Back From The Brink - The Grose Wilderness

So wrote George Caley after clambering down to the confluence of the Grose River and Wilderness Brook in 1804. He was on an epic journey to Mount Banks, and his troubles were only just beginning. At every turn he was confronted by canyons, strange rock formations, thick vegetation or amazing insects.

Caley and his convict assistants did not appreciate the natural values and opportunities for solitude afforded by the Grose Wilderness. When they camped in the sassafras in Dismal Dingle, near Claustral Canyon, his men found it so oppressive that on the return journey they refused to stop there even for a rest. "We’d prefer the worst cell we’ve ever seen in a prison," they said.

Such places were no prison to the Aborigines. They had travelled through and lived in the Grose area for thousands of years. There is evidence of significant occupation quite close to Blue Gum. But the early whites were repelled, and many are still repelled. Even in the tracked areas, many people find the prospect of a walk deep into the valley or out amongst the mazes of ridges too unpleasant, too difficult, or too scary to contemplate.

Development has been kept out of most of the Grose area for two centuries, thanks to its ruggedness and to various moves to preserve it. As early as 1875 a large part was reserved partly in recognition that it was a "national spectacle", thereby defining what could be described as Australia’s first national park. This did not however prevent leases being taken up at Blue Gum Forest, and it was one of these that became the focus of the campaign in 1931-32 - a campaign which probably did more than anything else to give momentum to the national park campaigns of Myles Dunphy and his bushwalking followers.

In 1959, when Dunphy’s Blue Mountains National Park dream started to be realised, parts of the Grose formed the lions share of the new reserve.

Not that there haven’t been real threats to the area’s integrity. Schemes for dams, mines, power stations, roads and logging have all surfaced at various times. In the 1920s a mining company proposed to transform the valley "from a riot of scrubland to a hive of industry". In the 1850s the Grose River offered the favoured route for the western railway. And as recently as 1999, Earth Sanctuaries proposed to fence off part of the valley for a wildlife

sanctuary with associated tourist developments.

None of these things got off the ground. Except the fire trails. After the 1957 bushfires it was judged that the best means of preventing future such disasters was to bulldoze a road along every ridge. Today most of these roads are redundant and – consistent with Confederation’s vision – some of them have been closed and are revegetating. Others, although they are in the wilderness, are to continue as management roads, though public traffic will not be allowed – except for bicycles.

A glaring anomaly is the Mount Hay Road, which is to remain as a non-wilderness finger penetrating deep into the wilderness, in spite of a strong case put by Confederation and the conservation lobby in general that the road should be terminated at Fortress Ridge or The Pinnacles. Many fear that the tranquil spot out near Mount Hay will one day be an Echo Point.

Of course, bushwalkers and campers have their own impact on natural areas. For this reason Acacia Flat, with its high visitation, toilets and signposts, has not been included in the Grose Wilderness – along with the Govett Gorge and the popular tracks there. Fittingly, the patch of ground all the fuss was about in 1931-32, the original Blue Gum Forest Reserve, is included in the wilderness. (The wilderness boundary runs alongside the Perrys and Lockleys tracks: people walking from Pierces pass or Victoria Falls are now in wilderness, and need to limit their party to eight people, unless they obtain approval for a greater number.)

In Back from the Brink I wrote "If the Grose Wilderness comes into being, the wild values of the area will be enshrined in legislation. Generations to come will be able to explore its hidden recesses, or sit and contemplate it in solitude, without further threat from new roads or tourist developments. They will be able to contemplate the activities of people like George Caley, … and countless Aborigines before them – and wonder that the place has survived intact."

It has a few warts, but the Grose Wilderness has now come into being, and the area will indeed survive intact.