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Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 26
Author
Human Impact on the Arapiles/Tooan State Park
scarecrow
10-May-2010
4:29:44 PM
Hi There,

I'm doing a report on human impact on the national park at Araps for my Year 12 Outdoor Education, just wondering if I could get some opinions, facts, anything from the Chockstone community.

Obviously there are two main areas of impact: Camping and Climbing.

So far I've got:
Camping Impacts:
- Paths/foot traffic
- Litter/Glass (numbers of campers annually)
- Camping numbers: wildlife noise
- Tames wildlife
- Waste produced, huge numbers of bins (no recycling)
- Groundwater impact (toilets, bore water etc)
- Fireplace modification/Firewood collection

Climbing Impact:
- Cleaning routes
- Peregrine Falcon nests, certain climbs etc
- Other bird life being affected?
- VCC and Cliffcare (Arapiles) track work and others
- Bolts, chipped holds, pitons, chalk, chains, rap anchors etc.


So if anyone has some examples of the above or photos that you think would be of use, it would be a great help - PM or just reply on here, any discussion will be really useful!

ajfclark
10-May-2010
4:37:54 PM
Have you considered:
  • the telecommunications tower
  • erosion
  • bees
  • three corner jack
scarecrow
10-May-2010
4:38:57 PM
I had the telecommunications tower - a bit hard to miss!!

The bees I have considered, but don't really know which climbs they're on/areas they congregate - anyone?

Three corner Jack I will put in there - thanks, I know it started over at Dec Crag and has begun to spread to the pines, is the national parks association doing anything about this?

Erosion is a good one. The main areas (I'm guessing) are descent trails with no definite path or track, such as the watchtower faces and back of the organ pipes descent gully (IE through the hole).

Thank you afjclark.
hero
10-May-2010
4:55:18 PM
and bridal veil, it has completely taken over King Rat.

Eduardo Slabofvic
10-May-2010
5:12:31 PM
three cornered jack, blue tarps, subarus, dogs, mallets..... the list goes on!
BA
10-May-2010
5:47:23 PM
And don't forget the rifle range, that helped minimise the impact by climbers.

JamesMc
10-May-2010
7:42:58 PM
pine trees
the road
martym
10-May-2010
7:59:12 PM
Try contacting Louise Shepard - she seems to be around with a lot of landcare types checking out the weed spread as well as wildlife spotting.
If you're about "environmental impacts" - rumour has it council will only pay for once a week rubbish truck to go out to Araps, thus the reason the (at a guess) 90% recyclable waste goes into landfill.
The argument is that the $2 camping fee will be increased if they have to send a recycling truck.
Access T CliffCare
10-May-2010
10:10:17 PM
Hi Scarecrow,

Drop me an email - can probably help you out with some info also.

On 10/05/2010 martym wrote:

>If you're about "environmental impacts" - rumour has it council will only
>pay for once a week rubbish truck to go out to Araps, thus the reason the
>(at a guess) 90% recyclable waste goes into landfill.
>The argument is that the $2 camping fee will be increased if they have
>to send a recycling truck.


With regards to the rubbish - The main problem with the rubbish situation (there was a thread about this - AJF - I'm sure you can find it :) is that people don't keep the general rubbish out of the recycling bins(which used to be there but aren't anymore). The Recycling truck used to visit the Campground. Recycle bins must only contain recycle rubbish. Once it is contaminated with anything else the collectors refuse to take it. Happens at all councils, not just Arapiles. This is what happened at Arapiles so now they only have general rubbish bins. I did put signs on the notice board alerting people as to where they can take their bottles and plastics locally or taking them home but for the most part people put everything in the bins. Also leave hard rubbish such as broken chairs, sleeping bags etc. Rubbish topic has come up many times on Chockstone - probably will again.


cheers,

Tracey
jrc
11-May-2010
9:35:51 AM
I agree with getting in touch with Louise; she has a real love for Arapiles and acts as a helpful guardian of the crag. Also the Cliffcare folks.

I first went there in 1974. 30 December. No posts around the pines. No fire bans. We just drove our Holden under the pines and put our Paddy Pallin 'Glen' tent up. Made a fire using pine needles. Ate sausages and drank beer. Walked to the cliffs in Volleys. Very Aussie. Iain Sedgeman drove up in his Holden a day or so later; he has a wonderful memory for minitiae. Given the sad demise of Chris B, Iain would be good to talk to as someone who would remember the detail of what the place was like before it became well known.
That said, Araps is hardly that popular (thank heaven there is no lake, beach or river right next to it) and the few simple measures to control camping activity, use the defined walking paths and pave high traffic areas like D-minor seem to work pretty well in preserving Arapiles much the same as I remember it nearly 40 years ago (I was last there in Jan this year - but not in the Holden).

ambyeok
11-May-2010
12:51:15 PM
Dont forget delinquent youths throwing empty beer bottles from the lookout.

