There have been extensive boulder falls from the forty metre high cliffs at the summit of the Alum Mountain since the commencement of blasting of the Karuah to Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade at the village of Nerong, some 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah.
As is the case with the mountain’s lower slopes, the summit is a heritage, research, tourism, and cultural area. It has been recorded by NSW State Forests as attracting thousands of visitors per annum and a car park, walking trails and two lookouts have been constructed for public use.
The RTA is dealing with the matter of these boulder falls in Communo-Fascist style: with blatantly preposterous lies.
In a letter dated 16th May, 2008, N.S.W. Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, Michael Daley M.P., claimed that ‘two geotechnical scientists and a geologist visited the mountain on Friday, 9th November, 2007’ and that they found ‘no evidence of the recent movement of large boulders’. The boulders, which are large chunks of rock from the mountain’s cliffs, shatter upon impact with the ground and the resultant fragments, some of which are also boulder-sized (i.e. over ten inches in diameter), discharge in all directions. They do not leave tracks along the ground. They do, however, smash and slice the trunks of trees and a section of the walking trail to the Ted Baker Lookout has been crushed. The trunk of a tree about a quarter of the way down the mountain road has been sliced in two places by boulder fragments. Further details, including photographs are at: http://pacific-highway.blogspot.com/
The Alum Mountain’s cliffs are porous. In his letter of 16th May, 2008, Michael Daley, Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, also stated that evidence of ‘minor rock falls’ had been found on Friday, 9th November, 2007 and: ‘Geotechnical staff attribute the falls to the recent rainfall over the past couple of months’. Yes, in the months prior to Michael Daley’s letter there was high rainfall - but there’s no way on this earth that rainfall which occurred in 2008 caused ‘rock falls’ in 2007. Michael Daley’s letter, however, provides written acknowledgement from the RTA that rain can cause rock falls on the Alum Mountain.
This post initially published: 20th July, 2008.
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