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General Climbing Discussion

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$11,000 fine for building a cairn 14-Jun-2011 At 1:07:04 PM jono_1

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Here are some govt websites on the broad headed snake.
http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile.aspx?id=10413
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=1182
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/nature/tsprofileBroadheadedSnake.pdf

Here is some info I have extracted from above documents:
- West to north west facing cliff tops (i.e Tianjara) are prime habitat for these snakes
- Nowra hinterland region is at the southerly limit of their distribution
- Their distribution today would appear to be centred in four key areas; Blue Mountains, southern Sydney, an area north west of the Cumberland Plain and the Nowra hinterland.
-They utilise rock crevices and exfoliated sheets of weathered sandstone during the cooler months and tree hollows during summer.
- Threats include:
*removal of bush rock for home gardens. Removal of bush rocks disturbs not only
broad headed snake but their main food source- geckos. Also the gecko's food
source is disturbed by moving bush rocks.
* 'Disturbance - the species is thought to be sensitive to incidental and/or intentional
disturbance to the surface rock they utilise.'
- Management options include 'Regulation of removal of surface bushrock from areas of
known habitat (Mahony 1997) as well as the sale of bush rock'.

So it would appear that whilst the sign might be new, there has been concern regarding the broad headed brown snake since the 1990s, which is much longer than the recent re-discovery of Tianjara by climbers. The sign would appear to be a direct result of the recent influx of climbers clearly disturbing bush rocks to make cairns, which are an essential habitat for these snakes and their prey.

So the easy option is don't kick up a fuss, don't make any more cairns and avoid disturbing any rocks on the cliff tops. Easy!!! And it is really not that hard to navigate your way around Tianjara especially with an aerial map from google.