A future for bushwalking in the Perth region?

Local bushwalking near Perth could and should have a more significant role in recreation and conservation-awareness in W.A. The growth potential of local bushwalking is under-recognised.

Since its beginnings in 2003, the WalkGPS website has encouraged the community to safely and responsibly discover the great wealth of opportunities for enjoyable bushwalking within 100km of Perth city. Bushwalks detailed on WalkGPS also introduce walkers to over 20 parks and reserves in the region they may never have visited previously, in addition to the state forests, so fostering a wider awareness of conservation challenges and access issues, and the need to protect and enhance the amenity.

Support for bushwalking?

Apart from the Bibbulmun Track, bushwalking near Perth has a low profile. Lobbying, planning and support for recreation in our parks today tends to focus on opportunities for the young, families and the under 40’s, with emphasis on activities such as short, family-oriented walk trails and mountain biking.

Much less attention is given to opportunities for the active older sector of the community e.g. that ~30% of the local population in the 40-70 age bracket. Most of Perth’s bushwalking clubs would confirm that typically over 80% of their active members are aged over 40 and see bushwalking as their primary recreation activity.

Demand for bushwalking

Bushwalking clubs, online Meetup groups and independent walkers are regular users of the WalkGPS site. The site averages over 1500 visits per week through the bushwalking season. The numbers reflect a strong and growing demand in the community for such healthy recreational opportunities close to Perth, especially for accessible, single day circuit bushwalks.

Unrealised opportunities

Many local walkers and interstate visitors to Perth seeking typical bushwalking opportunities in our parks will not be wanting a short family-friendly walk of less than 5-10km, nor a multi-day hike on the Bibbulmun Track, but rather a convenient, day bushwalk of around 15km near Perth that they can easily fit into their schedules.

WalkGPS details a total of more than 65 wonderful traditional (partly cross-country) bushwalks close to Perth. These are mostly not documented elsewhere. They are all accessible, circuit day walks totalling over 1000km of quality bushwalking opportunities.

Yet there are few developed, quality bushwalking circuit trails near Perth. The popular Eagle’s View Trail in John Forrest NP and the shorter Numbat Trail in the privately-owned Paruna Sanctuary in the Avon Valley are today the only two developed trails that offer bushwalkers day circuit walks of good length and quality in the Darling Range. Perth’s population has grown by more than 40% in the 20 years since the Eagle’s View Trail opened.

Much more needs to be achieved. The long distance Bibbulmun Track, with some more local ‘looping’ in its northern section, could help meet some of the demand for local, circuit walks. Development of day walk trails in Avon NP and Wandoo NP should be two of the priorities among the 22 parks and reserves for which walk routes are already described on WalkGPS. Visitor stats show that Eagle’s View Trail, despite its popularity, currently ranks 11^th behind other bushwalks on the site.

Some other popular walks on WalkGPS such as the extended (12km) on-track Victoria Reservoir – Bickley Brook Walk would be ideal for upgrading to a high quality ‘designated’ bushwalking trail and would doubtless have a great, positive impact for relatively small effort and cost. Such a trail would have much wider appeal than the existing ‘official’ 7.2km Victoria Reservoir Trail, of which more than one third (2.5km), requires walking on bitumen and gravelled road.

The “Walk to York”  group’s recently mooted 5-day hiking trail from Mundaring to York passing through Wandoo NP and state forests - though still at a formative stage – also deserves high-level support.

The opportunities are evident and abundant, but new trail development requires champions within the community plus vision, proactive support and facilitation from within government and its agencies, and from the Shires. The new WA Parks Foundation could have a valuable collaborative role.

