Mount Arapiles climbing ban plan keeps most routes open

Mount Arapiles Dyurrite looks a lot less like a write-off for Victorian climbers than it did a few months ago. A proposed amendment to the park plan would keep most of the crag’s roughly 3,300 routes open, with climbs that cut through culturally significant sites rerouted or closed.

For anyone trying to tee up a weekend west, that is the bit that matters. Parks Victoria is expected to put the amendment out for a four-week public consultation, so the final route map still has to land. Even so, the proposal now reads more like managed access than a blanket shutdown. You can plan around a smaller set of closed lines. You cannot plan around fog.

Arapiles has been stuck in that fog for a while. In late 2025, Parks Victoria asked climbers to stay out of five areas while officials worked on a management plan with Wotjobaluk Traditional Owners. The requests remained voluntary because the agency did not yet have legal power to enforce them. Some areas were avoided, some climbers pushed back, and each fresh headline seemed to send the place back through the argument machine.

Climbing Victoria says the latest draft shifts the fight to individual routes. Its summary says culturally significant sites would still be protected, but only the specific climbs with no workable mitigation would shut. That is a hard bargain for anyone attached to a favourite line, but it is different from wiping the whole destination off the calendar.

If no realistic means of mitigation exists, then those affected climbs will be closed.

— Climbing Victoria, via ABC News

For ordinary climbers, the message is practical rather than ideological. A trip could still mean big sandstone, long days on the wall, a car full of gear and the usual campsite logistics. The catch is simple: the no-go lines have to be treated as hard limits, not loose advice to test when nobody is watching.

What changes for climbers this season

Expect more homework before the ute leaves the driveway. Climbers will need updated route information, a better read on sensitive sectors and a willingness to change plans if a favourite climb sits in the wrong place. Not ideal. Still better than guessing at the base of the cliff.

Mike Rockell, chair of Climbing Victoria, framed the proposal as a chance to cool things down and rebuild trust, rather than just win a numbers game over open routes.

We hope that this can now lead to much better and positive relationships with the traditional owners.

— Mike Rockell, via ABC News

That is the grown-up version of the access argument. Wotjobaluk Traditional Owners have pushed for protection of sites they regard as significant. Any model that lasts has to start there. If climbers keep most of the cliff, the trade is straightforward enough: respect the parts that are off limits.

There is still plenty to sort out. Public consultation can change details, mitigation work needs a proper definition, and some climbers will still see any closure as too much. The useful takeaway, though, is that Arapiles does not look like it is disappearing. Right now, Victoria’s best-known climbing trip looks narrowed and managed. For blokes planning a weekend away, that is the difference between crossing it off the list and packing the ropes with a bit more respect for where they are heading.