The Rainbow Region/Mt.Warning/Wollumbin

Mt.Warning/Wollumbin

The Rainbow Region
If you had two weeks and sturdy shoes, you could walk the entire rim of the southern hemisphere’s largest ancient volcano. 
This is the “Northern Rivers” region of Australia, including the southeast of Queensland and the northeast of New South Wales. 
With some careful observation, you would also move through deep earth time and even get glimpses of the future.
Dominating this landscape is Mt. Wollumbin, named ‘Wild Turkey’ by some, the ‘Cloud Catcher’ by others, sacred to the aboriginal tribes of the area. 
That peak, often lost in weather, is the plug for the volcano. It rose up 23 million years ago (mya). 
This volcano was active on and off for about three million years before its walls collapsed. 
It had come up through Brisbane siltstones laid down between 500-250 mya. 
It poured over Mesozoic sediments, which had been set down earlier (210-135 mya). 
Finally the area gave over to the power of water: erosion by rain, by new rivers, the silts of flooding and the sea level changes of the Quaternary years. So now - these valleys, ravines, waterfalls, coastal plains.
In places the soil, product of untold years of erosion, is said to be 12 metres deep.
In other places, the ancient Brisbane rock is visible. 
And along the coast is white sand, itself an erosion product of eons.
Looking up to Wollumbin, you can see eons unreeling. 
Looking over the caldera, there are 366,507 hectares of Gondwana Rain Forests. 
Their heritage goes back some 200 million years when continents now separated were one land. Half of today’s unique Australian plants and a third of its mammals and birds are here, scattered over 50 World Heritage listed national parks and rainforests.
From some 40,000 years ago, there are tales by the first people here, who marked some of their social divisions with the land: the women’s business to the seaside lakes, the men’s to the Wollumbin mountain. From several hundred years ago, there are Captain Cook’s tales and his new name for the plug. 
As it marked a treacherous coastline, he called it Mt. Warning.
Colloquially, the present day inhabitants know the area as

the ”Rainbow Region”. 
In the ever-changing weather, the colours arch, marking bridges and promises. 
These are expressed in vivid arts, active citizenship and environmental innovations. 
There, did you see that? 
That local something? 
It’s the first appearance of what we will soon know as “tomorrow”.
Mary Gardner, writer & biologist, Byron Bay

http://www.rainbowdreaming.org/rainbow_region.html

The track re-opened Sept 24th (the day after my birthday;-)

" The popular Mt Warning summit walking track at Wollumbin National Park near Murwillumbah has been re-opened after eight months out of action.
The four-and-a-half kilometre track used by around 100,000 visitors every year was severely damaged by ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald last January, which forced its closure due to fallen trees and landslips.
Its closure affected local tourism and businesses in both Murwillumbah and the nearby village of Uki which also suffered another blow afterwards when its historic pub burnt to the ground and is yet to be rebuilt.

Mt.Warning Erupts on the 23rd

The NSW government committed $200,000 to rebuild the track, which was completed around three months ahead of schedule with a recent spate of fine weather helping.
Yesterday, environment minister Robyn Parker and Lismore MP Thomas George visited the park to thank National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) staff for their hard work in getting the project completed. just in time for the school holidays which started this week.
They also acknowledged the local community and businesses for their patience while the track and car park were being cleared of debris.
The work included repairs to the summit lookout platforms which provide the panoramic views of the Tweed Valley and surrounding ranges.
Mr George said more than 10 tonnes of debris was cleared from the car park alone, which was wood-chipped and used as mulch in nearby nature reserves, including Marshalls Creek, Cudgen and Wooyung.
‘The Australia Day weekend storm caused significant damage to the mountain, including extensive blow-downs of ancient forest trees and three landslips on the eastern face,’ he said.
‘The summit path has been re-routed in four separate locations due to the massive root-balls of the felled trees blocking the path.’
NPWS regional manager Mark Johnston said the clearing on Wollumbin was especially difficult for the crews.
‘Normally mountain tracks are cleared from the summit down, but because the 4.4km path was steep and blocked the clean-up began at the ground and worked up,’ Mr Johnston said.
‘This made the job more challenging and dangerous as discarded debris could not be rolled down the mountain.’
Re-construction facts: 
·  The NPWS engaged specialist arborists who abseiled between the top of trees with a chainsaw to remove dangerous overhanging limbs.
·  50 tonnes of gravel was airlifted into the park by a helicopter and dropped at various points along the summit track.
·  A team of NPWS ground staff has been working in the park since April 30.
· All of the contractors, with the exception of one, came from the Northern Rivers.
·  Mt Trails, Tasmanian experts in building walking tracks in Australian national parks, worked on the track, and employed local indigenous workers."

Mt Warning track re-opened

Climb Every Mountain?  
Funny also how the track opens from 
Cyclone Oswald's damage and then I read this -
 Alice Oswald has become the first poet to win the £25,000 Warwick Prize for Writing.
 Her winning work, Memorial, is a reworking of Homer's Iliad.
"I'm very surprised and grateful, both to the judges and to Homer," Oswald said, when her win was announced on Tuesday night 
(Sept 24th).
Alice Oswald becomes first poet to win Warwick Prize

As I tried to upload photos on this post, 
Blogger kept giving me the "ignore warning" message, 
and what is the name of this mountain again?-)