Hi Climbers

Parks Victoria (PV) is preparing a new management plan for the Grampians landscape, an area that covers the Grampians National Park and adjacent parks and reserves. You’ll find information on the Engage Victoria website – if you haven’t registered your interest there, do it now!
As part of this management plan review there will be a Stakeholder Reference Group (SRG) which will have representation of key user groups such as hikers, four-wheel-drivers and importantly us – the climbers.

This is pretty much the highest level of engagement you can have, which is good. The SRG is made up of one representative from each organisation identified by PV and invited to participate as representing a  key user group. There are about 12 organisations or groups and the VCC has been invited as the representative body of the climbing community. Once the process has been finalised by PV, the composition of the SRG will be made public. We expect this to happen soon.

The VCC Access and Environment Officer* will attend the SRG meetings, with the responsibility to communicate the needs of the climbing community. Whilst we are still awaiting formal details from Parks Victoria, we understand that the SRG will meet 4 times over the course of the next 12 months, with the first meeting likely to be held in August. As an essential part of consultation and transparency, the VCC will convene formal workshops open to anyone in the climbing community who wishes to contribute irrespective of memberships or affiliations. These workshops will be conducted not only in Melbourne, but also in the Grampians and other key locations as needed.  SRG documents will be shared with the representative in advance of the meetings and then shared with the climbing community in advance of scheduled climbing community workshops to facilitate meaningful collaboration.

We will also liaise with the Founding Council of the various climbing, mountaineering and backcountry clubs who are working on creating a unified Victorian peak body. This is about giving all clubs and climbers a voice.

Now if you want to get involved in this process, help setting up the workshops or just share your thoughts, please get in touch directly with the VCC or your climbing club leaders.

Paula (President VCC) and Philipp (VP VCC) are inviting you to two more casual pub info nights on the 4th and 19th July. There you can ask any questions about everything what’s going on in the climbing world or just have one to seventeen** beers.

Carlton North • 6:00 pm • 4.7.2019 • details on the facebook event page
Halls Gap • 5:30 pm • 19.7.2019 • details on the facebook event page

Cheers 🍻

* Paula has been appointed as the interim AE Officer until we refill this position.
** Ben complained when we said only sixteen beers.