‘Mountains Drums’ Blog

Welcome to ‘Mountains Drums‘.

This is Nature Trail’s field blog expressing views and insights about the goings on out in the Blue Mountains great outdoors from our local experiences over decades.

This blog is written mostly by one of our regular Mountains hikers, Flex, plus also our Tour Director Steve’s contribution articles from time to time, as he’s see fit to raise.

We also invite our guests to submit their own article to this blog. Just email us at:

steve[at]naturetrail.com.au

The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area covers over a million hectares of native vegetation and is arguably a bushwalker’s paradise of choice.

Yet over more than twenty five years of hiking the Blue Mountains, we continue to observe and read about those accessing the Blue Mountains great outdoors and those managing this World Heritage failing to learn from the wisdom of others before them – the requisite knowledge, skills, experience, preparation and attitude to appreciate and not harm or being harmed.

At Nature Trail we relish the great outdoors and value the Blue Mountains and its magnificent and expansive world heritage region.

But while we embrace the outdoors experience, fun and adventure, we are critical of those who foolishly risk life and limb and who recklessly encourage others to do likewise.

Whilst the Blue Mountains may still be of world heritage value, we do not see world’s best practice nor leadership evolving in outdoor recreation nor in custodial management.

Hardly a week passes without reports of helicopter rescues of injured hikers, canyoners and rockclimbers, of lost hikers, benighted hikers, missing hikers and of deaths by those setting out ignorant or just poorly prepared.

We constantly read reports by locals of the threats of invasive tourism, ugly mass tourism, the dominance of a tourism oligopoly, of poor track conditions and neglected signage, of the underfunded and understaffed National Parks and Wildlife Service.

We observe the disconnect between government authorities delegated with custodial responsibility for protecting and managing the natural values of The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, and with tourism providers and consumers.

More recently we’ve observed multiple landslips left neglected for months and years, that then shut down many hiking tracks (as well as critical road and rail access). Government repeatedly allows wildfires to burn, in October 2019 left to incinerate 80% of the world heritage area and other ‘National Parks’ so-called throughout New South Wales. Governmental abandonment of its national quarantine responsibilities allowed an imported China Virus Pandemic shut down Blue Mountains tourism and visitation completely for two years (11 Nov-2019- 30 Nov 2022).

Our Isolated Sabbatical

It was during this mandatory regime of social-economic lockdown imposed by the NSW Government that Nature Trail was prohibited from operating outright for these two years.

So we started this blog, spent computer time also successfully applying for various governmental compo grants totalling $56,395 – all of which were expended back into the business as claimable tax losses to be offset against future income.

We managed to sneak out bush hiking solo during the two-year lockdown, to maintain out fitness and familiarity with our various tour routes.

Nature Trail’s founder and Tour Director on a sneak solo reccie during lockdown – location undisclosed to avoid repeated petty governmental clawback

In respect to the worst of matters concerning the Blue Mountains, the serious issue of ‘Deaths in the Mountains‘, Nature Trail being a tour operator, we choose to mention those deaths involving only those involved in Outdoor Recreation activities in the Blue Mountains natural environment. We do not deal with suicides or homicides, since such deaths (whilst tragic) are outside the scope of our outdoors field of endeavour. They are rather for others like Government Health and the Police respectively.

We do recommend and comparable coverage of mishaps in the Blue Mountains in a detailed researched local book entitled: ‘Mountains Mishaps – Death & Misadventure in the Blue Mountains of NSW‘ (2nd Ed) published in 2023 by author Christopher Webber. David is a Blue Mountains local and experienced rescue volunteer. Nature Trail has met with David and purchased a copy and we highly recommend it. Refer to the link at the end of this webpage.

Regrettably, the NSW National Parks and Wildlife public office gift shop, which is situated toward the eastern end of Govett’s Leap Road in Blackheath, refuses to stock his book because they claim they are “a family shop” – sounds a ‘woke’ office-bound excuse to avoid Blue Mountains factual risk realities.