ajfclark
11-May-2010
1:07:58 PM
Those broken bottles are always my favourite part of belaying on that huge ledge on Panzer...
lacto
11-May-2010
2:26:35 PM
>
>I first went there in 1974. 30 December. No posts around the pines. No
>fire bans. We just drove our Holden under the pines and put our Paddy Pallin
>'Glen' tent up. Made a fire using pine needles. Ate sausages and drank
>beer. Walked to the cliffs in Volleys. Very Aussie. Iain Sedgeman drove
>up in his Holden a day or so later; he has a wonderful memory for minitiae.
>Given the sad demise of Chris B, Iain would be good to talk to as someone
>who would remember the detail of what the place was like before it became
>well known.
>That said, Araps is hardly that popular (thank heaven there is no lake,
>beach or river right next to it) and the few simple measures to control
>camping activity, use the defined walking paths and pave high traffic areas
>like D-minor seem to work pretty well in preserving Arapiles much the same
>as I remember it nearly 40 years ago (I was last there in Jan this year
>- but not in the Holden).

I was first there in may 1970 . There was a fence around the pines which we jumped to pitch tents fires were outside the pines. The major fire had still to go through so there were very few wattles which came after the fire, I have been there once with someone who collected half a dozen rabbits for dinner before dawn (guns were allowed ) and all the dug up bullets carefully placed on the watchtower ledges I have seen somebody belaying on tiger wall area from the bullbar of their landrover. The red flags on he rifle range provided good incentive to get of the cliffs in the area . They would go up around noon
ZERO
12-May-2010
10:45:40 AM
Note that Arapiles-Tooan is onlya STATE PARK, not a National Park.
Check the Parks Vic website (www.parkweb.vic.gov.au) and see if you can find their Plan of Management.
This should have strategies for issues mentioned.

Jodestar
12-May-2010
11:12:07 AM
biotic disturbance due to human traffic - lichen, bryophytes, moss, algae etc. would be happening on the ground and also on the rock.

Effects on the ground include changes in moisture retention, biomass and soil nutrients. on rock there are microscopic organisms that live within moss and also feed on algae etc. So effectively influencing a whole microhabitat.

human and vehicular traffic also compact the ground, which influences soil communities.

human foot traffic and cars spread weeds and also plant diseases via seeds etc stuck to shoes, tyres etc.

also consider increased air pollution due to vehicles.

The good Dr
12-May-2010
1:22:52 PM
The greatest human impact is actually human use and alteration of the surrounding lands for agriculture etc. This alters animal habitat requirements and pressures, changes migration patterns and feeding pressures. he flora is also dramatically affected both by altered fauna impacts and the availability of seed resources, fire regimes, plant distribution etc. Unfortunately this impact the management of the park, as management will be required to preserve species diversity which affects the natural ebb and flow of biodiversity within environments. As such, Arapiles as we know it and view it today is likely to be a different environment than 300, 10,000 and 200,000 years ago.

These things are difficult to quantify as there is no base data to work from.

Also remember that the Australian environment was dramatically affected by the indigenous population.
kieranl
12-May-2010
1:36:29 PM

This image shows the vegetation below the right Watchtower face in 1977.
I'll dig out a current day image for comparison.
Wendy
12-May-2010
3:04:06 PM
The mount has certainly benefited from gaining protected status,and the removal of livestock, but it is still very much an eco island, so wildlife are unable to move around freely to find suitable habitat and food in hard times or if populations out grow the park. It also means that fertilisers and pesticides are more likely to end up in the park and weeds can easily invade.

Positive human impacts (or should that be damage repair and prevention of further damage?) have included track stabilisation, revegetation and weed removal. 20 years ago, the north camp ground was basically bare, and there was much less vegetation and far more tracks in the immediate area around the pines. Revegetation, fences and track closures helped the recovery there. Patches of bridal creeper, horehound and caltrop have been removed or poisoned.

Incidently, there's still a big pile of rocks at the base of Pharos gully. You might miss it if you are walking along the track, it's in the trees near the road, and they need a helping hand to get up to the steep bit of the track past Running on Empty. There's a few sizable piles on the way up there, I'm quite impressed at the amount moved already, but there's heaps to go.

Zebedee
12-May-2010
10:33:09 PM
You need to consider that the park is much more than the bit between the rock and Alfred Lockwood Drive. Don't have an aerial view in front of me but only about one quarter of the park is in this area that gets 98% of climber related activity (esp if you include Mitre Rock which has the least unaffected surrounds). Around the back where there is no rockclimbing there is signicant scrub not to mention the Tooan section.
Wendy
13-May-2010
6:21:20 PM
And a golf course

the bit of remnant bush are still pretty broken up. There was a proposal to reveg a wildlife corridor between them - it might even have suggested linking up to the parks in the south west - cobbobonee forest and the like. I don't think it got off the ground though.

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 26
There are 26 messages in this topic.

 

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