The more people head out into wildness areas, the more – sadly – damage they seem to inflict on the environment … sometimes through ignorance rather than malice.
In the English county of Yorkshire, walkers are having to be reminded not to remove rocks from drystone walls and hillsides in order to spell out their names for selfies.
And the authorities are also telling people to stop building their own cairns. They say the rearranging of stones is a significant threat to the national park, and that the stones being moved about may actually come from monuments that are thousands of years old.
It is, of course, a problem which is also a familiar one in Australia.
A human-made pile of rocks in England's beautiful Peak District, PIC: CIzza
It seems that the compulsion of some walkers to pile rocks on top of each other in a form of ‘inuksuk’ is becoming more widespread, presumably as some sort of ‘I was here’ signal to those that may follow.
As bad as that is, it pales into relative insignificance to the offensiveness of those who deface ancient rocks with painted graffiti or carvings.
Hard as it is believe, some walkers have been taking rocks off England’s dry stone walls to make their own mini cairns. PIC: Cizza
And circumstantial evidence suggests that that problem is also on the rise.
Last year, a bushwalker appealed to the New South Wales government to increase ranger patrols and maintenance in Royal National Park after being shocked by the amount of graffiti near the popular Wedding Cake Rock viewing area, south of Bundeena.
Sharyn Cullis told the ABC that she was appalled to see graffiti scrawled on the beautiful white rocks, and red ochre being used as chalk.
“People were putting their initials and writing their names on the soft sandstone, and some had carved things into the rocks,” Ms Cullis told the ABC. “Those people are being really disrespectful to the environment and others who are using the park.”
As if rock piling, littering, daubing graffiti on rocks, and even ripping off tree branches to feed campfires wasn’t bad enough, last year a mindless minority took it ‘next level’.
NSW police were forced to launch an investigation after stalactites and stalagmites in an ancient cave system were deliberately damaged.
No, I am not annoyed by piles of rocks. I don’t think we have any Stonehenge-type structures to vandalize. I am annoyed, however, at trails of toilet paper and other litter. And no paint! No carving! Piling is ok. Feeling annoyed by little piles of rearranged rocks I feel is petty.
No..building little rock piles everywhere is stupid…
Leave the bush and natural terrain as it was..
Dressing up ant beds is also dumb and indicates some people have no idea and see nothing in the natural landscape and beauty of our country.
Stay at home, build little rock piles and dress up things in your own backyard and leave the Aussie bush alone..
Couldn’t agree more with you Pat. It’s as stupid as decorating oneself with tattoos – but at least that only spoils their personal looks
Just a reminder; 50% of the population have an IQ less than 100.
Piling is just a foretaste of what the powerful mining corporates do all the time though on a much grander scale.
Jan, We do have even better structures than Stonehenge, but mostly in the form of natural beauty for the yobbos to vandalise – which is far worse.
Are you also OK with burnt patches of grass or dirt, or dangerous fire rings, or mangled trees and shrubs, or rubbish strewn around.
What about the greedy grey nomads who rape and pillage Karumba it is disgusting the way they catch fish way more than they need
Not all People are greedy esp. many Grey Nomads , many are very respectful people who would rather fix things than cause damage. Not all grey nomads fish either , we don’t and don’t even have a fishing line . I agree in the main thou, some people are greedy and some don’t give a toss and some just don’t want to be fare. This goes over the board of age thou don’t you think… !!
On a recent trip out to Kununurra we noticed that some vandals persist in carving initial etc into boat trees along the highway
why do they have to spoil these trees
Agree, little rock piles are a desecration of nature. Go back to the ashphalt of suburbia idiots
It’s just plain stupid. What’s the point? Dressing up termite mounds is littering because over time fabrics deteriorate & end up littering the bush. Also thongs/shoes slung up in trees. Mindless idiots.
Hi, During my wife and I’s travel in various states we saw more and more of this.
We have mindless idiots in this Country that think that they can do what they please.
Maybe it would be a good idea if the idiot climate activist were to try and stop the desecration instead instead of stopping people from going about the daily lives. Instead of setting of flares that pollute the air, that maybe they could stop damage to our wilderness areas.
If they want to protest about climate change then go and demonstrate in the countries that are the biggest polluters.
My friend and cleaned up many rest stops in South Australia on our last trip and reported one to the government that had feces near the road and no bins for the waste even though it was a stop to throw away food that couldn’t be taken into South Australia
Maybe it’s all just a matter of perspective. I certainly don’t agree with defacing or destroying ancient artefacts or upsetting the environmental balance.
But I do ponder whether the ancient perpetrators of the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt or the “graffiti artists” of the traditional owners of our country might have been just as reviled by their peers of the time.
Now we flock and marvel at those antics and sometimes pay to do so.
Who knows? Maybe some day in the distant future the stone piles will be yet another tourist attraction for travelers to add to their must see list.
I really don’t like to see these cairns- they just don’t belong. So I have started doing my thing for the environment by restoring the original state to the best of my ability.
Annoyed and disgusted.