SCENIC RIM - Brisbane rock climber Rick Helm says Minto Crag holds a special spot in his heart.

“This place is as close to my heart as anybody’s,” he said at the base of a cliff known as Wave Rock last month.

“It’s beautiful.”

That comment would raise more than a few eyebrows among many who live beside the volcanic ring dyke in Croftby.

Because, the way they see it, there is probably no one more responsible for the environmental and cultural desecration of the place known as Winpullin to its Ugarapul traditional owners.

Mr Helm, 37, has been a leading figure in a small band of rock climbers who have been drilling bolts into the cliff at the section of Unallocated State Land Minto Crag over the last 16 or so months.

He says it gets him outside, experiencing the natural world.

But local landholders, farmers, Aboriginal people, environmentalists and even climbers say Mr Helm and those who follow the routes he places up the wall have trampled the understory of ferns which once carpeted the base of Wave Rock, chainsawed down Grass Trees and pulled orchids from the cliff.

They say the climbers are displacing cultural artefacts before an in-depth archaeological survey can piece together the story of its long occupation by Ugarapul people.

They say the climbers are changing this pocket of rugged land that is one of the few places in the area that has been impervious to the changes that swept land in the wake of the arrival of Europeans.

And this is one of the few topics upon which those opposed to climbing at Minto Crag and Mr Helm agree.

“It’ll definitely have an impact,” he said about Minto Crag being turned into a climbing destination.

“The place is growing. But change is inevitable.”

The former roofer said that climbers would bring money and business to the area.

He said he would “love to work with locals” to “come to an agreement” on using the Crag, suggesting a limit to the number of climbers.

“They won’t listen,” he said.

Those who are organising to protect the Crag say they too have tried talking to Mr Helm and his climbing companions.

David Spillman is an Aboriginal author and academic who has lived in the area for decades and first visited Wave Rock in 2000.

“They’re not bad people,” he said of the climbers.

“They are just trying to connect.”

But while the people might not be bad, Mr Spillman said the consequences of their actions were having a devastating impact.

“When I first came it was hard work to get through,” he said.

“The ferns were chest high in places and there were a few big brown snakes lurking around.”

That understory is gone now, trampled under the boots and heavy equipment of the climbers.

Because of that, archaeologists warn precious cultural material is being washed away.

And with it, the story of occupation since time immemorial.

Though not a Ugarapul man, Mr Spillman has been helping to piece together the story of Winpullin.

He has done so through conversations with local Elders and songmen from other First Nations, whose stories overlap and echo those of the Ugarapul.

It’s a “big water story”, he said of the Winpullin. Seen from above, he said the rocks resemble an eel, a story confirmed to him by a Ugarapul Elder just before his recent passing.

And according to an Indigenous way of thinking, the giant rock is alive.

It is just on a far different time scale to the humans who clamber up its face. 

“This big fella is just having a rest,” he said, looking up at the looming wall.

Mr Spillman has tried to explain this to the climbers, likening the rock to another slow living giant.

“I told them what they are doing is like drilling bolts into a Blue Whale,” he said.

And for many, it has worked. Once they were told about the significance of Winpullin, Mr Spillman many climbers had stayed away from the area.

Others are less able to understand the motives of the climbers.

Margaret Schreck and her family live at the base of the Crag.

When they first visited the Wave Rock area, she said it was “magical”.

“I said, let’s get out of this place, I don't even want to leave a footprint.”

Mrs Schreck said there was an image of rock climbing as a “zen” back to nature pursuit, which was totally at odds with what she had witnessed over the last 16 months.

“Grass trees and orchids are just collateral damage to them,” she said of the climbers.

“They are utterly turning a blind eye to this onslaught.”

“It makes me sick that people could look at this place and think what they are doing is acceptable.”