Non-Indigenous people are not banned from all of these places

^{By Ellen McCutchan and David Campbell}

With the Voice to Parliament referendum officially set to go ahead this year, misinformation about Aboriginal people and culture continues to spread online.

On Twitter, Telegram and Facebook, users have shared a list of "natural wonders" that non-Indigenous Australians are supposedly "forbidden to experience" due to Indigenous cultural heritage rules.

One version of the list posted on Facebook suggests 21 locations are "places only aborigines [sic] can legally go in Australia". It states: “Wake up Australia. Your taxes pay for their upkeep, but you are now forbidden to experience these natural wonders.”

The post, which has amassed more than 100 likes and nearly 2000 shares to date, is accompanied by text that states: “ABORIGINAL “VOICE” EXPOSED…!!!”

However, RMIT FactLab has found the list lacks important context and contains a number of inaccuracies, with multiple locations closed for unrelated reasons.

Among the problematic inclusions is Cleft Island, situated off the coast of Victoria in the Wilsons Promontory Marine National Park. Also known as Skull Rock, the island is largely inaccessible due to its perimeter of steep cliffs.

Park management plans show that the island sits within a "special protection area", meaning public access is prohibited in order "to protect its remote and natural attributes" — which is perhaps why locals claim that fewer humans have set foot there than on the moon.

In Queensland, Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park was closed in January until the end of this year due to flood damage. Contrary to the online list, the Queensland Parks and Forests website states: "The Waanyi Aboriginal people welcome you to their country and ask that you respect their special place."

Elsewhere in the state, Mount Cooroy is typically closed to the public simply because access runs through a private farming property. 

And Mount Coonowrin was declared a "restricted access area" in 1999, but this was due to the risk of injury and death posed by a "high to very high risk of rockfalls".

Across the border, Orphan Rock in the Blue Mountains is similarly off-limits, with a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service spokesperson confirming that the walking track and lookout had been closed for safety reasons since 1974.

In several other listed locations, general access remains for non-Indigenous visitors, although rock climbing has been discouraged or banned.

These areas include, for example, White Rock, in Ipswich, Queensland, and the Wallcliffe cliffs (listed as Wallcliffe caves) in Western Australia.

Rock climbing has also been outlawed in parts of Victoria's Grampians (Gariwed) National Park, where, following "extensive assessments and work with Traditional Owners", the activity is now only permissible in 104 designated areas.

The park's Millenium Caves — which the online posts list separately — is one of the spots now off-limits, while another 275 areas are designated for review.

Meanwhile, recent Aboriginal cultural heritage discoveries, including ancient rock art, have led to the imposition of protection measures in some areas of nearby Mount Arapiles.

A spokesman for Parks Victoria confirmed to FactLab that more than 150 areas in the park had been surveyed to help decide where rock climbing could continue, meaning that despite claims to the contrary, there is nothing to suggest "4500+ climbing routes" across Mount Arapiles and the Grampians had been affected.

The rest of the 21 locations on the online list have indeed been made off-limits to the general public, although in some cases there's more to the story.

In Queensland, for example, Mount Beerwah remains closed after vandals used power tools to carve a religious message into rock. Queensland Parks and Forests has labelled the closure "temporary", saying the mountain would be reopened after "healing has taken place and the environmental vandalism has been repaired".

Elsewhere, a 1.2 kilometre stretch of Burrum Heads Foreshore, near K'Gari, is held under exclusive-use by the Butchulla people through native title.

Although access to a local beach and car park across a 300-metre strip of land has reportedly been blocked, the beach itself remains open and the court judgement shows that the vast majority of the town's foreshore is not affected.

Looking to the Northern Territory, a spokesperson for Parks Australia, which co-manages the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, confirmed that climbing Kata Tjuta (formerly the Olgas) ceased shortly after the area was returned to its traditional owners in 1985.

Visitors can, however, walk around and through the iconic domes on defined tracks (off-track walking is prohibited).

Similarly, in NSW, the NPWS spokesperson said that in order to protect cultural heritage and environmental values, climbing on the Three Sisters (in the Blue Mountains) had not been permitted since 2001. Still, visitors can usually walk up to the first sister via the Giant Stairway walking track (the access bridge is currently closed for safety reasons).

Finally, some versions of the list include four locations supposedly under threat of closure.

However, a spokesman for Queensland's department of Environment and Science confirmed that there were "no plans" to restrict access to Mount Tibrogargan, Mount Cooroora or K'Gari's Lake McKenzie.

FactLab found no evidence of plans to restrict access to Wave Rock, in Western Australia.

^{-  with Quynh-Ly Duong}