've done.

Goshen