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Chockstone Forum - Crag & Route Beta

Crag & Route Beta

Area	Location	Sub Location	Crag	Links
VIC Northwest	(General)	(General)	(General)

Topic Date User

Hanging Rock 17-Jan-2016 At 9:04:06 AM Karl Bromelow

Message

From a 3 month old Environmental Management plan:

8.6.5 Future Recreational Opportunities
At times, MRSC is approached by private companies wanting to undertake managed activities in the Reserve such as rock climbing or a tree-top adventure course.
As outlined previously, rock climbing used to be allowed at the Reserve, and there are Peregrine Falcons that nest on the east face of the rock. In some other reserves, rock climbing is managed so that there is an annual period when there is no climbing due to Peregrine Falcons nesting. In popular rock climbing destinations such as Mount Arapiles, there are other impacts from rock climbers such as trampling and erosion, and markers being left across the rocks.
Other activities such as a tree-top adventure course, requires installation in large trees which could impact the use of these trees my by native fauna.
While these activities could expose more people to the natural values of the Reserve and provide additional income there are a number of impacts that would need to be investigated, including the effects on the reserve’s vegetation, wildlife and car parking demand.
As the objective of the Conservation Zones is to manage these zones to conserve and enhance their ecological values, these activities should be restricted to the Recreation Zones
low impact conservation and passive recreation activities may be undertaken in the Conservation Zones such as night walks and orienteering. Any new recreation activities proposed for the Conservation Zones that may impact the ecological values of the reserve should be subject to a full ecological assessment and approved by Council’s eEnvironment Uunit.
Recommendations
 Focus future recreation activities in the Recreation Zones as a first preference. (Rec 101)
 Undertake an ecological impact assessment for future recreation activities, as appropriate, as a part of the investigation process and refer these proposals to Council’s environment unit for approval. (Rec 102)

If I am reading this correctly the implication is that rock climbing is high impact non-passive whereas bushwalking is low impact passive. I find this a curious distinction. Rock climbing suffers an image problem. To me it has always been more akin to introspective performance art than drag racing. The popular image is different and hinders progress with management bodies who may not see beyond that shallow media representation of our game.

Elsewhere in the same document reference is made to aboriginal heritage and the lack of any evidence for the place having any particular significance to the indigenous people of this land. Lack of evidence doesn't of course preclude any such significance.