Other challenges

The WalkGPS website notes several important issues that impact on traditional bushwalking in the Darling Range and threaten community access and ‘quiet enjoyment’ of the many excellent parks and bushwalking areas. These include in part:

1. Park management planning - Most of the parks in the region currently lack approved, published park management plans. Approved plans exist for only 5 out of 22 parks and reserves relevant to WalkGPS walks. (See Parks under Walks & Parks on WalkGPS).
2. Water catchment access (link) - Access restrictions affect the recreational amenity of outer drinking water catchments far beyond the 2km-wide Reservoir Protection Zones. These include a current ban on backpacking with overnight stays away from the Bibbulmun Track’s designated campsites.
3. Bauxite mining expansions (link)   – The greatly accelerating expansion of bauxite strip-mining across much of the region has far-reaching implications which are being widely ignored.
4. Off-road vehicle use (link)  - Unconstrained, illegal off-road vehicle use (especially trail bikes and quad bikes) throughout the parks and state forests is having widespread impacts.

Despite strategic studies into some of the issues, the critical challenges are not being adequately acknowledged and addressed. Politicians, regulators, land managers and others must consider how expedient, short-term policies and decisions (or indecision) will impact on the longer-term amenity and conservation values of our parks.

All who have an interest in the future of local bushwalking, and/or issues affecting the amenity value of the parks and state forests close to Perth, and their conservation, should consider the opportunities and challenges.

www.walkgps.com.au

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A late spring in the step

Someone asked recently:  If you had to choose 10 easier walks for this time of year (late Spring) what would they be?

It's always difficult to select preferred walks, especially for others. All the walks on WalkGPS should be enjoyable in the right weather, but by late spring many days will already be too warm for comfort and enjoyment for the longer walks. – Long, challenging bushwalks on days when a daily max of 26 deg C or greater (in the shade) is forecast are only for the masochists among us! - But you can still achieve a lot of good walking by getting an early morning start, by keeping the distance short, preferably say 10km, and by finishing early (before noon).

Most of the walks on WalkGPS are longer than 10km and without adjustment will not be comfortably enjoyable on the hotter days, especially the walks that are largely cross-country (‘off-track’). Happily though, it’s easy to make some simple variations to several of the walk routes to shorten them. Most of the shortened walks can also be achieved without GPS.

The following then is a shortlist of 10 or so walk ideas for this time of year. (These are in no particular order.) Check through the maps and descriptions on WalkGPS for much more information on each walk area (the links are included below) and/or to work out other possible walk options for yourself:

Bold Park - No GPS required, just an easy 'introductory' stroll on well formed tracks around a hilly bushland park close to the city and near the coastal beaches. The bushland here is quite different to the jarrah forest and wandoo woodlands of the Darling Range.

South Ledge area-Mundaring Weir – Rather than doing the full 13.5 km circuit of the North Ledge-South Ledge WalkGPS walk route, I recommend that at this time of year you bypass the northern portion of the walk (North Ledge) and try the following variation for a total walk distance of just over 10km:

Park in the parking area at the historic No. 1 Pump Station (C.Y. O'Connor Museum) off Mundaring Weir Rd below the Mundaring Weir dam wall. Then follow the path up to the northern end of the dam wall and cross the wall to the southern end to Mundaring Weir Rd; then head uphill along the Road for about 150m to follow the Bibbulmun Track around to South Ledge (Golden View lookout) and on to Hewett's Hill Campsite (hut). Then return on Bibb. Track as far as the Kattamorda Track crossing, then follow the Kattamorda Track (in orange on my map on WalkGPS) down the hill to meet Mundaring Weir Rd and follow it northward for about 150-200m to locate the side road back to start point. The No 1. Pump station museum is worth visiting if it is open (see notes on WalkGPS).

Victoria Reservoir - Bickley Brook - This is a pleasant, almost all on track 10.5 km walk with some nicely varied forest. Despite a couple of hill climbs, with an early start, this is a good one for this time of year.

Piesse Brook (Kalamunda) – This is all on track, GPS not essential, though it's useful for finding the correct turns and a couple of fairly subtle side-tracks. If you leave out the northern loop and turn around at 'Rocky Pool' you will reduce the distance to around 7-8 km which will make some of the steepish hills easier to manage on a warm day.

