https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-07/ ... /104317150
Boom in nature tourism is increasing safety challenges for Blue Mountains, parks boss says
Stateline
By Ursula Malone
Topic:National Parks
10h ago
It was just after sunset on a chilly August evening in the Blue Mountains when the first call came through.
Five teenage boys had failed to return from a bush walk at Wentworth Falls.
Emergency services were still scrambling to respond when they heard there was a second group in trouble.
Four men had activated a personal locator beacon in bushland near Beauchamp Falls.
By midnight, both groups had been safely walked out of the bush.
But only after two hazardous and costly rescue operations, involving police helicopters and dozens of police and ambulance personnel.
In both cases, the bushwalkers had set out on tracks that were clearly marked as closed.
A composite image of a national parks badge, a bird, and the sun
Tracks in the national park are sometimes closed for visitor safety. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)
For David Crust, who heads up the Blue Mountains branch of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), it's incredibly frustrating.
"Often when a track is closed, it's for people's own safety," he said.
"We've done a really detailed risk assessment right across the park when we look at the geotechnical risk of rock falls and landslides and we've got a pre-emptive closure plan that's triggered by the forecast rainfall."
Mr Crust said rock falls and landslides were risks at the Blue Mountains.
He has worked in the Blue Mountains for 34 years and oversees the management of a million hectares of protected land.
Mr Crust is also responsible for maintaining 400 kilometres of walking tracks.
He said he's never seen anything like the level of destruction wrought by the elements over the past five years.
First, there was the Black Summer bushfires of 2019, which destroyed 70 per cent of the World Heritage area.
Then came successive years of floods, triggering rockfalls and landslides.
"We cleared and reopened the track within three months of the fires but we've had three significant landslides every year since then," Mr Crust said.
"Some of these tracks we've had to repair three times."
Over the same period, there's been a marked increase in the number of visitors to the Blue Mountains amid a boom in nature tourism.
two tourists look at the Three Sisters lookout
The number of people visiting the Blue Mountains has increased significantly post-COVID.
"After the COVID restrictions were lifted, we saw a real spike in visitation to Blue Mountains," Mr Crust said.
"It kind of felt like people were desperate to get out. They were desperate to do something in a healthy environment, in the outdoors, and our visitation numbers have been up significantly since then.
"I also think that the relatively recent cost-of-living pressures have meant that families in particular are looking for opportunities for family-friendly, good value activities, and of course all of our walking tracks are free."
Keen hiker Matthew Crompton said some walking tracks have been closed for years.
Track closures have caused frustration among the hiking community.
"You can open up virtually any alerts page for NSW National Parks and see a list of closures as long as your arm," Sydney bushwalker Matthew Crompton said.
"And there's no sense of how long those have been closed unless you've been monitoring them.
"In many cases, tracks have been closed for two or three years or more and there's a sense that the maintenance and land management isn't keeping up."
A composite image of two no walking signs at the Blue Mountains National Park
David Crust acknowledges that track closures have become more commonplace.
"Over the past three or four years, we've had so much rain and so much instability across the landscape that the closures have been a lot more frequent than they would have been previously.
"But it's a really important part of making sure that we're looking after our visitors."
Since COVID, there's been growing demand for nature-based tourism and the NSW government is keen to capture some of the market. (Ursula Malone)
In some cases, there's been a decision not to repair walking tracks and to close them permanently due to the ongoing risk of rockfalls and landslides.
In other cases, sections of track deemed to be too high-risk have been re-routed.
The risks involved were brought into sharp focus two years ago.
On an idyllic autumn day, a holidaying family of five from the UK set out on a bush walk at Wentworth Falls.
Without warning, a section of the cliff came away sending large rocks tumbling down on top of them.
A police helicopter
A police helicopter responding to a fatal accident that killed two members of a British family. (ABC News: Jake Lapham)
A 15-year-old girl was the only one who emerged uninjured.
Her father and nine-year-old brother were killed.
Her mother and another brother, aged 14, were seriously injured.
The family is now suing the NSW government with the case expected to explore whether the walking track should have been open after days of rain.
A group of people walking.
David Crust's expression darkens at the mention of another tragedy, this time involving one of his own workers.
In November 2017, a 36-year-old contractor was crushed to death when a section of sandstone cliff collapsed on top of him.
He and two other men had been working to remove a rockfall hazard on a walking track at Wentworth Falls.
In recent years, the NSW government has poured $32 million into the Blue Mountains to increase accessibility and cater for the growing demand for nature tourism.
"Tourism is a major contributor to the economy in Blue Mountains, it's the most important contributor and we're a very big part of that," Mr Crust said.
Ten-and-a-half million dollars was spent on establishing the Grand Cliff Top Walk, a two-day walk aimed at the mainstream tourist market.
The attraction is one of 13 Great Walks being developed in national parks across the state.
"I don't think it's a good thing that the only people who can access a place are those who can carry all of their own gear and do that because they're fit enough," NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said.
"The idea that families can access these very special places, that we can protect other places by actually managing the way in which people walk through them, is also important."
But there are complaints that the program has come at the cost of maintaining walking tracks in more remote areas.
"The Grand Cliff Top walk is nice but it isn't in the middle of this UNESCO World Heritage area," Mr Crompton said.
"It's not out in the bush and a lot of it is on paved suburban streets.
"There's nothing wrong with Great Walks. What's wrong is the prioritisation of Great Walks to the neglect of so many other things."
Tourists pose for a photo at a scenic lookout.
Visitor numbers to the Blue Mountains are up 30 per cent since the Grand Cliff Top Walk opened in March. (ABC News: Ursula Malone)
It's a claim David Crust rejects.
"The investment that's gone into those Great Walks hasn't compromised the investment that we're making in walking tracks elsewhere across our national parks."
He said over the past four years $32 million had been spent on track maintenance, repairs and upgrades in the Blue Mountains.
"So that's a level of investment that's well and truly above and beyond what's happened previously."
Work has started on another multi-day walk in the Gardens of Stone Conservation Area near the mining town of Lithgow, just west of the Blue Mountains.
"Part of this process, I guess, was about helping to make a significant contribution to the visitor economy for Lithgow and helping Lithgow be better placed for the transition away from mining and coal production," Mr Crust said.
An earlier plan to build the nation's longest zipline was promptly scrapped when Labor won government.
A proposal to lease part of the area for development by a commercial tourism operator is still under consideration.
The company, Wild Bush Luxury Experience Pty Ltd, has outlined a plan to build cabins at three separate sites for the exclusive use of its guests.
The company, which is owned by adventure tourism group Experience Co, operates the Maria Island Walk in Tasmania, for which guests are charged more than $1,000 a night.
"Our vision is to create an iconic eco-tourism experience which shares the stories of this amazing destination," Experience Co CEO John O'Sullivan said.
He said the planned guided walk would create up to 11 full-time jobs and support local producers and suppliers.
Wilderness campaigner Keith Muir says if approved it would set a dangerous precedent.
"This proposal is just one of many in Australia's national parks that are seen by the tourism industry as the next development opportunity," he said.
Director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, Keith Muir.
"The developers are busy propagating a myth that their infrastructure proposals are compatible with conservation.
"The tragic reality is that many of these proposals, if they are allowed to proceed, will permanently damage our national parks forever."
The final say on whether the development will go ahead now rests with Ms Sharpe.
"I've got to still make my decision and I'm waiting to see all the input from the community in relation to the submissions that have come in," she said.
An announcement is expected by the end of the year.
