Michael Robinson, a Wandi Wandian Traditional Owner, is walking through a popular climbing spot in Nowra on the NSW South Coast. Above him, eager rock climbers are making their ascent.
“This is where I was born, this is where I was raised,” he says, shaded by the same sandstone overhangs that housed his people for tens of thousands of years.
“It’s my connection to my local ancestral ties”.
As rock climbing has grown in popularity, Michael says his connection to country has been disrupted. And the rock art that depicts his people, damaged.
“It's not just a rock, it's alive,” Michael says. “It's got feelings, you know, it's got memories.”
“We sit here long enough, they'll talk to us and they'll teach stuff,” he adds.
Michael’s trips to the caves and overhangs where he conducts ceremonies or brings young people to teach them about their culture have become increasingly congested.
Wandi Wandian man Michael Robinson. Source: The Feed
Over the past 40 years, Nowra has become a major destination for skilled climbers and beginners alike.
Sites like Thompson’s Point and the Grotto have been developed over time with holes drilled into cliff faces and bolts placed in the rock to make it safer for climbers.
Nowra now boasts over 1500 climbing routes.
In 2015, Yuin Elders Tom and George Walker Brown were alerted by climbers to the existence of a rock art site at Thompson’s Point. A route known by climbers as 'Mini Wall' ran through the artwork.
Michael was raised on the NSW South Coast. Source: The Feed
George says he grew up with the stories of the art’s existence, an oral history passed down through generations but he’d never seen the warrior figures with his own eyes.
“Oh look, I'd say it's hurtful just to look at it,” George says.
“Cause even just goin’ there and findin’ that well, it's actually marked and that's like messing around with a masterpiece.”
George believes the work is tens of thousands of years old. National Parks NSW commissioned an archaeological report that surveyed the art, assessed the damage and confirmed the significance of the site and others.
George and Tom Walker Brown. Source: NITV/The Feed
Although the bolts in the rock face have since been removed, the surrounding areas have continued to be used as a recreational climbing space.
A Change.org petition for a climbing ban at Thompson’s Point has amassed more than 7,500 signatures. The petition argues that “Thompson's Point has a huge cultural significance to the local Aboriginal people”.
Rob Crow, owner of Climb Nowra would like to see it remain open to climbers.
Rob Crow, owner of Climb Nowra. Source: The Feed
“We love that area,” he says.
“I think it's counter-intuitive to support one group in connecting with country and to achieve that we lock early adopters from another culture out of their opportunity to connect with the great outdoors.”
For 10 years, Rob has been running his rock climbing business in Nowra. While he says he’d respect a council ban on climbing if it was introduced, he believes the cost to the wider community would be detrimental for Nowra.
“There would be financial impacts immediately from the loss of the individuals who come here,” Rob says.
“There would be locals who perhaps may consider even moving to a location where their passion was still possible. So we may even lose residents as a consequence of a decision like that.”
Rob says that along with other local businesses in Nowra, he's been consulting with Traditional Owners on how best to preserve the cultural heritage of the area. This work continues to this day.
In the Grampians and the Arapiles in regional Victoria, large portions of developed climbing areas have already been closed or set aside for review.
Since 2013, 40 rock art sites have been rediscovered in the Grampians, some of which date back 20,000 years.
Parks Victoria protects these sites and others designated as being of Aboriginal cultural heritage by making them off-limits to recreational climbers.
On Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Gubbi-Gubbi Traditional Owners have been asking for climbing to cease on the Glasshouse Mountains where hundreds of routes are set up.
Lyndon Davis. Source: NITV/The Feed
Lyndon Davis, a local tour guide and artist has warned many of the dangers of ascending its biggest peaks, Mt Beerwah and Mt Tibrogargan
Lyndon says he’s “not too keen on the fact that it's being climbed.”
“I think it's been like that for a while now and we have not really been part of that conversation.”
For Gubbi-Gubbi people, the Glasshouse Mountains are seen as a family with a father and mother mountain.
“What I'd like to see I suppose is probably a little bit more awareness, like giving us an opportunity to take people on really good educational walks that give them really good insight and background,” Lyndon says.
“And then, you know, once you have that sort of understanding I think then you'll realise that, that's the proper way to do it.”
