A lot has happened since we first wrote about our involvement in the Dyurrite Community Working Group. This is an honest update — where things are, what the next week looks like, and what it means for climbing and outdoor education at one of Australia’s most significant natural destinations.

How we got here

In late 2024, Parks Victoria released a Draft Management Plan for Dyurrite/Mt Arapiles proposing sweeping restrictions on climbing access across large portions of the mountain. The response from the climbing and outdoor education community was immediate and sustained — a parliamentary petition, significant media attention, and a period of serious institutional disruption.

The consequences were real. The Parks Victoria CEO was stood down by the Minister for Environment. An interim CEO was appointed. The relationship between PV, BGLC (the Barengi Gadjin Land Council, representative body for the Traditional Owners), and the climbing community had to be substantially rebuilt from the ground up.

What emerged from that disruption was a different approach. The incoming PV CEO has been meaningfully more engaged with proper process. BGLC representatives and climbing advocates are now in the same room, working from the same evidence base. That is not a small thing, and it did not happen by accident.

How the process works — and why May matters

The Dyurrite Community Working Group (DCWG) — which includes BGLC, Parks Victoria, local community representatives, Climbing Victoria, the Arapiles District Community Group, tour operators like us, and others — oversees the broader process, though the responsibility for final decision making and implementation lies solidly with Parks Victoria.

The detailed evaluation work is carried out by a Sub-Working Group established by BGLC, with members nominated from the DCWG. It assesses cultural heritage values against recreational activities, works through mitigation options, and produces reasoned advice. That advice goes to the Native Title Holders for their consideration in mid-May. The Native Title Holders then provide their response to Parks Victoria, who makes the final statutory decisions about access — independently, with documented reasons.

Starting 4 May, the Sub-Working Group meets full-time, every day, for a full working week — area by area, climb by climb across the mountain. This is the substantive work that will shape access at Dyurrite for years to come. It is happening in the next ten days.

To do this work, Sub-Working Group members are required to sign a confidentiality deed giving them access to protected cultural heritage knowledge held by BGLC. That deed has been reviewed by legal counsel and agreed by all parties to ensure it covers only that — the protection of sensitive cultural information — and does not restrict participants from speaking about process, reasoning, or outcomes. The transparency of the process itself has been a hard-won and non-negotiable condition of participation.

Not everyone agrees that participating in this process is the right thing to do. There are those who argue that anyone sitting at the table is lending legitimacy to an unjust outcome. We address that directly below.

Who will be in the room — and what it means

The Climbing Company will have four people in that room for the full week. All four are pulling themselves off actual, paid guiding work to be there. That is the level of commitment this process deserves, and the level of commitment we believe Dyurrite deserves.

Louise Shepherd is one of the original founders of The Climbing Company, and has been guiding and teaching at Dyurrite for close to four decades. Her knowledge of the mountain is encyclopaedic — the climbing routes, yes, but also the flora, the ecology, the way the place changes with seasons and with people. She has watched generations of climbers and students discover Dyurrite, and carries an understanding of it that very few people anywhere can match.

Simon Mentz is one of the most respected guidebook authors for Arapiles — his name is on the books that most of us learned this mountain from. His knowledge of the routes, the rock, and the history of climbing at Dyurrite is without parallel.

Aaron Lowndes (that’s me) — TCC director, Licensed Tour Operator, and the DCWG representative for both the LTO sector and the outdoor education sector. Outdoors Victoria, the peak body for outdoor education, is technically represented through Climbing Victoria — but none of the CV representatives come from an outdoor education background, which is why I’m the obvious voice in the room for that sector.

The fact that these four people — with this combined depth of historical, practical, and instructional knowledge of Dyurrite — are in that room is, frankly, remarkable. Getting to a point where Louise Shepherd and Simon Mentz are sitting alongside BGLC representatives, working carefully through the mountain they know better than almost anyone, doing the serious work of protecting cultural heritage while keeping climbing alive — that is what a lot of hard work by a lot of people made possible. It is a long way from where things stood eighteen months ago.

On the accusations being levelled at participants

There are voices in the climbing community — some frustrated, some acting in bad faith — characterising participation in this process as complicity: the idea that anyone at the table has been “groomed” to rubber-stamp climbing bans in secrecy, without justification.

The late 2024 experience showed what happens without structured engagement. Unilateral restriction — without evidence, without process, without the climbing community in the room — is the alternative. The standing-down of the PV CEO was the consequence of that approach. The current process exists because that approach failed.

The primary purpose of this process is the protection of cultural heritage. That is what everyone in that room is there to take seriously. Doing that properly — with evidence, with proportionality, with the best possible knowledge of this mountain — is also the strongest foundation for keeping climbing at Dyurrite alive. The people who walk away from the table don’t protect climbing. They simply remove themselves from the room where it matters.

What we’d love to hear from you

With this week approaching, we’d love to hear from anyone with a connection to Dyurrite — recreational climbers, guides, outdoor educators, or anyone who has spent time at the Pines.

What’s a moment that stuck with you? A route, a climb, a morning in the campground?

Is there anything you’d love to see added or improved at Dyurrite — campground facilities, infrastructure, track work, access for different groups?

Drop us an email, find us on LinkedIn, or leave a comment below. This place matters to a lot of people, and the stories told about it matter too.

Aaron Lowndes is the director of The Climbing Company, a Licensed Tour Operator at Dyurrite/Mt Arapiles, and a representative on the Dyurrite Community Working Group for the LTO and outdoor education sectors.