VICTORIA'S WILD WESTERN WALK

From rocky sea cliffs and wild beaches to stunning rivers and tall forests, the four distinct habitats of Victoria's Great South West Walk make it one of the most diverse long-distance hikes in Australia.

- CRAIG SHEATHER

A LARGE-SCALE MAP is spread out on 90-year old Bill Golding’s kitchen table. Beside him sits Sarah Sharp, a fellow member of the Friends of the Great South West Walk (GSWW) volunteer group, a not-for-profit organisation that maintains Victoria’s GSWW tracks. We're all transfixed by the map. I listen carefully as Bill and Sarah describe the main sections of the track and point out must-see sites. Sarah encourages Bill to tell the story of how the track was created.

“I grew up in Mildura and was a teacher all my working life,” says Bill. In early 1978, I moved to Portland with my wife after I won the headmaster role at Portland High School. Initially, I had no intention of coming here and had no particular interest in the area. But, boy, were my eyes about to be opened.”

Bill explains that the idea for the GSWW was first hatched in February 1980 by the late Alan (Sam) Bruton, chief district ranger of the then Department of Conservation’s National Parks division. Sam had been examining a collection of local maps and noticed a rich band of public land looping from Portland all the way to the South Australian border. The encompassing area included four diverse environments: the forests of the Cobboboonee National Park; the tranquil Glenelg River and Lower Glenelg National Park; the remote beaches of Discovery Bay; and the rugged cliffs of Cape Bridgewater and Cape Nelson.

At the time, Bill had just led a school project to construct the Sea Cliff Nature Walk at Cape Nelson. Sam paid a visit to Bill’s office on the following Monday morning and unrolled the rough plan for a 200 km-long hike. Here’s your next job,” he said to Bill. Why don’t we build a track all the way around?”

Bill was excited by the idea and raised it with the school’s deputy principal, Don Chalmers.