Year: 2023

Hiking Expo – Sunday 2 April 2023

Posted on by Walking SA

Opening of the Bushwalking Season
9am to 1:00pm, Sunday 2nd April 2023
Belair National Park

An expo to celebrate the start of the South Australian bushwalking season. With the arrival of cooler autumn weather, hiking is an ideal outdoor activity. South Australia’s bushwalking clubs and Walking SA are coming together to celebrate the occasion with a unique day in Belair National Park.

  • Expo of walking tours, walking destinations, outdoor retailers, walking clubs, free entry. 9am to 1pm. View the list of exhibitors
  • Guided hikes ranging from 45mins to 3 hours, including child friendly, dog friendly and Accessible options. Walks depart every 10 minutes from 9:00am to 12:20pm. Secure a place on a specific guided walk by registering online from March 2023, or just arrive on the day and choose a guided walk to join.
  • Bushwalking equipment and experience demonstration stage
  • Promote sustainability by selling or donating outdoor gear to the Recycle Your Quality Outdoor Gear Stall. It could be shoes or a backpack that you bought but didn’t turn out to be for you, but is still quite new, or it could be a used piece of gear that still has some life.

New Executive Director for Walking SA

Posted on by Walking SA

Walking SA is delighted to announce that Sharon Kelsey has been appointed as our new Executive Director.

With over 15 years as an Executive leading local government and public sector organisations, she has formal qualifications in law, management and adult education. With lived experience in the Australian outback, Asia, Europe, the US and interstate, she brings business acumen with her lust for walking.

Her wanderlust developed from her early years spent accompanying her amateur botanist grandfather as he trekked across the Fleurieu Peninsula. It was here she became adept at not only spotting orchids but knowing where the best spots were to take in the expansive views and find sufficient shade for a well-earned rest. As an active walker she has completed much of the Great South West Walk, the Heysen Trail and walked from Port Augusta to Quorn via the Pichi Richi Pass.

With a good knowledge across all our focus areas of bushwalking, walking for transport and walking for health, she will be working to seek the best outcomes for all trail users.

With an extensive career in leadership in large urban and smaller rural community-based organisations both here in South Australia and interstate she will be a valuable asset in liaising with a range of diverse stakeholders.

As a strong advocate for the benefits of walking including the health, social and mental wellbeing that flow from active participation, she will help Walking SA to achieve its vision of seeing more people walking more often.

Improve your Hiking Skills session, Belair National Park

Posted on by Walking SA

Saturday 15 April 2023
Belair National Park
Choose from two sessions:
8:30am to 11:30am, or
1pm to 4pm

Join an experienced leader from Walking SA for a guided bushwalk & skills session in Belair National Park on Kaurna country.

This 3-hour session will include a 2 hour hike in the park plus some time to relax in the bush and have a chat about:

  • How to plan and be well prepared for a hike
  • How to stay comfortable while walking
  • Equipment should you take with you
  • Navigation and map resources
  • What to do in an emergency
  • Rules and guidelines about walking in parks
  • The principles of Leave No Trace
  • Walking SA
  • Bushwalking Leadership South Australia
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This event is proudly supported by National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia as part of the April’s – Park of the Month – Belair National Park.

Recycle your Quality Outdoor Gear at the Hiking Expo

Posted on by Walking SA

Recycle your Quality Outdoor Gear flyer detailsPromote sustainability by selling or donating outdoor gear to the Recycle Your Quality Outdoor Gear Stall at the April 2 Hiking Expo. It could be shoes or a backpack that you bought but didn’t turn out to be for you, but is still quite new, or it could be a used piece of gear that still has some life.

View the stall brochure.

Drop off items:

View the information form to include with items.

Website feedback survey

Posted on by Walking SA

At Walking SA our mission is to get more people walking more often.

We are upgrading our website. We’d love to hear your feedback on the current website and other comparable websites, to assist in guiding us in determining where to focus our upgrade.

Complete the survey by 10th March 2023 for a chance to win an Osprey Siskin 12L Hydration Pack valued at $189.95 thanks to Paddy Pallin.

The survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete.

Read on for background, or take the survey now.

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Background

The Walking SA website was developed in 2013-14. At this time, the key outcomes for the website were to provide an online presence for Walking SA, to provide basic background on the organisation, and to inspire walking activity with 20 or so popular walks showcased through the ‘Find a place to walk’ database.

Since this time, the website has grown significantly to cater for a variety of different functions. This includes:

  • an online walks database with over 780 walks
  • a repository for news items (including advocacy work and newsletter topics)
  • a walks calendar of weekly club walks and walking events (uploaded by organisers)
  • organizational information (such as board members, the constitution, contact information)
  • opportunities to support Walking SA (individual/organizational supporters and donations)
  • club-specific resources

Walking SA receives regular feedback on the quality of the website as a resource. This largely relates to the online walks database, which is viewed over 3 million times annually. Although the website is very highly valued by the walking community, the foundation programming and design was never intended to house the massive walks database, or the array of different content that now sits on the website. The gradual growth of the website, in unplanned directions, has resulted in a non-optimal structure, with background technical ‘fixes’ that work, but could be streamlined and improved significantly. In addition, many possible additions and improvements have been identified over time to enhance the user experience and improve accessibility for a wider range of users.

Read on for background, or take the survey now.

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Known website upgrade needs

There are many features we know we lack on our website, or could improve:

  • Make the website Accessible for all website visitors, including for visitors with visual and other impairments.
  • Inclusion of acknowledgement on First Nations Peoples, ideally so that people can have an understanding as whose Country/Countries they are on whilst walking a trail.
  • Refreshed aesthetic – redesign the website, so that it looks better, and works better, on all devices.
  • Upgrade of some walks and trails content to include key information such as:
    • a clear starting point (extend to many more walks, currently only on the recent few hundred walks)
    • improve the number of walks and trails that include public transport directions
    • improve directions to walks to enable better understanding of how far someone needs to travel to walk a trail
  • A clear statement of who manages the trail and how to contact them (eg National Parks and Wildlife Service of SA, Forestry SA, a particular local council)
  • Resources for bushwalkers (such as safety tips packing lists for walks, and training pathways for skills like navigation)
  • Resources for ways to improve urban walkability (such as case studies and success stories on improvements in local government areas)
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