Walking SA held its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 11^th October at the Jade in Flinders Street, with a healthy attendance of member clubs, organisations and individuals. We greatly appreciate the attendance and engagement with those there on the night.

The AGM preceded the presentation of the Walking Awards and was a relatively straight forward meeting.

Guest Speakers and Presentations

The AGM was followed by a presentation from Alison Buck, Trail Manager from National Parks and Wildlife Service SA for the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail. She spoke about the vision and planning of the trail, and how it was designed for busy city people to escape into nature. Research shows that with the trail people stay an extra three nights on Kangaroo Island, boosting the local economy, including park ranger jobs and local tourism service providers. She outlined how the trail route and camping facility sites was determined, including ensuring the trail followed a route people naturally want to walk, to avoid people stepping off the trail. She updated us on the progress of the project seeing The Australian Walking Company (AWC) develop luxury tent-style eco-sensitive accommodation along the trail, which will offer a higher-end trail walking opportunity, similar to what the AWC does on the Cradle Mountain Huts Walk and Bay of Fires Lodge Walk.

Ben Trewren spoke on recently being awarded the Terry Lavender Scholarship from the Churchill Fellowship, updating us on how his project to investigate trails overseas is proceeding. View Ben’s presentation.

Board Member Appointments

We’re delighted to appoint two new members to our Board. The range of skills and expertise complement the existing Board, and help towards the vision of representing and advocating all forms of walking including for health, transport and leisure.

• Anna Haygreen
  We welcome Anna to the Board. With a background in environmental work and significant experience in working for two Melbourne local councils as a Sustainable Transport Officer, her appointment will strengthen our perspective on walking for transport. Her experience in developing walking projects, with community engagement and project management complement her passion for promoting all forms of walking. Recently returning to Adelaide, she is an avid bushwalker.
• Rod Quintrell
  We welcome Rod to the Board. As a board member of South Australia’s leading bushwalking training body, Bushwalking Leadership SA, and a member of Outdoors SA, Rod’s experience and qualifications in the fields of mental health and outdoor recreation/tourism broadens our perspective. Employed within a large South Australian outdoor education provider in business development and corporate training his skills and contacts will see the continued growth of Walking SA and our promotion of bushwalking.

We thank the work of our retiring Board Members:

• Wendy Keech
  After five years of service, including the last four years as Chair or Co-Chair we bid Wendy farewell from the Board. Her contributions have seen Walking SA’s profile and reach increase, bringing our vision of seeing more people walking more often to life.
• Michelle Wilson
  After five years of service, we bid Michelle farewell from the Board. Her contributions and enthusiasm for walking for health have seen Walking SA’s profile and reach increase, furthering our vision of seeing more people walking more often.

Annual Report

The 2017/18 Annual Report was distributed at the AGM and Wendy, Co-Chair of Walking SA, spoke to the report identifying a range of highlights as well as challenges, facing Walking SA and the walking community. View the 2017/18 Annual Report.

Highlights include:

• Highlights of the past year
• read about the year’s achievements in the Co-Chair’s Report
• reports from our Walking for Recreation Committee and Walking for Transport Committee
• Events: Walktober and April’s Hiking Expo
• an overview of our membership
• report from our new Executive Officer
• Treasurers Report