On radio 5MU (1125 on the AM band) on Wednesday 3rd April at around 11.35 am there will be an interview about the Lavender Federation Waling Trail

The main emphasis will be on the opening on the following Sunday 7th @ 10.30 am on the wetlands trail upgrade.

You can pick up [...]]]>

On radio 5MU (1125 on the AM band) on Wednesday 3rd April at around 11.35 am there will be an interview about the Lavender Federation Waling Trail

The main emphasis will be on the opening on the following Sunday 7th @ 10.30 am on the wetlands trail upgrade.

You can pick up this station through most of Adelaide as well as the Barossa.

There should also be an article in one of next week’s editions of the Murray Valley Standard as well.

Latest newsletter has details of the

The official opening by Murray Bridge mayor, Alan Arbon of this section of trail will be held on Sunday 7th April at 10.30 am at the information bay on Mannum [...]]]> Download the new newsletter April 2013 as a PDF

Latest newsletter has details of the

Official Opening of the Wetlands Trail Upgrade.

7th April 2013

The official opening by Murray Bridge mayor, Alan Arbon of this
section of trail will be held on Sunday 7th April at 10.30 am at the
information bay on Mannum Road at Murray Bridge.

Read all about it – with photos in the April 2013 Footsteps Newsletter.

Latest newsletter has these items

Download April 2013 Footsteps Newsletter.

Latest newsletter has these items

Go [...]]]> Download the new newsletter March 2013 as a PDF

Latest newsletter has these items

• 
  New trail upgrades completed.
• 
  Opening of the 2013 Walking Season.
• 
  Fun run/walk to use the Lavender Federation Trail.
• 
  Maintenance assistance needed.
• 
  Truro to Eudunda trail extension update.
• 
  New interpretive signs.
• 
  Bits & Pieces.

Go to our Newsletter page.

With over five hundred members they are one of the largest walking groups in South Australia.

Why not check out their website

http://arpabushwalkers.org.au/

I’ve frequently heard people ask the question “What does the Walking Federation do”?

Perhaps I’m being a trifle paranoid when I think that the implication behind [...]]]> John Eaton of the Walking Federation of SA Inc.,
Access Issues and Trails Technical Group
Writes a passionate and motivating letter to all walkers on Wednesday, 31 October 2012.

I’ve frequently heard people ask the question “What does the Walking Federation do”?

Perhaps I’m being a trifle paranoid when I think that the implication behind the question is
that the Walking Federation doesn’t do much at all, other than arrange cheap insurance for
walking clubs through Bushwalking Australia.

This observation is sometimes made by walkers who are hard-working volunteers for such
focussed groups as The Friends of the Heysen Trail. It has left me to ponder why people
should get the impression that WSA is a “do nothing” organisation.

I observe that the Federation, through the efforts of volunteers, Peter Beer, June Boscence
and others – did develop and manage The Pioneer Women’s Trail in co-operation with local
government and other interest groups with earlier grants from the Office of Recreation and
Sport. This is a demonstrably tangible, practical Walking SA achievement in conjunction with
the Adelaide Hills Council and The City of Burnside.

Walkers in the Mount Lofty Ranges will be familiar with the ubiquitous yellow decals with
two black footprints which indicate a trail within the Mount Lofty Network Trails (MLNT).
The Mount Lofty Trails Network (MLTN) has its origins back in the early 60’s with grants
from the (then) National Fitness Council. The revamp in the 1993-1995 was an initiative of
The Walking Federation who received a grant from the (then) Dept of Recreation and Sport
to employ a project officer, John Herd. A further successful grant application by WSA in
2011 managed by Liz O’Shea, has meant that four new loop walks (each comprising shorter
loops) have recently been surveyed in the Kersbrook forests in conjunction with Forestry SA.
A fifth loop, with Kersbrook Township at its centre, has also been surveyed. Once the
signage infrastructure has been completed, these new loops will provide walking in some of
South Australia’s most pristine and bio-diverse native forests and commercial pine
plantations.

Under Thelma Anderson’s eagle eye for road closures, the Access Committee of WSA has
stopped the sell-off of many unmade road reserves, without which the Heysen Trail would
not have been possible. Ron Jackson has also initiated several gold coin walks with still more
on the way.

