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New Fees Sign in The Pines 7-Nov-2012 At 9:55:27 PM Access T CliffCare

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Hi All,

Time to gather my thoughts after the great long, long weekend at Araps and respond to some of the comments on this thread.

First up, I must say thank you to everyone who has been so supportive of me in their thanks. I do enjoy doing what I do and hope that the work I engage in and relationships I build over time do have an impact on any issues and negotiations that I am involved in.

As I noted in my last post there were many people involved in the successful outcome of the dispute about fee changes at the Mt Arapiles campground. I really feel I must reiterate that thanks, and I mean huge thanks, must go to all those in the climbing community who put their feelings forward so eloquently and to those staff at Parks Victoria who saw the issue from the start, listened and went in with full support to work with the issues and the legalities at hand. Their response was as a direct result of the climbing community’s interaction. I feel that my role in this was minimal compared to others. Much work had been undertaken by local PV staff in response to the community feedback by the time I returned to Australia.
Great work by climbing community members bringing the issue to notice, and for generating interest to respond, amongst the community. Adam (hotgemini) brought up some points in his most recent post. And many thanks to him as a fellow Access rep for his support. While I understand his concern and can’t say I wasn’t disappointed that the original fee change was put into place with the speed it was, I don’t believe that a verbal mistake admission is necessary and feel that lessons have been learned from both sides. I’m sure that this will help inform future discussions.The fact that the resolution was as speedy, is a brilliant outcome! And that speaks volumes I think. As many of us know and agree, Arapiles has a very specific demographic with specific usage requirements and needs and this result has now highlighted that officially.
A great collaboration between the climbing community and Parks Victoria and one that hopefully continues to grow stronger.

Cheers,
Tracey