A 4WD driver who ignored signs advising a Northern Rivers national park was closed, got stuck and abandoned the car, has been fined nearly $5,000 for the adventure.
Mooball National Park is currently closed to the public until early 2024 while flood repairs continue, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Services said last week.
The agency said several significant landslips had impacted Baranbali Road and Wabba Road.
‘The roads in Mooball National Park are closed because there is a legitimate risk to the safety of visitors driving on those roads,’ NPWS Principal Project Officer Silas Sutherland said.
‘The driver ignored three separate signs stating, “Park Closed” and “Road Closed” to reach its final destination,’ Mr Sutherland said.
‘The vehicle was found abandoned in steep terrain, and a number of NPWS staff, tow trucks and large plant were needed to retrieve it.’
Staff told The Echo they found the 4WD on 15 October after the driver left the park on foot.
The agency said no other people or vehicles were involved in the incident and that it subsequently fined the driver $4,800 alongside formal cautions.
‘By ignoring the closures, you not only put yourself at risk but you are exacerbating the damage and making it more difficult for us to repair,’ Mr Sutherland said.
For more information on Mooball National Park or other park or part park closures visit the NPWS website.
NB: This article was updated at 2pm on Monday 20 November to include confirmation by NNPWS staff of two facts pertaining to date of alleged incident and presence of passengers and/or other cars.
That picture is not showing a bogged vehicle. I’ve sunk every one of my vehicles to the body shell, and gotten them out by hand. Does she just not understand how vehicles and physics work?
Or maybe the driver is inept and unable to extract by themselves, then locked the vehicle and took the keys.
Then that would be ‘got confused’, not ‘got stuck’. It would imply the person has an intellectual impairment. Could be.
When government can steal land from the people then make up fines Willy nillly, then you know your country has lost the plot.
The national parks department should be charged for each and every catastrophic fire they have created due to mismanagement.
These people are damaging our natural bushland, not helping it!
Disgusting!
Seems a reasonable fine. I’d like to see jail time too. Weekend warriors in the slammer, how tuff then?
She just went for a drive through nature. Better than staying home and starting an OnlyFans account.
Have heard of trespassing private places but trespassing a national park, what does this mean? Whom does the national park belong to, omg the nation.
The International Monetary Fund requires resources be put aside as collateral.
I have to agree that it is totally dystopian how it has become illegal for the public to enter public land. If you are prepared to take the risk, then it’s nobody elses business what you do. On the ocassions that you can enter legitimately, you have to pay a fee. Soon you’ll be paying for the air you breathe.
Except they were likely further damaging already damaged roads.
The rest if your rant…yawn.
It is irresponsible individuals like this who give 4WD owners a bad reputation. Little men in big vehicles imagined as a phallus, found wanting and limping away.
N/P are a joke . They will use any excuse to close a public road NP road down . They are spending 100s of millions of dollars of public money behind the closed gates. Most of these gates will never be opened again. This is public land paid by you the tax payer & your not allowed in .
I agree, Andy.
E.G. Gibbergunyah Road near Rocky Creek Dam was closed by NPWS over 5 yrs ago for “maintenance”.
I suspect this too will never get re-opened to the public.
National Parks are declared PROTECTED AREAS, for the principal purpose of giving NATURE primacy, not humans. It’s not dystopian its insurance.
Insurance that we will still have clean air to breath etcetera etcetera etcetera.
Humans don’t have a God Given right to go everywhere and anywhere they think they should be legally allowed. This Selfish, self-seeking, self-justified and willfully ignorant action is why NP’s are closed.
$5000 fine wouldn’t even pay for the removal of the vehicle.
Nature fixes things better than any human, just Corden off the damaged area, and stop being so OTT !
Hello??? That’s what NP did…with enough signage for any dolt to realise they should just keep out! Probably should also put some sort of notation on their rego as well as the fine.
Nature fixes things huh? Good you realise this. See the bifurcation coming on strong?
Obviously condoning off areas doesn’t work. It’s very rough terrain in there, and the entitled in their oversized ‘tanks’ sadly need to be protected from themselves.
The Cyanobacteria in the oceans ‘cleans’ the air.
There is literally no point in nature existing, other than to serve its ultimate creation, us.
That vehicle is not stuck. Inserting the key and driving it back out does not cost $5000
I can’t believe the sentiments written here. We are so fortune in Australia to have so many breathtakingly beautiful national parks across the country. Some of the experiences of a lifetime can be had visiting and walking in them.
I’m so grateful they are preserved and protected for me and generations to come (if they survive). I’m happy to pay the small sum to have the facilities, for camping or day tripping, maintained. These comments indicate just how important a few rules are for the sake of all of us.
