Is it ever OK to hike on a closed track?
Track and park closures are not put in place lightly. In Australia, closures are most often the result of bushfires, storms, flooding, or extreme weather events that leave tracks damaged, unstable, or unsafe. In other cases, closures are necessary to protect fragile environments while assessments, repairs, or rehabilitation works are carried out.
While closures can be frustrating, particularly when you’ve planned a hike in advance, they exist for two core reasons: public safety and environmental protection. Understanding why tracks are closed, and respecting those closures when they are in place, is a fundamental part of responsible bushwalking.
What many people don’t see after storms, floods, and fires
The bush can look deceptively calm after severe weather. A trail may appear passable from the trailhead, even though serious hazards lie further in. Flooding can weaken bridges, undercut track edges, and destabilise river crossings. Saturated ground increases the risk of falling trees, landslips, and sudden collapses underfoot. Fire-damaged areas can contain unstable trees, loose rocks, and hidden ground hazards long after flames are gone.
These risks are not always obvious and can change rapidly. What was safe yesterday may not be safe today. This is why land managers close areas until proper assessments are completed and hazards addressed.
Why tracks are closed
There are many legitimate reasons walking tracks, access roads, or entire parks may be closed, including:
- Removing immediate risks such as damaged trees, rock falls, and landslides
- Allowing time for damage assessment following storms, fires, or floods
- Repairing walking tracks, bridges, signage, and visitor infrastructure
- Undertaking essential maintenance work
- Protecting sensitive environments while native flora recovers
- Preventing the spread of serious pathogens such as soil-borne plant diseases
- Supporting consultation with Traditional Owners and other stakeholders
Closures are not arbitrary. They are based on on-ground conditions, safety assessments, and long-term land management responsibilities.
The unseen cost of ignoring closures
When people enter closed areas and something goes wrong, the consequences rarely stop with them. Emergency responders, land managers, and volunteers are often sent into dangerous conditions to assist with rescues. These are the same people who are already stretched during severe weather events and disasters.
Outdoor workers consistently report being called into closed parks and reserves to assist people who ignored warnings, underestimated conditions, or assumed their experience made the rules flexible. Every unnecessary rescue places others at risk and diverts limited resources away from genuine emergencies.
Frustration is understandable, but closures still apply
It’s completely normal to feel disappointed or annoyed when a long-planned hike is cancelled by a closure. Many of us have stood at a locked gate or trailhead sign after hours of travel and felt the temptation to push on anyway.
Experience, familiarity with an area, or the inconvenience of changing plans does not reduce risk. Closures apply precisely because conditions are unpredictable and hazards are not always visible from the start of a walk.
If you’re unsure whether a track is open, the safest option is to check with the relevant land manager before heading out. They would far rather answer a question than respond to an avoidable incident.
Closed means closed
A closed track, road, or park is not a suggestion. It is a clear signal that the area is currently unsafe or unsuitable for public access.
Respecting closures is not about missing out. It’s about making decisions that protect your own safety, the safety of others, and the long-term health of the places we value. There are thousands of open tracks and parks to explore, and closed areas will still be there when conditions are safe again.
Choosing to turn around is not a failure. It’s good judgment.
What alternative outdoor activities do you enjoy when hiking trails are closed, and how do you stay safe while exploring nature?
Head for a metropolitan state park, which are often like a hybrid of a normal park and a state forest, do some laps, and if really keen to get a bit more from it, load up the bigger back pack with 15 litres of water and carry that around in the walk. 15k will that will help you feel good.
Rob Gillespie great advice. Just did that exact thing yesterday as the park I often walk in near me is closed. Even carried an overnight pack, but only had 12kg.
Thanks, Darren. I agree: we should respect the closures.
Unfortunately, over recent years in NSW national parks there have been protracted closures of major walking routes, particularly in the Blue Mountains. This has been due to some severely damaging weather events and inadequate national parks funding for repairs. With a few of the closures (e.g. the current extended closures of the Castle and Byangee Walls tracks in the Budawangs), I do wonder whether it would have been possible to have maintained access during works, but I say that with incomplete knowledge. The Sealers Cove track in Wilsons Promontory is another case of an extended closure following weather damage.
As climate change progresses, we can expect increasingly severe weather events. It is unlikely parks funding will increase commensurately. We are going to have to be flexible and patient in our walks planning.
Jonathan Miller excellent points you make. I totally agree, we will need to be flexible. Funding is increasingly becoming a challenge.
A difficult call. I’m thinking of the Daylesford – Blowhole walk. It was kept closed for “years” after the storm event, and long after it was again safe to walk. Should I, and seemingly many others, have respected that track closed sign?
Al Morkans Tipperary Track was closed for a long time too. I haven’t checked if has reopened.