Best Australian Bushwalk

[wildwalks]

Hi All

I am working on an article for the next Bushwalk.com emag.
I was wanting to get as many people to fill out this survey as possible to help in the next two weeks - otherwise I will just have to make stuff up
There is space for up to three best day walks and three overnight walks in the survey.
Just looking for tracked (promoted) walks - stuff I can write about in the emag.

The survey is here
https://docs.google.com/a/wildwalks.com/forms/d/146qB76LB8mVc0f0apTkSz997fp-cEOk0qju7pAacz98/viewform

An in case you are wondering what this emag stuff is all about you can find the back catalog here.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz-u1biWAmhaQktOLVI0OC1QdlU&authuser=0

Hope that all makes sense.
Thanks for your help.

Matt

[Hallu]

Done. I realize that it's actually hard to pick day walks outside of Tasmania. I mean in Tasmania you have plenty of day walk classics (Cape Hauy/Raoul, The Walls, Mt Murchison, Mt Anne, the Mt Field Plateau, etc...) that are several hours long, with great interest all along. But if you think about it, it's harder to find those in other states, because often a part of the walk is on 4WD tracks, or it's too short, or rarely a circuit, or not all the way interesting, or not "official" with no online info. For example, Mt Buffalo is gorgeous, but it's mainly several short walks, there isn't a good 5 h walk in the park unless you connect several walks yourself. Same thing in the Mallee : it's only short walks or long ones where you're walking for too long on 4WD tracks. For VIC, I wanted to put the Rame Head walk in Croajingolong, but since you can't really find online info on it, and the track isn't maintained, I picked the Mt Feathertop via Razorback instead.

In the Northern half of WA, it's hard as well, appart from "The Loop" in Kalbarri, there is no classic documented day walk there, whereas there is a great potential for it. You can make your own tailored day walks in Karijini or Kennedy Ranges, but it's not "official" and you won't find info on it. I loved the NSW Sapphire coast, but again, no real day walk there. Same thing in the Mungo/Mutawintji area.

I think it's connected to the lack of mountains : it's easier to have walks towards summits, because that's a natural objective. Before tourism was here, natives or settlers walked those tracks, and they become classics walks. But in a semi-arid or coastal environment, you need to build your own day walk, and it's not easy. On the coast, it's usually one way, and most people don't have a car shuffle option. A semi-arid environment rarely has "vistas" to see all over, so it's hard to justify a long day walk there : it's more interesting to camp, enjoy the stars, the solitude and the nocturnal wildlife. It's also of course connected to the ridiculously small amount of money given to National Parks for track management and track building. And in that sense, again, Tasmania is ahead of everyone else.

Last edited by Hallu on Tue 12 Aug, 2014 7:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[walkon]

Yeah your right there, day walks had me stumped. I could think of a few I liked but the only info would be if I wrote about it. Then I ones I didn't mind that I just thought of were the start of multi days I liked. Should be a rule against day walks!

[eggs]

I have approached this as walks I have done, so that limits the range a bit.
But for day walks outside Tas I would have picked Hollow Mt to Mt Stapylton as a loop walk, but there are other nice length walks in the Grampians.
Also Ormiston Gorge through to Bowmans Gap and Waterfall valley as partly a loop walk.
The loop walk around the base of Uluru is surprisingly interesting, as is the Kings Canyon loop walk.
The Breadknife loop in the Warrambungles is great and we recently did a great short loop through Alligator Gorge in SA which was delightful with a reasonable flow of water in it.
Mt Sonder, Mt Warning and Walshs Pyramid as return walks all have commending factors.
And we had a fantastic walk in snow shoes to Mt Kosciuzsko in October, which could easily be made into a loop via the Ramshead Range.

[stepbystep]

I think you need to split Tasmania from this. Western Arthur's/Walls/Frenchmans/OLT//SCT/Anne Circuit/Southern Ranges/Eastern Arthur's/Tarkine/SW Cape will stand clear of the rest. Perhaps Larapinta would sneak into a top 10?
As for day walks maybe some other states would feature in the top 50?!?!?!

*ducks for cover*

[Scottyk]

I think you need to split Tasmania from this. Western Arthur's/Walls/Frenchmans/OLT//SCT/Anne Circuit/Southern Ranges/Eastern Arthur's/Tarkine/SW Cape will stand clear of the rest. Perhaps Larapinta would sneak into a top 10?
As for day walks maybe some other states would feature in the top 50?!?!?!

*ducks for cover*

Go Tassie

[ILUVSWTAS]

I think you need to split Tasmania from this. Western Arthur's/Walls/Frenchmans/OLT//SCT/Anne Circuit/Southern Ranges/Eastern Arthur's/Tarkine/SW Cape will stand clear of the rest. Perhaps Larapinta would sneak into a top 10?
As for day walks maybe some other states would feature in the top 50?!?!?!