Eagle's View Walk (John Forrest National Park) - This is a 15km circuit and therefore a bit too long on a really warm day, but nevertheless it is on a well formed and marked trail all the way. It’s a pleasant walk through a mixture of heathlands and jarrah forest and some wandoo woodland. Make sure you drink plenty of water along the way, and wear a good hat.

Kattamordo Variation – This on-track walk can be done fairly easily without GPS though a few of the track junctions/turning points can be a bit confusing and easily missed. It's a nicely varied walk - the forest sections are broken up with patches of farmland/orchards. To shorten the walk for this time of year, the simplest option is to cut out the northern 'half' of the figure-of-8 route by taking the 'JCN-X' option to reduce the walk to 9 kms.

Three Mountains - This is a really nice walk area, but two ‘mountains’ is probably enough for most walkers at this time of the year as the hill climbs can become fairly tiring in warm weather! A better option at this time of year would be to skip the Mt Randall section (in the WalkGPS Three Mountains route description) and instead park at the Sullivan Rock Picnic area (at 'End' point of walk) then follow the well-marked Bibbulmun Track northward across Mt Vincent to the large granite outcrop on the northern flank of Mt Cuthbert, then for a 9-9.5km total walk either
 i)  turn around and return the same way;  or
 ii) locate and descend (steeply) the old ‘climbers track’ down the west side of Mt Cuthbert from near the SW edge of the large granite outcrop (see map on WalkGPS), to meet the 'Old Bibbulmun Track’ (an old vehicle track) and follow it back to rejoin the Bibbulmun Track near Sullivan Rock to return to the start.

A third option is to continue on the Bibb. Track north from Mt Cuthbert to Monadnocks Campsite (hut) on Bibb. Track, and then return via the 'Old Bibbulmun Track’. That option gives a longer (14.5km) total walk, but the return along the ‘Old Bibb. Track’ is easy walking (again see map on WalkGPS).

Note: DEC has done some controlled, fuel-reduction burning done this year (2010) in the forest along the east flank of Mt Cuthbert which will have left parts of the forest near the track looking a bit bleak and blackened at present.

Mt Cooke - The forest here is still recovering from a major bushfire in early 2003 but after the initial climb up the southern exposed granite slope, the walking is pleasant and the views are excellent.

The 10km "easy version" is the best choice at this time of year and is mostly on-track and follows the well-marked Bibbulmun Track across the top of Mt Cooke. After a rest stop at Mt Cooke Campsite, the return section along the SW footslope of Mt Cooke is easy walking.

The only 'tricky' bit about this walk is locating the start point which is at the end of a narrow dirt vehicle track through a young pine plantation. (The vehicle track is a little rutted in places but I've driven it easily enough earlier this year in a large Ford sedan, so you shouldn't need 4WD provided you drive slowly and carefully. Preferably you need GPS to locate the correct dirt road off the Albany Highway (it's not an obvious turn) and to follow the initial 600m off-track walk section to meet the Bibbulmun Track.

Christmas Tree Well - or shortened versions of other walks in the wandoo woodlands off Yarra Road. - GPS navigation is advisable for the wandoo walks. The Christmas Tree Well circuit, at 12.5km, is the shortest of these cross-country walks, but can easily be shortened to around 10km: After reaching the approx. halfway point on the route described on WalkGPS simply head more-or-less directly in a WSW direction back to the Christmas Tree Well picnic area (the start point) by approximately following the floor of the side valley that drains the Christmas Tree Well area (see WalkGPS map).

The wandoo woodlands are more picturesque and offer some delightful variety after the often fire-blackened jarrah forest further west. If you only do a short walk, you can then drive the full 46 km length of Yarra Road (i.e. from Brookton Highway in the south to Great Southern Highway in the north which makes an interesting circuit for the drive to and from Perth. The lengthy drive along the dirt road is a bit of an experience in itself (be careful of kangaroos crossing the road if driving early morning!

