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Flock Hill closure 18-Nov-2005 At 6:14:49 PM socialclimber

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Ceartinaly, the lease holder is well within his rights to set whatever access rules he wishes. By and large, climbers care profoundly about Flock Hill, infact the whole Castle Hill Basin. You only have to go there once to know how lucky we are to have access. I'm sure most of the reasons mentioned in the letter don't apply to climbers. The people responsible for dogs on the property, upsetting sheep , damage to the boundry fence, etc would almost ceartinly be non climbers accessing Dry Valley and since the movie, Flock Hill, from The Cave Stream car park. What bites is that we are being penelised for other peoples actions that we have no control over. Something else that bites is ignorant accusations like this...

>Large numbers of metal bolts permanently drilled into rocks by climbers
>defacing in particular the
>summit rock of Flock Hill mountain, the iconic rock that is now known
>as Aslan's rock and featured in
>the up and coming The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. Such bolts
>are an eyesore and an act
>of vandalism in our view.

These bolt have been in place for more than a decade, well before the block became an "icon"

>In addition we have contracted an operator to run movie site tours from
>1 January with Flock Hill Station receiving revenue.

This is the crux of it . There is no money in boulderers but there is in bus tours. Unfortunatly the result is, the people who use and care most about the area are now considered a nusence. Before the movie, no tourist knew or cared about the summit block of Flock Hill. Even if the boulder field looked interesting from afar, it was too much hard work to get there. Again, the lease holder is well within his rights to diversify. It wouldn't be the first time farmers have been involved in tourisim. I am waiting to see if these paying customers are prepared to get off their fat arses and hike up the hill to see "Aslans Rock" or if they think their money buys them a ride up the hill. It's too steep for anything but 4X4's at present. Maybe the flood of tourist money will buy another road, this time right into the boulders. I'm sure it wouldn't be consideres to be vandalisim, more like an investment.
Of more interest to members of this site, even limited access will be of no use to anyone who does not have easy access to the internet. If you are staying at Cragieburn camp, it may not be worth your trouble to drive 30km to th nearest computer to ask permission then travel back there a few days later to print a copy of the reply so you can show it to a flock hill staff member on demand. If you actually get permission.

Gary.