Standing on top of Ayers Rock was pretty cool, but now they have locked that away from my daughter, so it may as well not exist. Only a tiny amount of land being locked away can actually be accessed. I’m sure they will make nice estates for the owners kids in the future.
I climbed it too. I wish I hadn’t now I am aware that the traditional owners found this offensive. At the time it was more about the challenge and wearing with honour the Tshirt: I climbed Ayer’s Rock. Pretty tacky really and I’ve seen better views from lots of other vantage points.
I have been travelling around Aus for many decades and any changes to access and latitude are minimal. Given that it was all First Nations land once it could be worse.
I see the situation with coownership of national parks a bit like the share house situation. There will always be the slobs who leave dishes in the sink and skiddies in the toilet bowl, their detritus left all over the place. They consume all the communal supplies and never replace them. They’re either read the riot act or given the DCB.
The moderator won’t let me show you the video with the citations, but those with Traditional owner status are actually the wrong mob, and no one was living there for 50 years until White People made it one of our pilgrimage sites.
All ready pay for air we breath carbon tax what next
It’s a pity Australians are kept out of so called national parks by the powers that be!
Most of them are just being ruined by government mismanagement. Over run by weeds and feral pests but definitely no humans!!
Under the guise of ‘protecting’ out parks,what a joke
It clearly states that landslides and damage to to roads is the reason for closure, shame so many are reacting to the headlines without reading the information.
We’re so lucky to have these beautiful national parks and reserves to preserve some portions of what once was the whole valley. Why do people find it so hard to just follow instructions for their own and other’s safety?
Yes Greg, the joke of Kosciusko National Park, overrun by feral pest horses that have been given ‘protection’.
👍
So much for you guys being pro-diversity.
Yeah, nah. Nice try mate but unlike diversity within a species, introduced species often play havoc with biodiversity.
But the you jest, I know 😃
Perhaps we should insist on public service to be called ” service to public”. It would also help to stop and think before changing something which works for the sake of someone enhancing his or her’s carrier somewhere in Sydney CBD.
LoL.. it’s only closed for repairs, the yobs can go back to revving it up and making a mess soon.
Wouldn’t happen if it was private land.
Says Mr Access for All?
I want to deport 50% of the population, or at least carve out a White ethno-state. In what way does that make me ‘Mr Access for All’? I’m simply not getting roped into the tired old ‘Tragedy of the Commons vs State Tyranny’ debate.
You were upset about not being able to climb Uluṟu- I then found it curious that you’d seem to be inferring making all NPs private property was the answer to hoonery.
Ayers Rock is not privately owned. Let me buy it, and you will be able to pay $20 to walk up the raised walk way to its observation deck.
Excellent, thank you National Parks. Sad that they have to protect our remnant forests and infrastructure from the entitled.
The entitled own their own forests. Like mine.
We’re these fines being handed out in the 1800s?
Just don’t pay the fine…
And how much damage did their heavy machinery do retrieving this apparently stuck vehicle… I bet it was 10 times more than if they just winched themselves out…
Yeah winge all you like about me… yes I have a 4×4 with 39 inch tyres and “destroy the tracks” apparently
Last I checked the local bush fire and rescue truck has 63 inch tyres and weighs 3 times more than my car so I would hardly think I’m doing anything in comparison
Dead right,, most of these people don’t go out into the bush to know how fast nature takes it back over again, planet earth been doing what it’s doing for billions of years an they think bunch of broken trees rutted out tracks an heaps of carbon monoxide is gonna have any affect, an trees like carbon monoxide I thought, anyway they need to wake up to them selves keep to them selves an stop closing down tracks,, mate the way it’s going im gonna find the peoples houses who close the track down and I’ll lock the hubs in on there lawns
I just spent weeks on my tractor dealing with natures imperialist, colonial tendencies. Three years of nature being unchallenged, and I had 4m high trees growing through roads, and covering fire breaks. I’m sure it’s worse in non-desert areas.
When on Esrth do you get time?
Well, I haven’t had time for the past three years. There are reasons my post on here have interesting time stamps.
Yes, poor park rangers. NSWNP have had their staff and budgets cut to near zero by successive conservative governments but are expected to manage fire, threatened species, public recreation and public idiots. Instead of slinging off at our precious National Parks and hardworking Parkies we should be supporting them. I recall they saved Brunswick Heads from an arsonist’s fire just a few short weeks ago.
So well said!
Great job. Why people need to drive their vehicles everywhere and over everything exacerbates me. If you gotta do it follow the rules. They apply to everyone equally, your not special.
Yes I am. So special that I have my own forest that I flatten and chop up into bits. It’s fun.