[talk-au] Paths in Illawarra Conservation Lands

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

the DWG was drawn into an edit war regarding several paths that were
mapped in this area:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/-34.3740/150.8761

The argument is about in how far the (largely north-south running) paths
are "illegal" and whether they need to be removed from the map because
they would lead to people trespassing.

The argument is two-fold; part applies to the paths that are on private
land where, I understand, it is the land owner's prerogative to allow or
disallow whatever they want, and another part applies to the paths that
run into NPWS managed conservation lands.

These paths were originally tagged "foot=yes" and with no further access
descriptions; one had an "mtb:scale" added.

>From reading the Illawara Escarpment Plan of Management
(https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/OEH/Corporate-Site/Documents/Parks-reserves-and-protected-areas/Parks-plans-of-management/illawarra-escarpment-state-conservation-area-plan-management-180505.pdf)
I get the impression that mountainbiking on any paths not explicitly
open for it is illegal. But what about walking - the plan says a lot
about maintained walking tracks but it does *not* explicitly say that
walking is limited to these.

There's also a published "draft strategy" for mountain biking in the
area, however I don't know in how far a draft strategy would influence
the current legal situation.

Anyway, for the time being I have added an access=no to the paths on
private land because the landowner doesn't want people to use them and I
guess it is their prerogative; and I've removed the explicit foot=yes on
the other paths (becasue I'm not sure) and added a "bicycle=no" to close
them for mountainbiking. My changeset:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/74355243#map=16/-34.3750/150.8730

I would however be grateful for any input from the Australian community
on this matter.

I've also been told that NPWS were keenly looking to sue whoever
publishes "illegal" trails or uploads them to OSM; in fact such a legal
threat was the reason why DWG got involved in the first place.

Bye
Frederik

DWG Ticket Ticket#2019090110000071
-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"