Castle Downs - Southland climbing area under mining threat
14 October 2007 - 9:14pm
Castle Downs is a Limestone area near Dipton in Northern Southland.See Rock DeLuxe.
It appears that Ravensdown has mining rights (which seem to walk over most laws) to the area and are already mining.
They intend to take the top and back off the cliffs leaving effectively a facade like an old western frontier movie set.
bloody good crag that, i went there a while back with john mccallum and climbed some splendid routes,
as you approach the crag by car you are confronted with a fairly gobsmackin piece of crag which has an existing quarry behind it, and i'm pretty sure no routes on the front
the actual developed crag is another k up the road and is not as impressive (to look at)
so maybe they are just planning to exopnd the existing operation?
anyway as i said a very worthy detour when en route to the outstanding bouldering at colac bay....