The register, illustrated.

C. Y. O’Connor’s goldfields water scheme, opened in 1903, pushed fresh water 550 kilometres uphill from the Perth hills to the driest goldfields on earth, and is still running. The heritage trail that follows it, created by the National Trust of Western Australia, threads pump stations, wheatbelt towns and the scheme now honoured on the National Heritage List.

Why it belongs: a National Trust made trail already in the family, proving the model of drive, stop, learn and spend in the regions.

Australia’s most complete colonial road, surveyed in 1821 and built by convict gangs whose bridges and garrison towns still stand. Oatlands, Ross and Campbell Town hold the country’s densest Georgian streetscapes, and the route joins UNESCO listed convict sites at Woolmers and Brickendon. A national trail here turns a two hour drive into a two day journey through the founding decades.

Why it belongs: the convict story, told where it happened, on a route every visitor to Tasmania already crosses.

A five day walk through Nitmiluk National Park along a Songline walked by generations of Jawoyn people, tracing the western edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment from Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge to Leliyn (Edith Falls). Each day ends at water, with falls tumbling over sandstone cliffs into forest creeks, and near 17 Mile Falls a sheltered amphitheatre holds galleries of Jawoyn rock art. The trail bears the name of Peter Jatbula, a Jawoyn elder instrumental in the land claim that returned Nitmiluk to its people.

Why it belongs: the register’s first territory trail, a living Songline on Jawoyn country joining gorge, escarpment and falls.

Eighty kilometres of coast and harbour foreshore between Australia’s two most famous beaches, tracing the maritime, military and cultural history of Sydney. From Macquarie Lighthouse and the red and white striped Hornby Lighthouse at South Head, the walk rounds the harbour past the Opera House and Harbour Bridge to the former Quarantine Station at North Head, where 32 sandstone inscriptions carved by arriving migrants, newly conserved, won the Objects award at the 2026 National Trust Heritage Awards.

Why it belongs: the harbour city told from its shoreline, where Aboriginal country, colony and migration meet in one continuous walk.

From Centenary Square in Parramatta to Katoomba station, 140 kilometres across the Cumberland Plain and a thousand metres up into the Blue Mountains, opened to Penrith in 2019 and extended to the mountains in 2022. The walk passes Old Government House in Parramatta Park, protected Cumberland Plain woodland and the river systems of western Sydney, then climbs past Woodford Academy, the oldest complex of colonial buildings in the mountains, to the cliff walks above the Jamison Valley and the Three Sisters.

Why it belongs: two National Trust places joined by one walk, from the colony’s first government house to the mountains it took a generation to cross.

Seventy five kilometres of old railway formation from Mundaring Weir in the Perth Hills to Northam on the Avon River, on Whadjuk and Ballardong Noongar Country. A National Trust of Western Australia project, the Kep Track takes its name from the Noongar word for water and follows the first stretch of C. Y. O’Connor’s Goldfields pipeline along the route of the original Eastern Railway, through jarrah forest, railway cuttings and the small towns the line made, Sawyers Valley, Mount Helena, Chidlow, Wooroloo, Wundowie, Bakers Hill and Clackline. Ride it in a long day, walk it in three or four, or take it a town at a time.

Why it belongs: the pipeline, the railway and the water that named it, one corridor carrying three of the West’s founding stories, open to walkers, cyclists and riders alike.