Blue Mountains Council (BMCC) plagiarises our business logo and then falsely claims it to be Gundungurra?

Since 2018 and prior, Nature Trail’s business logo has been plagiarised by government, tweaked with a few variations to our artwork…

Nature Trail’s creative artwork thus:

The Blue Mountains Council in 2024 then nicked our concept artwork design for its $13 million externally funded concept trail… Grand Cliff Top Walk wayfinding signage, thus:

We then read the Parks Service’s official brochure which includes a specific mention the track wayfinding identification logo – our logo!…

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The following is Nature Trail’s email complaint to Blue Mountains {city} Council 26th June 2025:

RE: Copyright Infringement Complaint (CSR 601373) – Nature Trail logo plagiarised by BMCC

 

…as briefly mentioned, I run a commercial tour operation from Katoomba , registered as ‘Nature Trail’, since 2017.

In the years from 2013 leading up to launching this business venture, I personally conceived and designed a number of logos for my business.

This includes the image below I designed in 2018 as an integrated logo, along with other versions. I have used this the locally native yet rarely seen Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo logo for Nature Trail continually publicly since 2018 on the Nature Trail website, on emails and my business marketing material.

• Square shaped overall image frame – for multiple applications – website, email signature (see below), brochures, business cards, apparel, in the field seminar field sandwich board
• Sky blue background – the colour theme of Nature Trail (representing the Blue Mountains)
• A pair of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos (Zanda funerea) – locally native in the Blue Mountains, not often seen, but always flying as a pair (male and female mates)
• ‘Nature Trail’ – the business name heading
• ‘Premier tours of the Blue Mountains and beyond’ – tagline
• ‘Back to Nature’ (motto below)

It took me some time and creative effort to conceive and finetune the design. The original version was pained by local Katoomba artist Lyn Naismith, whom I commissioned to paint and have her sign over exclusive copyright to me. I own the original paint and used this as the basis for my overall logo.

So it has come as a shock and disappointment to me to recently discover that since 2024, Blue Mountains City Council in a joint project with the National Parks and Wildlife Service of NSW has mirror copied my logo for hiking track ‘wayfinding’ signage of the upgraded Prince Henry Cliff Walk, re-branded the Grand Cliff Top Walk. It is a hiking track that extends nearly 20 km along mostly the top northern escarpment clifftop of the Jamison Valley between Wentworth Falls and Katoomba.

The attached brochure claims that the exactly same outline of this same bird was “designed by Kelsie King”. No it wasn’t.

If one makes a stencil cutout , it has the exactly the same outline with 6 large feathers and 4 small ones trailing on its right wing. I presume she found my logo on the Internet and killed off the mate, and added a few trailing dots to give it an Aboriginal artwork ‘flavour’ of sorts.

I have also notified the National Parks and Wildlife Service (Parks Service) in person at its Blackheath at it its Blue Mountains Heritage Centre.

I have thus far written the following article on Mountains Drums blog on Nature Trail website to voice my concern of plagiarism. This is the hyperlink to that article, FYI.

>https://naturetrail.com.au/blog-post/npws-parks-service-plagiarises-nature-trails-copyright-logo/

I have since reconnoitring half the length of Grand Cliff Top Walk in short sections and noting information for future proposed hiking tours I wish to offer.

In the process, I am taking many photos including one of every sign post that displays a plagiarised copy of my logo, albeit displaying just one of the same Black Cockatoo sketches. So far, I have counted more than three dozen separate images of this along this amalgamated track. They seem to only appear on the Council land portions, whereas the Parks Service has used its own Lyrebird logo on its custodial ownership portions of the track. Council uses its own logo on its portions, as is appropriate.

Question:   Why could Council not come up with a unique image of its own?

Anyway, this is my first contact with Council to voice my complaint.

Kind regards,
Steven Ridd