For sixty years, Britain’s National Trails have carried millions of people along the Pennine Way and the coast paths, under one trusted mark. Spain’s Camino draws hundreds of thousands along its pilgrim ways every year, and New Zealand’s Great Walks are known around the world. Australia, a continent crossed by the oldest continuing cultures on earth, has no national equivalent. Our great journeys exist, but they are scattered, unmarked and unranked, held in fragments by states, councils and communities.
The National Trust proposes to change that. A single national register of heritage trails, curated to a national standard, told with authority and care, and open to every Australian.
The project
The National Heritage Trails project builds four pieces of permanent national infrastructure, owned and operated by the National Trust. Built once, in the digital age, for every trail to come.
A formal, curated register of Australia’s heritage trails, each assessed against national criteria for cultural significance, condition and visitor experience. The register gives the Trust the standing instrument to recognise, monitor and update significant cultural trails, and to designate the most important as nationally significant.
A national website and web app, with every trail’s route, places along the way, histories, itineraries and education resources. Routes open directly in Google Maps and download to any device, so planning a heritage journey becomes as easy as planning a commute. The platform serves schools and researchers as much as travellers.
App enabled discovery on the trail itself, with live routes, audio storytelling at each place, and QR coded signage that keeps physical markers simple while the story stays rich and current. South Australia’s existing National Trust heritage app proves the model and will carry the first trails.
Governance that endures. A national curatorial committee drawn from every state and territory Trust, First Nations custodianship protocols for stories connected to Country, and a maintenance and review cycle so that every registered trail remains accurate, safe and worthy of the mark it carries.
Delivery
The project is planned, costed and governed, moving from foundation to a self sustaining national register in three phases.
Governance and curatorial committee established. Digital audit and roadmap. Three pilot trails launched across three states, with web pages, Google Maps routes, downloadable guides, audio and QR signage, carried by the existing National Trust web estate and the SA app.
The register opens at national scale. Some 35 further trails, the full trail builder for every state Trust, member contributions under moderation, additional languages, and publication to Strava, Ride with GPS and Garmin communities.
Founding sponsors in national, geographic and sector categories carry activation and growth, with the majority of sponsor funds spent on promotion that returns direct value. The register becomes permanent national infrastructure, maintained by the Trust and its volunteers.
Governance
Drawn from every state and territory Trust, assessing, registering and caring for the trails to one national standard.
Custodianship embedded at the centre of governance for every story connected to Country. Stories are told only with, and as guided by, their custodians.
A maintenance and review cycle so every registered trail remains accurate, safe and worthy of the mark it carries, with outcomes evidenced monthly.
The proven model
Britain’s National Trails website presents 17 designated trails under one trusted mark, with consistent trail pages, mapping and planning tools. Trails like these, and Spain’s Camino, have become integral to their nations’ ethos and economies. What has been missing in Australia is the register, and its national home online, that binds our journeys into a national asset.
Great trail registers around the world are known by a mark. In Britain, a simple acorn on a wooden fingerpost tells a walker they are on a National Trail, and on the Camino a scallop shell has guided travellers for centuries. As custodian of the National Heritage Trails, the National Trust will work with local authorities, councils and land managers to place the same kind of identifiable, durable signage along every registered trail, carrying the national mark beside the path itself.
A full business plan, prepared with advisers William Buck, sets out the delivery model, economic modelling and success measures, and is available to government and philanthropic partners. We would be pleased to present it, and walk the first trail with you.