Kittys Gorge - Kittys Gorge Trail seems to be one of the most popular walks with the general public (perhaps because it has been listed on “Top TrailsWA” website), but is best after rain when the falls and cascades are flowing well. The Gooralong Brook down the little gorge is unfortunately much-infested with weeds which can be a disappointment for those expecting to see 'pristine' bushland! If you do want to visit the area, don't try my full WalkGPS walk route (Serpentine Falls – Kittys Gorge) at this time of year; Instead of parking at Serpentine Falls, park at the Jarrahdale township opposite the cemetery in Atkins Street, then follow the marked Stacey's Trail to connect on to Kittys Gorge Trail. Then follow Kittys Gorge Trail as far as the Serpentine River crossing near Spencers old mud cottage. Then return along Kittys Gorge back to the old Gooralong Picnic area to again link up with the Stacey’s Trail circuit and return to the start point. The total walk is then 10km.

Note: On a cooler day, instead of returning directly back to the picnic area along Gooralong Brook you can opt to cross Gooralong Brook at the footbridge (near a flow-gauge station) about 2km along the track northward from Serpentine River. Then follow an old vehicle track southward up the hillside, and then the trail markers N-NE-ward along a foot-track to again get back to the old Gooralong Picnic area and link up with Stacey’s Trail to return to the start point (see map on WalkGPS). The option increases the total walk to 12km.

Further away:
Dryandra - For lots of beautiful wandoo woodlands. It's a longer drive from Perth, but you can either camp at Congelin Campsite overnight or try to book one of the old foresters' cottages at the Lions Village at Dryandra itself. There are a couple of shorter walks there (Lol Gray and Woylie walk etc) that are more suitable at this time of year.
Boyagin Rock - Also some lovely woodlands and a big granite dome. You can include a visit to Boyagin Rock on a drive back from Dryandra. The walk to the top of the rock is short but very worthwhile. Don’t try the full WalkGPS walk route at this time of year.

Finally, when walking at this time of year be realistic in your expectations. Your earlier morning starts will be rewarded with the sounds of stirring bird-life, but don't expect to see bountiful wildflowers in late spring/early summer, though there are still lots to be spotted for the keen observer. And, after a dry winter and spring (in 2010), don’t expect to-see flowing water and moss-covered outcrops. And, be mindful that with the warmer weather, snakes are becoming active but may still be slow to move out of your way in the cooler, early morning, -so take care where you tread!

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER:  All care has been taken to make the above walk descriptions and other information on the WalkGPS site as accurate as possible, but the use of any of the information is at the user's own risk and  I accept no responsibility for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by anyone pursuing any of the activities described above. All outdoor activities involve some risk of injury or death, and bushwalking in Western Australia is no exception. You must exercise your own independent judgment as to whether the walks described above and on WalkGPS are safe for you in the context of your fitness, training, skills and experience.

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In the beginning…

Sitting in a café having lunch with a friend in early 2003, I was yet again rabbiting on about all the good bushwalking opportunities near Perth that weren’t documented and that most 'outdoors' people in Perth were sadly unaware of. Perhaps in the hope of moving on to more mutually interesting subjects (he was a non-bushwalker), he proferred “Why don’t you put all your walk routes onto a website?” - The obvious solution and just the challenge needed! So starting with no real IT skills, and after purchasing the old MS Frontpage software and a student’s primer on web authoring, I embarked on a steep learning curve on how to build a website.

By October 2003 I had launched my non-commercial WalkGPS website. It had, and still has, the simple aim of sharing my local bushwalking information with others, to help fill that big gap that still exists in the public knowledge of the many thoroughly enjoyable bushwalking opportunities within 100 km of Perth city. The site initially provided descriptions for about 15 bushwalks in the Perth region. Over the past six years the total number of walks on the site has grown to over 55 with a few more still to be added when time permits.

