Member
The Rock Adventure Centre in Newtown, Geelong's indoor climbing centre since 2001, closes for good on Saturday 7 November 2026. Here's what is ending and where the city's climbers can go next, from Industry Boulders in Grovedale to the granite of the You Yangs.
The Rock Adventure Centre, the indoor climbing centre at the rear of 403 Pakington Street in Newtown, Geelong, closes for good on Saturday 7 November 2026. The centre confirmed the date in an Instagram post on 1 September 2026, the 25th anniversary of the day it first opened its doors to the public, saying that over that time it had become Geelong's home for climbing, fun and adventures. Its posts haven't given a reason for the closure.
It isn't winding down quietly. On Wednesday 21 October it was still setting new routes and open its normal hours, telling climbers: "Get in quick, not long to go now." A clearance sale that began on 30 September takes 20% off gear and 30% off shoes. On Saturday 29 August it ran a bouldering competition alongside its 25th birthday party, and its results post singled out the juniors and others who were doing their first competition.
The Rock was a full roped climbing centre. Its website, archived in 2026 and now showing only an error page, listed more than 100 climbs on 25 walls up to 12 metres high, with 23 top-ropes and two auto-belays, 11 walls equipped for lead climbing with routes up to 15 metres, an upstairs bouldering cave and a training area with campus boards and a MoonBoard. It ran the Climb-it Club for 6 to 12-year-olds and Team Rock for 12 to 17-year-olds, each finishing the term with an outdoor trip, and as a Parks Victoria licensed tour operator it took courses and groups climbing at the You Yangs, Werribee Gorge and Staughton Vale. In its last published price list, adult casual entry was $22.
The obvious next stop is Industry Boulders, an independent gym in an industrial unit on Lewalan Street in Grovedale, about 4 km south of The Rock and 1.4 km from Marshall station. It's bouldering only, with no ropes or harnesses: problems top out at 4.3 metres over deep foam matting, on walls that range from technical slab to a steep cave. In September 2026 it opened an expansion with new walls, launched with a competition that drew more than 140 climbers, and members can train upstairs on a MoonBoard and a spray wall.
Once The Rock closes, the nearest centres on our list with top-rope and lead walls are in Melbourne. Cliffhanger Climbing Gym in Altona North, about 55 km from Newtown as the crow flies, has walls up to 19 metres, with 30 top-rope walls and 24 lead lines, but no auto-belays, so you need a partner. Gravity Worx in Pascoe Vale has 15 auto-belays for climbing on your own, and Hardrock on Franklin Street in the CBD has walls up to 16 metres. For more bouldering, Climb West Melbourne in Altona is the nearest Melbourne gym, the free Saltwater Reserve wall in Point Cook is closer still, and Ballarat's Friction Bouldering is about 80 km away.
The granite You Yangs, 22 km north of Geelong, have two Parks Victoria rock climbing sites, Big Rock and Gravel Pit Tor. Parks Victoria says the best way to climb in a national park is with a guide, and its website lists licensed tour operators park by park. The Victorian Climbing Club runs trips to the You Yangs and Werribee Gorge as well as further afield, and its members get discounted entry at supporting gyms. For the bigger picture, including the October 2026 access changes at Dyurrite (Mount Arapiles) and the designated climbing areas in Gariwerd (the Grampians), see our Victoria page.
Urban Climb Blackburn hosts the 2026 Australian Speed Climbing National Championships on 7 November, and Gravity Worx the Victorian State Speed Titles on 21 November. Here's what speed climbing is, who races, and how to enter or watch.
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
Ipswich, Gympie and Campbelltown got their first bouldering gyms in 2026, Rocky Climb opened in Rockhampton and Geelong's Industry Boulders expanded. Three Melbourne gyms are on the way, and two long-running gyms close in November.
Joe Rushton