Climbing news, events, guides and advice, from new walls and competitions to how to start climbing.
The Blue Mountains hold about 7,300 routes, many of them bolted sport climbs on sandstone around Blackheath, Mount Victoria and Katoomba. Here's where to start, when to go, the access rules, guidebooks and courses, and the gyms on the way.
Joe Rushton
What a casual entry gets you, what shoe and harness hire cost, why you sign a waiver and do an induction, how belay and lead checks work, what weekly direct-debit memberships involve, and the age, chalk and etiquette rules at Australian climbing gyms in 2026.
Joe Rushton
Melbourne's free outdoor bouldering walls, from Burnley's volunteer-built walls under the Monash Freeway to council walls in Brunswick, Footscray, Southbank, Chadstone, Point Cook and Cranbourne South, and a campus wall in Frankston: where each one is, what it's like and how to use it well.
Joe Rushton
Kangaroo Point Cliffs is a free, floodlit crag on the Brisbane River, a short walk from the CBD. Here's what the climbing is like, how the old quarry came to be, the council's rules on anchors and groups, and how to move safely from the gym to the rock.
Joe Rushton