Despite all that walking, I am a Johnny-come-lately on the local bushwalking scene; ‘Tramping’ in N.Z. had been a major passion through my high school years and through University (and remains so), but I didn’t get started into the Australian equivalent until as recently as 2001 - almost 30 years after I had first arrived in Perth from N.Z. in 1972!
I had arrived as a young geologist straight out of Auckland University, to take up an oil exploration job based in Perth. It was an especially exciting phase in the industry when exploration offshore on the Northwest Shelf was still in its early infancy and exploration drilling was still testing remote onshore areas such as the Canning Basin beneath the Great Sandy Desert. It was an opportunity to visit many interesting onshore locations that would otherwise be difficult to get to as a private individual. I ‘sat’ wells in the desert, on Barrow Island, and also on offshore drilling rigs at locations ranging from the middle of the Timor Sea to offshore of Mandurah. There were major gas, and some oil, discoveries and lots of ‘dry’ wells, but for a young geologist nearly every exploration well was very exciting; to be interpreting the geology often for the first time from the ‘rock cuttings’ broken up by the drill bit and carried in the drilling ‘mud’ to the surface, from depths up to about 4 km.
But back in Perth more permanently, after a few years and many work stints on remote wellsites, why was it I then took so long (another 25 years or so!) to rediscover my love of walking? - In the anticipation of lots of walking in W.A., before I left N.Z. I had even invested in a new custom-made ‘Mountain Mule’ backpack, which at the time was still considered the pack of first choice by N.Z. trampers and hunters. The best local service that pack gave me over the subsequent years was for family excursions to Rottnest Island!
For a newcomer from N.Z. it was frankly difficult to get enthused about walking in the eucalypt forests near Perth: The Darling ‘Range’ was really just a low plateau; the climate was very harsh compared to N.Z. and it seemed too uncomfortably hot for walking for much of the year; the streams were mainly ephemeral and therefore not reliable as year-round (or even winter) drinking water sources; there were snakes and ticks (not present in N.Z.); few real walking tracks (aside from the precursor to the ‘new’ Bibbulmun Track); the vegetation was seemingly rather monotonous, being dominated by just a few tree species (jarrah, marri and wandoo); and to a geologist even the geology was also quite unexciting, being dominated by just a few igneous rock-types (mainly granite and dolerite), often with a capping of laterite.

Even the Waitakere Ranges, less than an hour’s drive from my native Auckland, had been such a striking contrast to the Darling Range: The species-rich, sub-tropical coastal rainforest of the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park covers an area of only 160 sq km (which is less than 4% of the 4100 sq km area of the northern Darling Range forests, north of Dwellingup). Yet the Waitakeres contain around 250 km of much-used walking tracks, contrasting with our single, main walking track, the Bibbulmun Track (which is 202 km for the Kalamunda-Dwellingup section through the northern catchments). There are picturesque streams flowing year-round to drink from and to camp near; rugged terrain, with interesting geology and landforms and often dramatic scenery (including some of the stunning settings for the 1993 N.Z. movie “The Piano”); surf beaches (albeit with black volcanic sand!); and no snakes and ticks! –A walker’s delight! (Aside: The Waitakere Ranges also include water catchments for five water reservoirs which provide around 25% of the drinking water requirements for Auckland’s 1.3 million population. That is a quite similar situation to Perth where the Darling Range reservoirs currently satisfy around 27% of the water demands of Perth’s 1.6 million population. The Waitakeres perhaps provide a useful example of community recreational access (for walking) to a drinking water source area, an issue of relevance to the future of bushwalking in the Darling Range near Perth which has been under threat in recent years.)

In about 1985, aware of my then long-dormant love of walking, my wife bought me as a birthday gift, the wonderful publication “Forests on Foot” (40 walks in W.A.) by Kathy Meney and P. Brown, and published that year by the then Campaign to Save Native Forests. As I flicked through the pages of “Forests on Foot” at that time I found myself interested, but still not quite ready to test this new walking experience, so alien from what I had grown up with and enjoyed in N.Z. So that little book was to remain tantalizingly on my bookshelf in pristine condition - for another 15 years or so! – until it was to become the inspiration for me to start visiting some of the walk routes and to eventually include variations on some of those walks on my WalkGPS site. Meanwhile in those intervening years Perth of course offered lots of other fulfilling interests and distractions to fill the gap!

