A group of Australian white supremacists have defied a climbing ban at Wollumbin Mountain in New South Wales, unfurling a banner at the summit which said “Mt Warning for the White man” and posting the images on social media.
Mt Warning is the former name of the peak. The site is sacred to Aboriginal people, and a ban on climbing above 600 metres is in place.
However, the Queensland chapter of neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, shared photos from a weekend hike in late October, showing 13 black-clad members holding the banner at the peak, along with the Australian flag and their organisation’s flag.
“White Australians established and maintained the trail for nearly a century and white Australians will decide who climbs it,” the group wrote. “Australia was built by and for white people and we are taking the mountain and country back.”
Wollumbin was initially closed to the public in 2020 due to social distancing requirements during the pandemic. Since then, Indigenous custodians, the Wollumbin Consultative Group, have kept the summit trail closed to everyone except local Aboriginal men.
A local place management plan noted the mountain was a place of “the highest significance to the Bundjalung people,” but public access to the peak had resulted in vandalism, graffiti, rubbish, and other disturbance of the site.
The trail was once extremely popular, attracting an estimated 100,000 people a year, many of whom climbed it in the early morning hours because the peak is the first location in mainland Australia to see the sunrise.
The climbs generated $10 million in revenue for the NSW Department of National Parks, which has now spent more than $200,000 in taxpayer funds keeping the mountain closed, including $7,000 a week on security guards.
The ban has angered many locals and climbing enthusiasts from around Australia, and the Libertarian Party has called for it to be reopened, as has newly elected independent Tweed councillor Kimberly Hone.
In August, NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick posted a video of himself at the summit, saying he was part of a group of about 20 people who accessed the trail at the time, including Marc Hendrickx, who had received a $300 fine for defying the ban in April.
NSW Police said officers had not been called to the site over the past two weekends to respond to protests, but investigators are now working with National Parks and Wildlife Service staff to look into the reported breach.
NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said any attempt to spread hate would be taken extremely seriously.
“This behaviour is utterly disgusting and I condemn those involved,” she said in a statement.
“To these far-right extremists and neo-Nazis who are reportedly from Queensland. You and your vile demonstration are not welcome in NSW.”