*ducks for cover*

Go Tassie

Yeh but it's simple fact.

[eggs]

Ever meet someone who says once you have been in one limestone cave, you have seen them all?
Anyway, its good to get a little variety into the diet, and as countries go, Australia has one of the most amazing offerings of totally diverse landscapes and climate zones going.
We are very privileged indeed.

Last edited by eggs on Wed 13 Aug, 2014 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[stepbystep]

I believe SbS has been around, but I didn't know ILUV had done the Larapinta, or the Main Range, or the Grampians, or the Budawangs, or the Flinders Ranges, or Hinchinbrook, or the Victorian Alps, or the Warrambungles, or the Stirling Range, or ........

Ever meet someone who says once you have been in one limestone cave, you have seen them all?
Anyway, its good to get a little variety into the diet, and as countries go, Australia has one of the most amazing offerings of totally diverse landscapes and climate zones going.
We are very privileged indeed.

Totally agree eggs we are super lucky to live in this amazing country, and I've walked in 5 states, not as much as I'd like. I totally want to do more on the big island. But it is the top 3 and all that

[Champion_Munch]

Top 3 from each state would have been nice, though not sure that's within the scope of Matt's article...

[nq111]

I think you need to split Tasmania from this. Western Arthur's/Walls/Frenchmans/OLT//SCT/Anne Circuit/Southern Ranges/Eastern Arthur's/Tarkine/SW Cape will stand clear of the rest. Perhaps Larapinta would sneak into a top 10?
As for day walks maybe some other states would feature in the top 50?!?!?!

*ducks for cover*

Pretty much true.

I would vote for Eagles Ridge, Mt Barney (QLD) though some of the rating is sentimental value.

Some of the tropical areas (Cape York, Arhnem Land, Kimberley) have potential for walks to genuinely compete with Tassie, but as it stands nothing is developed and very few people are interested in learning to walk in tropical conditions.

[Hallu]

Not having seen Cape York is indeed one of my biggest regrets. More than the lack of walking tracks, it's the fact that you have to rent a 4x4 to go there that stopped me : too expensive. Besides there aren't decently priced 4WD tours, unlike in the Top End for example. Remote areas such as the Simpson Desert, Cape York or the Kimberley are desperately limited to (moderately) wealthy people I'm afraid, unless you work and live there already.

[icefest]

With all the responses Matt has been getting, I can't help but wonder if having other people choices pop up as options to fill the boxes would make the data editing easier.
I'm assuming he's loading them into a database (possibly sql-esque) but if the effort of programming is more than the effort saved by post-processing then it's hardly worthwhile.

But, yes. I personally think that one of the best day-walks is the Stapylton-Hollow circuit, Tassie daywalks are great too, but are overshadowed by the longer walks.
Or the Karinjini NP Gorges (can I go back and add that?).

[Hallu]

The problem with Karijini is that it doesn't have a long day walk. And the info you find online is horrible. They deliberately give you overestimated walking times for walks, and only describe short walks. But once you go there, you see on the info panels that longer circuits are shown, they're not online to avoid accidents, apparently too many people attempted gorge walks with no proper equipment and fell. It's true that I've seen many backpackers walking in flip-flops...

[icefest]

OSM for that area is pretty shocking too.

[wildwalks]

Top 3 from each state would have been nice, though not sure that's within the scope of Matt's article...

I am not sure what is in scope yet either
Wow the response has been great so far -- does seem tassy is leading the race with 'winning' walks.

At this stage I am planning on seeing the results and hoping that an interesting article will arise.
Thanks for all the responses -- this looks like it will be a fun project

Matt

[Eljimberino]

The best walk is the one you've just completed. You were not at work.

[Dolerite Walker]

Yes, I've put together a list of the top ten multi day walks in Australia and there's no room for any outside Tasmania.

[north-north-west]

Yes, I've put together a list of the top ten multi day walks in Australia and there's no room for any outside Tasmania.

Larapinta. Not sure what it would push out of your list, but it definitely belongs.

[Son of a Beach]

Many Tasmanians (including myself) just don't have the motivation to bushwalking elsewhere. I know there must be good walks (and more significantly, vastly different walks) elsewhere, but there's also more in Tasmania than I'll ever see in my lifetime and its so accessible - no more than a tank full of petrol away.

So although some of our bias may be legitimate, in many cases, it's also ignorant.

[walk2wineries]

I notice the Taswegian influence mostly on the bush Tucker pages! The emphasis on dehydrated meals is lost on those of us who must, in any case, carry their own water!