Clearly I wasn’t the first to suffer such detachment from ‘place’ and won’t be the last. In 1972, the very year I arrived in Perth, Australian academic George Seddon had first published his landmark book, “Sense of Place”, which was his response to the Swan Coastal Plain environment. Seddon brought to his highly regarded writings a wonderfully multidisciplinary background, having held University chairs in Geology, English, Philosophy and Environment. He was also a keen gardener and bushwalker. After years away from Australia, and having been brought up in country Victoria, Seddon captured his early impressions of Western Australia in the Foreword to his book, as follows: “The country was all wrong and I felt cheated. This wasn't what I had come back for; where were the ferntree gullies, the high plains, the trout? All the plants scratched your legs. The jarrah was a grotesque parody of a tree, gaunt, misshapen, usually with a few dead limbs, fire-blackened trunk, and barely enough leaves to shade a small ant. If you went camping in the summer, you carried water – you couldn't take a running stream for granted. It was slowly borne in on me that I wasn't an Australian at all, but a Victorian…. Slowly I came to understand the land better.” Seddon acknowledged he had been “ill-prepared” for Western Australia, and sensed that “this must be a common experience”. But he also noted that “even the Western Australians whose families have been here for three and four generations are ill-prepared in some basic ways”.



I was to find, like Seddon, that achieving a real sense of place in this seemingly very unfamiliar environment would not occur through some strange epiphany or ‘eureka’ moment. There would be no instant gratification. Rather it would be through a more patient and cumulative process of “learning to see”, to experience and eventually to truly appreciate the new environment. For some aspiring bushwalkers that process might be accelerated by becoming immersed in a challenging 960km end-to-end walk of the Bibbulmun Track. But for me it finally began in 2001 in a more gingerly manner, by dusting off my old copy of “Forests on Foot”, testing out a few off-track, map-and-compass walks in the nearby Darling Range, and joining the Perth Bushwalkers Club.
Ironically, once I got started, my old prejudices and misconceptions began to quickly fall away: Yes, the climate in the Perth region can be harsh and unforgiving for those foolhardy enough to bushwalk in mid-summer, but it is otherwise mostly pleasant from mid-April to early November during the main autumn-winter-spring bushwalking period; There may not be much obvious drama in the landforms of the nearby Darling ‘Plateau’, but there are the partly ‘bald’ granite domes of the ‘monadnocks’ providing views across the surrounding plateau (plus a few modest challenges for rock climbers). The fracturing, weathering, exfoliating of the many ancient outcrops also produces aesthetically curved and stained slopes and other natural sculptures, including giant granite boulders. The deeper gullies, gorges, and several waterfalls toward the western margin of the Range, near the Darling Scarp, also add special interest and walking opportunities.

There is also the beauty and amazing diversity of the wildflowers throughout much of the walking season, more than compensating for the limited variety in the forest canopy. There is the almost magical annual resurrection of life-in-miniature on the granite outcrops as seemingly dead mosses, lichens, sundews, and ‘pincushions’ (Borya sp.) respond to winter rains and moisture. There is the grace and exquisite form of many of the orchids, often the first plant life to emerge after a bushfire, and along with other resilient wildflowers, quick to soften the initial oppressiveness of the stark, fire-blackened jarrah forest. And then I found, like many before me (and also perfectly described in “Forests on Foot”, p.83), the very light and open wandoo woodlands to the east to be the most welcoming and refreshing of places: The rich, warm glow of the freshly exposed orange trunks of the ‘powder barks’ (Eucalyptus accedens) after the autumn bark-shedding, contrasting with the cool silvery-white trunks of the wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo), often juxtaposed against the dark brown-red slope of a laterite ‘breakaway’, and all softened by sunlight streaming through the relatively open canopy, creating scenes that would have any landscape painter reaching for his/her palette.

