Issue 191, Autumn 2024

Wild

Australia's Wilderness Adventure Magazine

Wild1 min read
Wild
EDITOR: James McCormack EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Ryan Hansen GREEN PAGES EDITOR: Maya Darby PRODUCTION ASSISTANT: Caitlin Schokker PROOFING & FACT CHECKING: Martine Hansen, Ryan Hansen DESIGN: James McCormack FOUNDER: Chris Baxter OAM COLUMNISTS: Megan Holbe
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Letters
Hi James, I couldn’t stop nodding my head as I read Mick Ripon’s recent piece (‘Great Neglected Walks’, Wild # 190). In recent years I’ve seen the same pattern of neglect play out in the national parks surrounding Sydney, with considerable dismay. Co
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Gallery
After several days and over 20 hours of solo driving, I was more than ready to be outdoors, and this meandering stretch of the Eucumbene River beside my campsite in Kosciuszko NP looked perfect for some late afternoon packrafting fun. I’d walk along
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Seasons And Connections
meganholbeck.substack.com meganholbeck.com @meganholbeck In the last week of May last year, I took my oldest daughter to the Blue Mountains for a day walk. We stopped for coffee in Leura and scrunched through drifts of red leaves. Scarlett looked aro
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Wimps
No self-respecting adventurer can have failed to notice the continuous smashing of new goals in the outdoor sphere. Records are broken annually by new and more amazing demographics. Teenagers climb Everest and sail single-handedly around the world. P
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Subscribe To Wild For 2 Or 3 Years And get A Free Yeti Rambler® Stackable Mug
(RRP $39.95) WILD IS NO ORDINARY MAGAZINE. Since its establishment in 1981, Wild has been the inspiring voice of the Australian outdoors. It is a magazine of self-reliance and challenge and sometimes doing it tough. While it is not necessarily hardco
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Green Pages
Let’s give thanks to everyone involved in saving Victoria’s forests. In May 2023, the Victorian Government announced an end to native forest logging in the state by January 1, 2024, coupled with a sizable transition package for industry workers. This
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Green Pages
Despite an overwhelming response from the community and a parliamentary enquiry that recommended a ban, the Victorian Government has announced that recreational duck hunting will go ahead this year. Waterbird populations have declined by as much as 9
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Behind The Tasmanian Masked Owl
In 2022, for the second consecutive year, a team of scientists, activists, campaigners and volunteers from the Bob Brown Foundation (BBF) gathered to watch drill rigs from the giant resources company MMG—majority owned by the Chinese government—retre
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Tackling The Fear
It’s true that a lake among mountains doesn’t have to work hard to be beautiful. It’s true that hundreds of people walk the track around NZ’s Lake Waikaremoana every summer. It’s true there is usually a water taxi to get you home at the end of the wa
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Are Boardwalks Disconnecting Us From Wild Places?
Recently, I hiked the Jatbula Trail in Nitmiluk NP in the Northern Territory. As I walked, the spinifex slashed my legs; beneath my feet, I felt the rocks and uneven surface. My eyes searched for buffalo, and I constantly was on the lookout for snake
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Planning Your First Expedition
Your first expedition can challenge you physically, mentally and culturally. Wild Earth Ambassador Ben Southall gives some tips on how to plan for success. Heading out on your first self-planned expedition is a massively rewarding, ridiculously excit
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The Karens
Two years ago, back in 2022, Karen Davis (pronounced Car-en) was contemplating a swim. She lives in NSW’s Shoalhaven district—two-and-a-half hours south of Sydney, and roughly the same east of Canberra—a 4,567km² area of coast and hinterland with som
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Riding To The Throne Room Of The Mountain Gods
Breathing heavily, we have been struggling for hours now, trying to get up a steep, ice-covered cliff in the dark, holding tightly onto fixed ropes. Our crampons seem to be doing no more than scratching the stone, and it’s hard to get a foothold. At
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Kimberley Dreams
MY LOVE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY WAS BORN from my love for the Kimberley landscape. I am blessed that I have lived in my favourite place in the world since I was one year old. As a young boy growing up in Wyndham (Western Australia’s most northern town), I us
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Festivities On Fedders
A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. Sometimes, however, just explaining the picture takes double that. It is, after all, a silly photo. A very silly photo. For starters, there is the silliness of us being there at all. Federation Peak is
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Untamed
As I sit on the inflatable pontoon of our zodiac, layered in thermal protective clothing underneath my lifejacket, I squint my eyes to tiny slits to best avoid the freezing wind and driving snow. I look at my companions doing the same, and we all bou
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Running slow To Live Large
IT’S 4AM ON A MILD MAY MORNING at the western end of the Gibb River Road, just outside Derby, Western Australia. It’s a little earlier than most would get here, but we’re not most people. Slicing through the remote Kimberley region in the state’s nor
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Putting My Neck On The Line
“And what’s happened to you?” The triage nurse in the Emergency section of the Sunshine Coast University Hospital looked me up and down as I presented with lots of skin off. “I’ve had,” I replied, “a bit of a fall in the mountains.” A bit of a fall i
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Underground Inspirations
THE WIND ROARS THROUGH THE NARROW tube in front of me, just 30cm wide. I contort my body into the impossibly tight space, but it is hopeless: I can’t fit. Then I remember the sequence: left arm first, head up, bow your back, yes that’s it. The wind t
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5 Walks In Wa’s Southwest
A MICROCOSM OF WILD LANDSCAPES, the giant karri, marri and tingle forests of Western Australia’s southwest gives rise to rugged, windswept ridgelines and towering quartzite peaks. Sculpted by turbulent weather, and showcasing turquoise coves and rugg
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2024 Hiking Shirts + Pants
CROSS THE MOUNTAIN (XTM) HAS RECENTLYlaunched a new line of bushwalking kit: the Dunkeld/Cumberland long-sleeved shirts, and the Glenaire/Lara pants (listed here in order of men’s/women’s version). An Aussie company based out of Torquay in VIC, you’d
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Dryzzle Futurelight Pants
I HATE RAIN PANTS. I actually despise them. Even when the heavens have opened, or I’m busting through saturated vegetation, I still avoid wearing them. I sweat so much that I end up just as wet as without them, and they’re so heavy, bulky and cumbers
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Titan Cookware
WE ALL KNOW—OK, most of us know—that light is right when it comes to gear. But space is a not insubstantial issue either, which is why is great to see that MSR has considered both when it comes to its redesigned and expanded range of Titan ultralight
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Milo action Communicator
ONE OF THE BEST THINGS about the great outdoors is sharing the experience with someone. Usually, however, actually being able to talk only occurs once you’ve stopped moving, when you can cluster close enough together that you can talk without shoutin
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The Home For Mountain Biking In Australia
Australian Mountain Bike magazine is the country’s leading off-road cycling publication. You'll find a wide range of features that cover guidance for newer mountain bikers, through to reviews and discussion for even the most experienced riders. AMB s
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Support Our supporters
We get it; we know ads aren’t the primary reason you read Wild. But without our supporters, Wild simply wouldn’t exist*. If you love what we’re on about here at Wild, if you’re passionate about both adventure and protecting our natural heritage, if h
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Support Our supporters
PAST Outdoors offers a carefully selected range of hiking, camping and expedition equipment tailored to meet the needs of your next adventure. They also manufacture a range of ultralight shelters that can be heated with a titanium wood stove. They al
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Trailrun Magazine
Trail running is all about getting down and dirty, so join us on the adventure through Trail Run Mag as we showcase some of the southern hemisphere’s best photography and feature the most inspirational and incredible trail runners this side of the wo

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