STEP BY STEP

HOW did your favourite track get to be what it is? Usually, it’s through red tape, dreams, schemes, planning, love and a whole lot of wonderful volunteers. We hunt down the stories behind six iconic Australian walks.

Bibbulmun Track, WA

In 1969 the Perth Bushwalkers club was created, by 1972 they sought a new challenge. The club’s founder Geoff Schafer came up with the idea for a track that would get “townspeople to experience the bush first-hand”. It turned out to be a massive undertaking. Geoff went directly to the Minister for Forests, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to get authority to begin. Much to even his own surprise he got it. He then bowled into the State Forests Department to lay the project on them