My position on trail access, protection and development
Public trails should be protected, maintained and kept genuinely public.
Through Trail Hiking Australia, I spend a great deal of time helping people find walks, prepare properly and develop the skills needed to experience the outdoors safely. I want more Australians to build a meaningful relationship with nature, but I also believe that access carries responsibility and must remain secondary to the conservation purpose of protected land.
Australia already has an extraordinary network of walking tracks, ranging from accessible urban and regional trails to remote routes that require experience, preparation and self-reliance. Many existing tracks are underfunded and need sustained maintenance, yet governments are increasingly looking to national parks and wilderness areas as settings for premium tourism products, commercial accommodation and highly curated visitor experiences.
My position is that governments should concentrate first on caring for the public trail network we already have. National parks should not be treated as undeveloped tourism assets or as locations in which private businesses can create exclusive products from landscapes held for conservation and the public good.
Why existing trails should come first
Walking tracks provide substantial public value. They support physical and mental wellbeing, connect people with landscapes and communities, and help concentrate use in ways that can reduce environmental damage. They can also create opportunities to learn about Country and better understand the continuing cultural responsibilities and connections of First Nations peoples.
Those benefits depend on thoughtful public investment. Eroded tracks, damaged bridges, poor signage, unmanaged campsites and inadequate visitor information can harm both people and the environment. Maintaining these assets may be less politically visible than announcing a new tourism development, but it is one of the most important responsibilities of a public land manager.
Before building another attraction, lodge or branded walking product, governments should ask whether existing tracks are being properly maintained and whether the money could deliver greater public and environmental benefit across the wider trail network.
Access does not mean changing every place
I strongly support a diverse and affordable public trail network, but equitable access does not mean every landscape must be made easy, comfortable or available in the same way. Australia has thousands of places where people can walk and connect with nature, across a broad range of settings and difficulty levels.
Some locations are well suited to accessible paths, short walks, family campgrounds and visitor facilities. Others are ecologically fragile, culturally sensitive or valued precisely because they remain remote and minimally developed. Protecting those differences is not about excluding people from nature. It is about ensuring that we do not standardise every protected landscape around the same visitor expectations.
More accessible experiences should be developed in places capable of supporting them well, while remote and sensitive areas should be allowed to retain the challenge, simplicity and self-reliance that make them distinct.
What responsible trail stewardship looks like
Growing participation in hiking needs active management, but the response should be guided by the needs of the landscape rather than by a desire to manufacture additional tourism demand.
I support governments and land managers:
- Providing long-term funding for the maintenance and rehabilitation of existing tracks
- Protecting self-guided and affordable access to public land
- Using modest, publicly managed infrastructure where it is genuinely needed for conservation, safety or existing visitor use
- Improving track information, safety education and preparedness resources
- Managing visitor pressure through appropriate limits, seasonal closures or permit systems where landscapes cannot sustainably absorb unrestricted use
- Supporting volunteer stewardship and community participation without using volunteers as a substitute for proper public funding
- Consulting meaningfully with Traditional Owners, local communities and recreational users
Tracks, boardwalks, bridges, basic campsites, tent platforms, toilets, signs and modest shelters can all serve a legitimate purpose. The important question is why they are being built. Public infrastructure should protect the park and help people use it responsibly; it should not become the foundation for an exclusive commercial product.
Why commercial development changes protected areas
I support responsible tourism and the regional businesses that help people enjoy the outdoors. I do not support permanent commercial accommodation or privately operated tourism infrastructure inside national parks and protected areas.
A commercial lodge or premium walking product changes more than the physical site on which it is built. It requires access, servicing, waste management, staff movements, maintenance and enough customers to remain financially viable. It can create pressure for greater visitation and additional services, while establishing a precedent for what may be approved elsewhere.
Over time, infrastructure that was once considered exceptional can become normal. Visitors begin to expect serviced accommodation and curated experiences in places where simplicity and self-reliance were once part of the experience. The landscape remains scenic, but our relationship with it changes: nature becomes the setting for a product rather than the reason for being there.
Claims that these developments improve access should also be examined carefully. An experience costing hundreds or thousands of dollars may offer greater comfort to those who can afford it, but it is not equitable public access. Public land should not gradually become the exclusive setting for premium experiences available to a relatively small market.
Tourism does not need to occur inside national parks
Nature-based tourism can support regional economies without placing permanent private interests inside protected land. Gateway towns, existing accommodation precincts, private properties and previously developed sites can provide lodging, meals, transport, guiding and adventure experiences while allowing visitors to enter national parks as members of the public.
This can spread economic benefits across local communities rather than concentrating them within one operator’s package. It also preserves an important boundary: regional communities can support and benefit from visitors, while national parks remain primarily places of conservation and public stewardship.
Commercial tourism and protected landscapes can coexist, but they do not need to occupy the same land.
The principles I support
Based on my experience in hiking, trail information and outdoor safety, I believe governments should:
- Give priority to the maintenance, restoration and protection of existing public trails
- Maintain a strong presumption against commercial accommodation and privately operated infrastructure inside protected areas
- Direct commercial tourism facilities to private land, gateway communities and established visitor precincts
- Provide a diverse network of trail experiences rather than trying to make every landscape accessible in the same way
- Ensure that any new public infrastructure responds to a demonstrated conservation, safety or land-management need
- Design necessary infrastructure with restraint and, wherever possible, reversibility
- Invest in safety education, environmental awareness and responsible independent hiking
- Assess cumulative impacts and precedent, rather than considering each development only in isolation
Protecting the choices of those who follow us
Our generation does not own these landscapes. We have inherited them for a time, and the decisions we make now will shape what future Australians are able to experience.
Good stewardship is not measured only by what we build. Sometimes it means maintaining what already exists, managing use within environmental limits or deciding that a new development belongs somewhere else. Restraint can leave future generations with options that permanent infrastructure would remove.
Trail Hiking Australia will continue to encourage people to walk, explore and build the capability to experience nature safely. Alongside that encouragement sits an equally important responsibility: to protect the landscapes that make those experiences possible.
Trail Hiking Australia’s broader approach is outlined on the Responsible Access and Stewardship page.
Information about how I maintain independence from commercial influence is available on the Funding and Independence page.
The conservation philosophy underpinning this position is explored further at Keep It Wild Australia.
