The last of the closed areas of Namadgi National Park re-opened last week (9 April), well ahead of its original timeline.
Minister for Planning and Land Management, Mick Gentleman encouraged the Canberra community to get back to the Park and experience the areas which were closed for over 15 months.
“Most of Namadgi will reopen to the public once again, except for the Yankee Hat Rock Art Site, the Orroral Campground and some roads,” Mr Gentleman said.
“Our teams have worked hard to make the park safer for the community to get back into the Park well ahead of schedule, with a focus on critical issues with infrastructure and along public roads into the park,” he said.
“Recovery work was able to progress faster than originally anticipated thanks to a combination of favourable weather conditions and the hard work of the recovery team, Roads ACT and various volunteer groups from within the community.”
Mr Gentleman said re-opened areas included Mt Tennant; the Australian Alps Walking Track; Honeysuckle Ridge; the Bimberi Wilderness Area; and Orroral Valley.
The Minister said because of heavy rainfall in late March, some public roads remained closed which could restrict vehicle access in certain areas of the park.
“The Yankee Hat Rock Art Site remains closed as we work on upgrades to the site with the Ngunnawal people to integrate their values, lore and knowledge into this work,” he said.
Mr Gentleman said the safety hazards brought about by the Orroral Valley bushfire in January last year hadn’t completely gone away and asked people to avoid walking in fire affected areas on windy days as many tree branches were still very fragile.
