Bushwalk Australia

Hi all,

This is my first post as I have only recently discovered this enjoyable past time. I wanted to ask if anyone knows of a good guide book for NSW walks? I was on a trail in Lane Cove national park last week and spoke to some passing walkers who had a guide book that seemed to be produced by National parks and wildlife. I can't find anything on the web and I really like having a map of the trail as I’m doing the walk. Any advice at all would be much appreciated.

kind regards,

Andrei

Sounds like it may have been "bushwalks in the sydney region" by national parks association which are pretty good for intro walks and the popular longer trips.

a nice list of books is on the confed page here: http://www.bushwalking.org.au/nlib.html

otherwise there's http://www.wildwalks.com/ where you can print out walk details
and also http://ozultimate.com/bushwalking/ which has detailed trip reports/occasional nice sketch maps (and also a book list)

if you're walking on trails (and if you're not, too) generally you'd want to take a 1:25k scale topographic map of the area with you as well, to use in combination with the sketch maps from books/the web

enjoy


by the way to answer your question yes I'd recommend the 'bushwalks in the sydney region' books. walks in and within ~120 km of sydney with grading, time, transport options, etc. I think some of the books may be hard to come across these days. maybe give the shops on kent st a buzz to see if they still sell bushwalking books ? glenbrook visitor's had the NPA books when I last dropped in so hopefully they still have a collection for sale

Thanks for the quick and highly useful reply. I will try and track down that book. I'll have a look around this website for info on obtaining the topographic maps but if anyone would care to offer a quick link to the info that would be appreciated.

In order to maintain the usefulness of this thread could I ask for your suggestions for the best guide book for new bush-walkers for Sydney region walks.

You can buy both Vol1 and Vol2 for $15 for both online here: http://www.npansw.org.au/index.php/shop/books.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=27&category_id=6. Looks like a great price - I paid $25+ for each of them last year from a well-known store in Chatswood .

Best book(s) for starting on are the Bushwalks in the Sydney Region books (Vol 1 and 2) by the NPA. See link above from Marwood. There are some other decent niche guides, but if you are walking near Sydney, you can't go past the NPA ones to start off with. And at $15 for both, you can't go past the price. You can even afford a donation to the NPA!

I am also new here and am loving the info thanks guys

I agree. For the greater Sydney area these two books are hard to go past and provide a huge range of walks for all abilities.
Clarence

Thanks for the tip Marwood-time fto get the more recent editions,mine are pretty old .
Cheers,
Dave.

Tyrone Thomas book "120 Walks in New South Wales" is reasonable, especially if you want to go further afield than Sydney.

dreison wrote:I was on a trail in Lane Cove national park last week and spoke to some passing walkers who had a guide book that seemed to be produced by National parks and wildlife

Hi Andrei
Hope you enjoyed your walk.

Not sure your goal here. If you are after the same book it is probably not the NPA guide books (don't get me wrong, there still worth having).
But they don't have walks in Lane Cove NP (as I recall - I don't have my copies on my now).
There are a few other possibilities
Lane Cove field Guide http://www.step.org.au/books.php
(this is a big book, great detail, but less about the walk and more about the geology and vegetation)

My guess is that it was probably Sydney's Best Bush, Park & City Walks
http://www.wildwalks.com/bushwalking/general/general_items_render.html?action=view_item&item_id=7

Hope that is helpful - there are some good books and websites listed above from other people, plenty to choose from.

Happy walking

Matt

oops forgot to say ....

I have compiled a list of NSW guide books that I am aware of (I am sure there are more)
Check out the list here
http://www.wildwalks.com/bushwalking/general/general_items_render.html?action=view_template&template_id=1

For most of them I have included a basic summary and list of walk detailed on the book.

Enjoy

Matt