Last October, Mt Warning was closed permanently to everyone except Aboriginal people by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment’s National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS) after it declared the mountain to be ‘a place of sacred ceremonies linked to traditional law and custom,’ particular to the Bundjalung nation.

Mt Warning in Northern NSW is one of the biggest shield volcanoes in the southern hemisphere and is surrounded by breathtakingly beautiful scenery which has drawn visitors to it since the mid-1800s.