I’ve spent the past decade doing voluntary work for WSA on such matters as reviewing and
auditing trails and trail networks within Hale and Warren, Sturt Gorge, Belair and Morialta
Conservation Parks. As a member of the Access Committee of the Walking Federation with
Fran Lucas as Chairperson, I’ve learnt a lot from Thelma Anderson about how to monitor the
disposal of unmade road reserves. These are sold off at the rate of two or three per month -
at “nuisance” value to adjacent land-owners. As well there are illegal closures by adjacent
land-owners over roads they don’t own. They use gates, dogs, guns and signs to discourage
walkers from accessing road reserves that we walkers are legally entitled to walk!
Through Thelma’s pioneering work in Access issues, Local Government agencies are
nowadays much more aware of the recreational and economic benefits of viable walking
paths to local communities, and the processes required under the Roads Opening and
Closing Act for their proper disposal.

My fellow members of the WSA Committee are equally hard-working on other worthwhile
tasks. In reflecting on the nature of the work we do within the organisation, I find that this
work is often at a logistic level – to the benefit of all trail-users generally – through more -
and better trails and walking infrastructure. But when our projects have been completed,
other organisations, especially the land-managers – may have been given the credit. You will
now find that the WSA logo will appear on new direction marker decals used on the new
Mount Lofty Ranges Trails circuits. Perhaps we haven’t done enough in the past to establish
the WSA “brand”? Had we done so, perhaps the question originally posed in my opening
sentence would never have been asked.

Towards a strong and effective Walking Federation
The Walking Federation has recently received a grant of $30,000 from the Office of
Recreation and Sport to conduct an independent review of its governance and operation. All
walking groups will be invited to provide input into what a new federation might become
and how it should best operate. However, if we don’t have a viable Federation because we
have let it die through lack of support, we can hardly conduct a review into its operations or
help determine what it might become for the benefit of walking in SA.

The Federation currently receives an annual grant of $25,000 towards office administration
costs. This enables us to keep our office open two whole days a week! Should the
independent review conclude that there is a future for the Walking Federation of SA, it will
no doubt consider such matters as paid executive staffing, skills and stipends, volunteering
and what funding level is appropriate for an affective umbrella walking organisation.
Other 2011-12 grants are directed at projects such as the development of five new loops
within Forestry SA Reserves as part of a Mount Lofty Ranges Trails network, or the
construction of a dedicated pedestrian bridge across the Onkaparinga River at Hahndorf in
order to extend the Pioneer Women’s Trail to Hahndorf.

However the future of the Walking Federation is seriously threatened. The SA walking
community is on the verge of failing to fill vacancies on the WSA Committee. Perhaps the
feeling “out there” that the Federation doesn’t really do or achieve anything tangible is the
reason why representatives from the clubs are reluctant to volunteer for WSA committee
membership. I’ve also heard the theory from those who belong to other community service
organisations whose memberships are falling – that the post war “baby boomers” may not
be strong on volunteering per se. I don’t believe it- not if volunteering by parents in school
communities is anything to go by. It is more likely that they are exhausted!
If the Walking Community in SA decides that the Walking Federation is not worth saving, we
will be left without a Federation structure for walkers in this State. What we will be left with
is a number of unaffiliated groups of trail maintenance volunteers and walkers, each
directing their energies to their own walking program or trail maintenance and trying to do
this in isolation from each other.

“Divided we fall”?
My bet is that it won’t take long before these unaffiliated, but comfortably focussed walking
interest groups –in this future scenario – decide to form ad hoc committees to better
coordinate their endeavours, to work strategically on the whole trails network and to lobby
Local and State governments more effectively. And from the ashes of what was a distant
memory of a Walking Federation – the phoenix of a new Federation will emerge. They’ll
want to call it something else of course but – to paraphrase Romeo to Juliet – a Walking
Federation “by any other name will….still be a Walking Federation.

We just might be able to short circuit this by supporting the Walking Federation that we
already have and we might as well make it a strong, well-funded organisation representing
all walkers – bush or suburban – to act in the interests of the whole walking community.

You can support the future of a Walking Federation in South Australia
by attending the WSA Annual General Meeting on Thursday, November
22nd – to ensure that WSA is a viable, well focussed organisation worth
preserving and hopefully offering to serve on the committee or
subcommittees and by participating in the independent review of WSA’s
governance and operation.

Hoping to see as many walking club representatives and walkers at the AGM as possible!

John Eaton
Walking Federation of SA Inc.
Access Issues and Trails Technical Group
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Details of the AGM are provided below.

Walking Federation SA – AGM 2012

LAVENDER TRAIL

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:29): It gives me great pleasure today, as the member for Stuart and the shadow minister for recreation and sport, to fill [...]]]> During the South Australian Parliament sitting on the 3rd April 2012.
The Member for Stuart, Mr Dan Van Holst Pellekaan spoke during the Grievance Debate period.