We enquired into whether there surely must be some central record or organisation that collated accounts of all such mishaps over the years. We contacted the following:

Katoomba’s Police Rescue, typically the first responders officially dispatched to find/rescue/recover missing hikers;
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (a misnomer – since it is a state department not national, nor does it care for wildlife – it indiscriminately incinerates vast swathes of native habitat on a regular basis and lays out deadly and cruel 1080 poison throughout its ‘parks’ (Comment: From our personal experience in new Zealand’s truly National Parks, we consider that all national parks across Australia should outsource the management across the ditch to New Zealand Department of Conservation to do a proper custodial job];
The volunteer NSW State Emergency Service, particularly its specialist unit, its ‘NSW SES Bush Search and Rescue (BSAR);
Local Outdoor Recreation training colleges at nearby Wentworth Falls and Lithgow
Bushwalking NSW;
The outdoor industry lead body the Outdoor Recreation Industry Council NSW Inc (ORIC), since merged renamed the Outdoors NSW & ACT.

But it was not no avail. No such central record or organisation existed (and still does not exist).

Beside guidance notes about activity safety and recommended standards offered on the websites of the last two on the list above (see hyperlinks below at the end of this webpage), else no collective efforts are being made to learn from the mistakes and tragedies of others.

So, each tragic instance/incident is reported in isolation, as if some freak event, then it’s soon forgotten by the media. No lessons are learned by authorities responsible, no ongoing improvements are applied to safety standards or education to visitors/users. So inevitably, similar tragic instances/incidents repeat time and time again.

One purpose of this Mountains Drums blog is to serve to share local knowledge and goings on about the Blue Mountains region’s great outdoors to all.

Also, it is to highlight management problems, many chronic; and to question why the governmental custodians and managers of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, fail to listen, learn and deliver world best practice World heritage custodial leadership.

Our hiking blogger Flex does not hold back. This ‘Mountains Drums‘ blog is intended to be a wake up call to the Blue Mountains community to lift its game and to actively challenge government responsible.

This is not ‘Flex’ in this photo – we just thought the photo was apt for this ‘Mountains Drums’ blog. Yes we also hybridded ‘Jungle Drums‘ for a Blue Mountains application. But should we happen to get threatened with copyright infringement, then we’ll change the photo, loan some congas and get our ‘Flex’ to be in a comparable photo shoot – may be atop recognisable Echo Point.

The articles on our Mountains Drums blog form part of Nature Trail’s contribution to the Blue Mountains community in which we live, operate and share. We value the beauty and sanctity that the natural Blue Mountains offers. We value the safety and viability of our Blue Mountain community at the same time.

Responsibly, we are concerned when these vital values are being undermined. So, we speak out as informal ‘ambassador’ locals to be a voice about staying safe where we live.

Of course visitation is for fun; but safety must come first, and then the fun is a reassuring second. Every participant recreating in the great outdoors deserves to return well to their loved ones. Through our ‘Mountains Drums’ blog channel we choose to fairly tell what’s been happening in our neck of the woods. We research the story as best we can, including ground-truthing, then we tell it warts and all. In our view, no death by misadventure is acceptable – that is the crime of suicide or culpable negligence.

References:

[1] ‘Mountains Mishaps – Death & Misadventure in the Blue Mountains of NSW‘ (2nd Ed) book published in 2023 by author Christopher Webber, Available for purchase $55 from the website: ^https://mountainsmishaps.com.au/

[2] Various guidelines listed under menu headings ‘Gear’, ‘Bush Issues’, ‘Safety’, on Bushwalking NSW website, ^https://www.bushwalkingnsw.org.au/

[3] ‘Australian Activity Adventure Standards‘, Industry Resources – Risk Management, Outdoors NSW & ACT, ^https://www.outdoorsnswact.org/copy-of-industry-resources-research