My letter to the lord mayor: Dear Lord Mayor, Hope you are well, This morning I was alerted to the fact that the Brisbane Broncos have a new jersey, and have turned it into a big banner. Thats nice. Except for the fact that this banner has been hung over a large section of Kangaroo Point (KP) Cliffs - one of the few inner city rock climbing cliffs in the world. This is very disappointing, for reasons that I will explain in this email. So why is KP important to me? I climb at Kangaroo Point at least once a week. I learnt to rock climb there. I have taught others to rock climb at KP. It next to the city, making it convenient for an early morning climb before work, and with the lights available at night, an evening climb as well. It is one of the few innercity climbing cliffs in the world. Why does it upset and disappoint me that there is a banner over the cliffs? It upsets me because the banner stops us from climbing some routes which it covers. KP is a multi-million dollar asset to the ratepayers of Brisbane, and the council has devalued it by pasting some advertising on it, rather than doing their job, as public servants, to serve the public interest. It upsets me because the council did not contact the climbing community to discuss alternatives for advertisement. And the thing is, there is an alternative space that they could have used. KP North - the section of cliff beyond the stairs at KP, which we cannot climb on, despite the fact that they are acknowledged to be safe to climb on (they are geologically stable, see report attached), and despite the fact that that section of cliffs was climbed on until 2000. So the council could have just put the banner there. But they didnt. They put it on the section of cliffs that we can climb on. The add insult to injury, the climbing community have recently been told that we would need to wait at least another year before the issue of reopening the climbing area at KP north would even be considered. And then a banner goes up, blocking a number of climbs, on the only section of cliffs we can climb on. So that is why I am disappointed about the banner, and about the actions of the council. Instead of increasing our resources for outdoor recreation, the council has actively decreased them. As I said earlier, KP is a multi-million dollar asset to the ratepayers of Brisbane. And the actions of the council this morning have served to devalue it - by pasting advertising on it - rather than doing their job, as public servants, to serve the public interest. I see no reason as to why they did not have a discussion with the climbing community, and why they could not have put the banner on KP north, or why they cannot allow us to climb on KP north. Please feel free to discuss this issue with me in person, I am available on ********** Best, Nicholas Tierney Secretary of University of Queensland Mountain Club (UQMC) PhD Candidate (Biostatistics), QUT Chair of the Bayesian Research and Applications Group, QUT Assistant Chair for Biostatistics, Statistics Society of Australia inc. (SSAI) SSAI Young Statisticians Representative for QLD
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 03:50:32 +0000
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