Just before last Christmas Parks Victoria finally released the Greater Gariwerd Landscape Management Plan. Unfortunately in Parks Victoria’s haste to ban rock climbing across significant areas of the park they also appear to have banned scrambling and in doing so they have effectively closed three of the best adventure walks / scrambles in Victoria. Two… Continue reading Have Parks Victoria Really Banned Scrambling in the Grampians National Park?
Category: CLIMBING
Bushwalking Bans Looming in the Grampians/Gariwerd
Tourist hordes are swarming over ancient quarried edges beside a popular Parks Victoria walking track in the Grampians/Gariwerd. Some are sitting beside quarried edges that are surrounded by graffiti. They are seemingly oblivious to the cultural heritage significance of the site. Elsewhere in the National Park, graffiti (including false rock-art) spoils a rock shelter and… Continue reading Bushwalking Bans Looming in the Grampians/Gariwerd
Parks Victoria Halts New Grampians And Arapiles Guidebooks
To all of our loyal wholesale and retail customers it is with a great deal of regret that Open Spaces Publishing has made the decision to halt work on all of our planned rock climbing and bushwalking titles for the Grampians National Park and at nearby Mt Arapiles. Our business moved to Natimuk in the… Continue reading Parks Victoria Halts New Grampians And Arapiles Guidebooks
Is This Australia’s Oldest Rock Climbing Photograph?
The Grampians have been in the climbing news a lot lately after Parks Victoria initiated the world’s largest rock climbing bans (over 50% of the region’s best climbing) and with no consultation with the climbing community. To say these have been tough times for the climbing community is an understatement. Coincidentally I have just finished… Continue reading Is This Australia’s Oldest Rock Climbing Photograph?
The First Ascent of Blimp
At the end of the academic year 1968 at RMIT, I looked for a new outdoor activity, so I met Fred Langenhorst and Rein Kamar from the bushwalking club in the college café. ‘Hi Bruno, would you like to do a rock climbing course with us?’ ‘Yeah, I would like that.’ The introductory course with… Continue reading The First Ascent of Blimp
Open Spaces Tree Change
It’s been a tough ten years in print publishing as the internet revolution continues to change the way we create and distribute information. Traditional printers across Australia have been putting off large numbers of staff or closing their doors for good. Wholesale distributors and book shops have been similarly affected. The introduction of smart-phones and… Continue reading Open Spaces Tree Change
Healthy Parks – Wealthy People
For many years the various organisations that have run Victorian Parks have had an objective of increasing visitor numbers. The most recent incarnation, Parks Victoria, has gained a new objective – a greater proportion of Parks expenditure is to be raised from users and less is to be provided through government budgets. Are the… Continue reading Healthy Parks – Wealthy People
Healthy Parks, Wealthy People
Victorian National Parks Camping and Accommodation Fees – Regulatory Impact Statement The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) has released a proposal for a user-pays approach to charges for camping and roofed accommodation in parks and reserves managed by Parks Victoria. Victorians are invited to provide comment on the regulatory impact statement by 22… Continue reading Healthy Parks, Wealthy People
Law Unto Himself
Last Monday Open Spaces in conjunction with the Victorian Climbing Club saw the release of Michael Law’s autobiography (of sorts) at Thousand £ Bend at Little Lonsdale Street. It was a wild Melbourne night of heavy rain and hail, yet despite this almost 70 people turned out to listen to one of Australian climbing’s most… Continue reading Law Unto Himself
The Art of Belay
So what sort of belayer are you? Are you a fashionable belayer? A safe belayer. Attentive or casual? Which belay devices do you use? Here are a few of my favorite belay scenarios, dug out of my dusty archives.