LAVENDER TRAIL

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:29): It gives me great pleasure today, as the member for Stuart and the shadow minister for recreation and sport, to fill the house in on an event that took place in Truro on Sunday of the weekend just gone. It was the official opening of the walking season, combined with the official opening of the most recent extension of the Lavender Trail from Springton to Truro. It was wonderful to be invited there by Mr Bill Gehling, the President of Walking SA. It was also wonderful to be there with the member for Schubert, who did the official opening, as the majority of that stage of the trail runs through the electorate of Schubert.

Ms Chapman: Did he do the walk?

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I was also very pleased to be able to point out to them that the next stage is on up to Eudunda, and the one after that is on up to Burra, so they really are moving into the very best part of the state. Yes, the member for Schubert did undertake that he would get moving, get walking and test out this very valuable part of the trail.

It really was wonderful. The Truro community did a tremendous job in catering, and many organisations, primarily various walking clubs from around the state, erected stalls. Craneford Wines did the same—a very important employer in the community of Truro. I congratulate them all on participating so well. It was especially nice to have Ann Lavender there, who is the widow of Terry Lavender, after whom the Lavender Trail is named.

As well as the obvious benefits to the walkers who get to participate and use these trails—and there were many of them there—I would just like to highlight some of the perhaps less obvious benefits of some of these trails that are springing up throughout our state and have been for many, many years. Not only do the walkers and the people who actually use these trails benefit but the communities benefit as well, and they benefit enormously.

There is a deliberate push to have these trails, which go through nature areas, reserves and, in many cases, wilderness areas, go from town to town because, as well as the communities being able to support the users of these trails, the users of these trails also support the communities. Hopefully, they leave a dollar or two behind, whether they stay in a motel or a pub or spend a bit of money in a business along the way, and there are also social benefits that come along, even right down to the nitty-gritty of the fact that the kids who might live in these towns just get exposure and influence to good habits and to active people.

Many of these walkers are in the later years of their life and they set very good examples about what activity and good health can do for you. Just the fact that they might get to bump into somebody from Adelaide or interstate, and quite often somebody from overseas who is using these trails, in itself in a small way contributes to the fabric of the town and the opportunities these communities get by virtue of the fact that the trails run to and from them. It is also important to point out that these trails are almost exclusively built and maintained by volunteers—typically people with an interest in walking or the particular activity that goes on there but often with community support as well, so I would like to thank those volunteers for their contribution.

It is wonderful to know that throughout South Australia we have an ever-increasing network of trails. These trails are not mutually exclusive; they are not competitive. A new trail in one area does not mean that another trail in another area is no longer attractive. Throughout our state, we have the Heysen Trail, which is a walking trail; we have the Mawson Trail, which is a cycling trail; and we have the Kidman Trail, which is a horseback riding trail. We have many other trails crisscrossing our state, and now we have the ever-expanding Lavender Trail, which is really terrific.

This network of trails is also particularly important for tourism because it does, as I said before, bring money into the communities. People will travel specifically to go on these trails. Walkers have a particular benefit because they are actually allowed to walk on any trail. Cyclists can only take their bikes onto bike riding trails, and horseback riders can only take their horses onto particular horseback riding trails, so walkers are very much in the box seat—they get to use all the trails.

Living in Wilmington, as I do, we are very fortunate to live right next door to Melrose, the next town down the road, which is one of the very few places (I think there are four of them in the state) where the Heysen Trail and the Mawson Trail actually intersect. We are very fortunate to be close to a mecca for these activities, and we participate actively ourselves. Congratulations go to the Truro community for their efforts.

The online reference in Hansard is at: http://hansard.parliament.sa.gov.au/pages/loaddoc.aspx?e=1&eD=2012_04_03&c=40

Not a member yet? It’s very inexpensive to support the Trail and get the latest news.

You can get the forms from the membership page.

Latest newsletter has these items

 Successful opening of the 2012 Walking Season  SARTI Board for 2012/3.  A year of exceptional achievements.  Trail vandalism a continual battle  Re-vegetation project enhances the LFT.  Truro to Eudunda takes a step forward.  Bits [...]]]> Download the new newsletter August 2012 as a PDF

Latest newsletter has these items

 Successful opening of the 2012 Walking Season
 SARTI Board for 2012/3.
 A year of exceptional achievements.
 Trail vandalism a continual battle
 Re-vegetation project enhances the LFT.
 Truro to Eudunda takes a step forward.
 Bits & Pieces.

Go to our Newsletter page.

Latest newsletter has these items

 Notification of SARTI Annual General Meeting.  Appeal for Assistance from trail users.  Information on joining our newsletter.

Go to our Newsletter page.