And there are the encounters with wildlife, especially when walking quietly, alone; mostly kangaroos, wallabies, emus, wedge-tail eagles, parrots, tawny frogmouths, lizards of various types, occasionally echidnas. Early trepidation over snakes and ticks, and even feral pigs was soon replaced by the awareness that a small amount of knowledge and commonsense (including now carrying a Personal Location Beacon) was all that was needed for peace of mind (not the least for those at home!), and that any greater response was irrational. (Note: The advent of the Personal Location Beacon in recent years has provided a wonderful and highly recommended ‘insurance’ for any solitary walker, or group of walkers, in the very unlikely event of snakebite or any other serious misadventure in a remote area!)



But one of the most significant revelations was the surprising accessibility from Perth of the many worthwhile bushwalking areas in the Darling Range, most being within 100km of Perth city and an easy hour-or-so’s drive. The convenience factor was important in making it easy to establish a regular bushwalking habit: A day’s bushwalking of around 15-20km can be fitted very easily into most weekends when work pressures could otherwise make longer, overnight trips away from Perth too difficult. And there was also the variety factor: No need to go repeatedly back to the same walk area when there was such a range of areas within the State Forests and National Parks to select from and explore. (Note: The issue of accessibility and variety is a topical one in view of the current W.A. State Parliamentary inquiry into recreation activities in drinking water catchments in the Darling Range. - See more commentary on this issue on WalkGPS.)

There was also the realization that the mainly relatively light and open eucalypt forests and woodlands are ideal for minimal impact, off-track (cross-country) bushwalking. Such walking offers a special freedom and the obstacles are minimal. The thickets of prickly ‘parrot bush’ and other ‘dryandra’ species (now re-classified as banksias) which often dominate on lateritic hilltops (especially in the wandoo woodlands) are mostly easily bypassed. Similarly, patches of scratchy shrublands and heathlands are common around granite outcrops, but the patient walker usually finds the easy way through by following well worn animal trails (mainly from western grey kangaroos and brush wallabies). Unlike in my native N.Z., ‘bush-bashing’ would not be required to walk cross-country through these forests!

And finally the advent of the hand-held GPS receiver unit as an accurate navigation tool added another level of freedom to off-track walking in the Darling Range. Like myself, most others using map and GPS have found that it has liberated them from the usual limitations and uncertainties of traditional map and compass navigation alone, especially when gentle terrain increases the challenge by providing few prominent landmarks or other clues. With map and GPS there is that wonderful new freedom of being able to wander freely; to fully enjoy the bushwalking experience and environment; not keeping to a compass-bearing but often exploring away from a planned route; and then being able to navigate back to the known route at any time from wherever your curiosity may have led you on the day. I quickly discovered that while map and GPS navigation is a catalyst for both freedom and adventure, it is also the ideal tool for the solitary walker simply seeking a relaxing walk in the forest without being preoccupied with navigation.

And so, having taken my first belated bushwalking steps into the Darling Range in 2001 as a 51-year old, and having purchased a basic GPS receiver in early 2002, I have over the past eight years recorded cumulatively more than 4500 km of bushwalking in the region, including optimising my initial walk routes, and eventually documenting many of them on WalkGPS. But aside from all the pleasure I have had from sharing information on the walks with many others through WalkGPS, this has been an intensely personal and profoundly satisfying journey, rewarding me along the way with that long-elusive ‘sense of place’. As I celebrated my 60th birthday in late 2009, I was quietly thankful for what bushwalking and the Darling Range near Perth has given me. I thought ahead to the many ‘classic’ overseas and interstate treks that still await me, but in the sure knowledge that my walking in the Darling Range will also continue. After all - as Marcel Proust wrote at the end of the 19th Century - “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”.

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